COLUMBUS, Ohio (WOWO) — Law enforcement officials, health care providers, legal experts and victim advocates from across Ohio gathered Thursday for the state’s seventh annual Human Trafficking Summit, focusing on survivor support, prevention efforts and improving the response to trafficking cases.

The summit, hosted by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, marked the first event of its kind under Attorney General Andy Wilson, who took office nearly two months ago.

Wilson highlighted the challenges faced by social workers and advocates who support trafficking survivors, saying the work often involves difficult outcomes despite ongoing efforts to help victims escape exploitation.

“Unfortunately, this is the type of work where you have more losses than you have wins a lot of times,” Wilson said. “You have victims who won’t cooperate, victims you lose track of, victims who just aren’t able to make it out of the system.”

A major focus of the summit was expanding support systems for survivors of both sex and labor trafficking.

Ohio Anti-Trafficking Director Kelli Cary said the state has increased its investment in survivor services in recent years and has developed programs designed to help victims rebuild their lives.

“Ohio has dedicated state funding specifically for caring for survivors,” Cary said. “We have a direct services for human trafficking fund to be able to provide services to our nonprofits that can then use those services and that funding to be able to support survivors of both sex and labor trafficking.”

Ohio began providing direct state funding for survivor services in 2023. The state also has a safe harbor law, enacted in 2012, that allows adult trafficking victims to seek removal of certain criminal records connected to their exploitation.

Officials said coordination among agencies remains one of the biggest challenges in addressing human trafficking, which often involves law enforcement, courts, health care providers, social service organizations and community groups.

One effort designed to provide additional protection for survivors is the Secretary of State’s Safe at Home program.

The program allows victims of trafficking, abuse and stalking to use a confidential address for official records and mail, helping reduce the chance their location can be publicly accessed according to WCMH.

“We provide a layer of protection for those victims and survivors, giving them a confidential address that their mail can be sent to,” Shelby Bowers, an assistant with the Secretary of State’s Office, said. “We do work with local and state governments to protect their addresses and all their public records…to minimize that footprint that they leave behind.”

Wilson said law enforcement agencies have increasingly shifted their approach to trafficking investigations, with more attention placed on the needs and experiences of survivors.

He said officers are recognizing that helping victims is an important part of their role.

“They don’t go into the law enforcement field to be social workers but they understand that supporting victims, working with victims is something that they’re gonna have to do,” Wilson said.

Wilson added that newer generations of law enforcement officers appear more focused on victim-centered approaches.

“I don’t know if it’s the training, I don’t know if it’s the education, I don’t know if it’s the generation, but our younger law enforcement officers are very victim-centric,” he said.

Cary also addressed misconceptions surrounding human trafficking, including the belief that most cases involve strangers kidnapping victims.

She said many trafficking victims are exploited by someone they already know.

Cary urged policymakers to rely on the experiences of survivors and frontline workers when creating laws and programs aimed at combating trafficking.

“We really need policymakers to be good listeners,” Cary said. “So that when we have legislation and policy that’s put in place, that it really makes the direct impact that we want it to, because implementation is just as important as good policy.”

State officials say continued collaboration among agencies and increased support for survivors will remain central to Ohio’s efforts to prevent trafficking and prosecute those responsible.