Victim advocate speaks about sex trafficking last week

Local residents learned about the horrors of the sex trafficking industry during an afternoon of informative, and at times unsettling, lectures in Hampton on April 1.

     Both the Hampton Kiwanis Club and students from Hampton-Dumont High School heard some of the first-hand experiences one Cedar Rapids advocate has encountered during her work with sex trafficking victims. Lenchen Raeside, founder and president of the non-profit group Cedar Rapids Gives, presented some very alarming data and information about this booming underground market, which she said has started to grow rapidly throughout the Midwest.

       "Sadly, there is a threat in Iowa," Raeside told the Kiwanis Club. "And sadly, there is a threat in our schools with our children."

Read the full article in the April 9 edition of the Chronicle.