BEAUMONT, Texas — The month of January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month.
Sex trafficking and labor trafficking are both issues that can be seen around Southeast Texas.
Area non-profit organization, Harvest House, is devoted to preventing and ending child sex trafficking.
All this month, Harvest House will be educating people about the signs of sex trafficking.
Education Coordinator with Harvest House, Dani Miller-Holmes, says that a trafficker will try and establish a relationship first with a child or youth, and groom them to be trafficked.
“Isolating them from their friends and family members,” said Miller-Holmes.
Miller-Holmes says that some signs your child is being trafficked may include appearance of luxury gifts or items, meaning that a child out of no where has luxury clothes, handbags, or multiple cell phones.
"Other red flags include body bruises, possessive tattoos, extreme mood personality shifts and having a relationship with a significant age gap," said Miller-Holmes.
To support Harvest House in their mission to end sex trafficking, a newly opened thrift store in Beaumont, Catch My Thrift, will be giving their proceeds to the cause.
"Anything that is donated here, our program participants usually come when we're not open and they can actually come and shop here and get things for themselves," said Miller-Holmes.
There are currently 40 kids between the ages of 11-18 at Harvest House, both male and female victims of child sex trafficking.
Each child receives advocates who help them throughout their years of recovery.
If you or someone you know may be a victim of human trafficking, here are available resources.