Local nonprofit outlines scale of child sex trafficking and survivor services at Newman town hall

Troy, chief executive officer of the local nonprofit Without Permission, told a packed town-hall audience that human trafficking is a local problem as well as a national one and urged stronger enforcement and community vigilance. "If you're exploiting a child you need to go to prison," he said during a presentation titled "Human Trafficking 101."

The presentation framed the nonprofit's work around three pillars — prevention, restoration and justice — and combined national data, local examples and survivor testimony to explain how traffickers groom and exploit children. Troy said his organization has served 887 survivors in the Central Valley and that 91% of those clients call the Central Valley home. He cited the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and California law changes in 2017 as turning points for how the United States treats trafficking victims.

Why it matters: presenters said traffickers target vulnerable youth and use local transportation and distribution corridors to move victims. Troy told parents and educators that traffickers rarely rely on the dramatic “snatch-and-grab” scenario portrayed in movies; instead they employ grooming, coercion, threats and isolating tactics. A survivor video played during the presentation described grooming through online contact and manipulation, and credited the nonprofit with long-term mentoring and counseling that aided recovery.

Troy offered concrete local figures and service details: Without Permission reports about 18 full-time staff, roughly 40–45 trained volunteer navigators and about 500 volunteers across the Central Valley. He noted National Center for Missing & Exploited Children data that he summarized as showing a high share of trafficking victims are under 18, and cited international estimates of millions of trafficking victims worldwide.

Speakers in the event also discussed legal protections and reporting. Troy described the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (2000) as a major federal statute that elevated trafficking to felony status and called California’s 2017 change (SB 1322) "a great law" because it decriminalized prostitution for minors and requires law enforcement to treat under-18 victims as victims rather than suspects.

Resources and next steps: presenters urged attendees to use the Polaris national trafficking hotline and the nonprofit’s 24-hour crisis support line, to call 911 if they see a situation that appears to be imminent danger, and to stop by resource tables to pick up printed materials or scan QR codes. Troy invited volunteers and encouraged parents and educators to learn warning signs of grooming and exploitation. The event closed with offers of community follow-up and information about local support services.