Our History.

Created in 2008, Traffick Free began as a means of raising awareness and providing education on the local realities of sexual and labor exploitation in the greater Chicago area. With an ever-growing partner network of city offices, non-profits, churches, schools and civic organizations, Traffick Free relentlessly worked to increase people’s understanding of human trafficking in their own communities of Chicago.

In 2017, after six years of research with expert providers and survivors from around the country, Traffick Free opened Chicago’s first emergency and overnight drop-in center for all adult females who had been victims of sex trafficking and other forms of commercial sexual exploitation. After serving in this capacity for several years, Traffick Free made the difficult decision to close our drop-in center in 2021 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Determined to remain in the fight against human trafficking, the board decided to return to our roots and focus on education and awareness.

Today, we continue to raise awareness and educate the community on human trafficking by providing free trainings and presentations to various sectors, striving to bring light to the “invisible crime” of human trafficking. Through our continued efforts, our overarching hope is to dismantle the foundation that allows human trafficking to persist and build a new world—one that is Traffick Free.