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Slavery Still Exists in California. Vote Yes on Prop 6 to End It
Slavery didn’t end in 1865. It only changed forms. In California, slavery as punishment is still legal. Forced prison labor in the United States has its roots in American slavery....
Cast’s doors remain open
Cast’s Emergency Response Program Manager, Leigh LaChapelle, pens an open letter to our community partners in change and human trafficking victims. Dear Community Partner, We at Cast want to update...
Governor Newsom Must Provide Specific Funding for Human Trafficking Victims When He Provides Budget Augmentation for those Most at Risk
(LOS ANGELES, CA) – Today, the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (Cast) released the following statement in response to Governor Newsom’s coronavirus-related announcement: “We applaud Governor Newsom for his...
Social Distancing Without Being Alone
If the coronavirus pandemic has revealed anything, it is the stark inequalities vulnerable people endure. Faced with barriers to accessing care that will protect them and their families, human trafficking...
Mayor Garcetti Announces Program to Provide Entrepreneurship Training to Angelenos Experiencing Homelessness
LA: EnterpRISE will provide career and financial literacy training and access to startup funding opportunities LOS ANGELES — Mayor Eric Garcetti today announced the creation of LA: EnterpRISE, a pilot program...
Gillibrand, Portman Announce Bipartisan Legislation to Clear Federal Criminal Records of Human Trafficking Victims
Bill Would Provide Post-Conviction Relief to Victims of Sex Trafficking, Labor Trafficking, and Other Forms of Human Trafficking Washington, DC –U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH),...
Protect Migrant Workers from Exploitation
Call on California to revise SB477 Thousands of temporary workers are being trafficked into forced labor in California under threat of violence, deportation, and harm to their families. California attracts more temporary foreign workers than anywhere...
Certain Los Angeles Businesses Will Be Required to Post Human Trafficking Info
The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Friday to require certain businesses to post contact information for people to report human trafficking. The notices will have information such as a...
Creative remedies for trafficking survivors are being offered by states
Shutterstock Betsy Hutson met Kendra Ross at a specialized aftercare shelter for human trafficking survivors in 2015, a few years after she escaped from The Value Creators Inc., a nationwide...
Cast is taking charge to increase California’s investment in human trafficking prevention
California Assembly Members Miguel Santiago (D-53rd), Mike Gipson (D-64th), Blanca Rubio (D-48th), and Senator Henry Stern (D-27th) introduce comprehensive legislation and budget proposals to ensure California enacts better measures to...
Strengthening the Health Care Response to Human Trafficking
The Center for Violence Prevention and Recovery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has launched a new initiative to assist and support individuals exploited through sex and labor trafficking...
Horrors of labor trafficking remain hidden with spotlight on sex trafficking
The Little Hoover Commission, California’s independent watchdog agency, is examining whether the state is adequately addressing labor trafficking, starting with a San Diego public hearing SAN DIEGO — Many mornings as...
Cast teams up with the Little Hoover Commission to address labor trafficking in California
Labor trafficking survivors have long made up a significant number of people trafficked in California and the U.S. As a hidden epidemic, labor trafficking is prevalent in our neighborhoods, cities...
New law gives human trafficking survivors access to income loss for commercial exploitation
California’s Governor Newsom has signed a groundbreaking bill into law enabling human trafficking survivors to receive lost income from California’s Crime Victim Compensation Fund (VCP). A first of its kind...
Cast receives National Partnership Award
The Los Angeles-based Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (Cast) has been named the 2019 National Award Winner of the Mutual of America Community Partnership Award. The Mutual of America...
How Sex-Trafficking Survivors Are Locked Out of Victim Funds
To claim lost income, they need a note from their employer—also known as their trafficker. Deborah Pembrook doesn’t remember exactly when she was first sex-trafficked, but she knows it was...
Assemblywoman Christy Smith Advances Legislation to Help Victims of Human Trafficking
SACRAMENTO – Assemblywoman Christy Smith (D-Santa Clarita) and joint-author Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) moved forward AB 629 to help human trafficking victims rebuild their lives. The bill is cosponsored...
Kaiser Permanente Southern California partners with Cast LA to complete Human Trafficking Survivors’ Path to Wellness
CAST coordinates a continuum of compassionate, whole-person care to help victims of human trafficking access the care they need to recover and thrive for a lifetime. Integrated services range from...
The Hypocrisy of Trump’s Anti-Trafficking Argument for a Border Wall
In 1997, Ima Matul, a seventeen-year-old living in rural Indonesia, was offered a job as a live-in housekeeper in Los Angeles. The person who recruited her promised that, if she worked...
Federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) Passes Congress
Every three years CAST and its national advocacy partners, The Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST) and The Freedom Network, USA, work to reauthorize the Federal Trafficking Victims Protection...
Cast releases the 2018 Impact Report
Read about the impact that Cast has made in 2018.
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