The Long Beach Human Trafficking Task Force is continuing its work in the community this Saturday by hosting a free Youth Empowerment Safety Symposium (YESS).

The goal of the event is to “educate and engage Long Beach’s middle and high school youth in important conversations surrounding human trafficking, substance abuse, generational healing, and mentorship,” according to organizers.

The YESS is held each January during Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention Month, and this will be the first in-person version of the event since 2020. The task force brings together a number of local organizations and stakeholders who also partner with the Long Beach Unified School District in providing this resource to students and their families.

The event will be held on Saturday, Jan. 21, from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Salvation Army location at the corner of Long Beach Boulevard and Spring Street.

Francesca Douglass-Franco is the founder and executive director of Humansave, an organization dedicated to ending human trafficking and child sexual exploitation that’s been involved in organizing the YESS with the LBUSD since 2018.

“The point of this event is not just to spread awareness, but also to empower our communities, our youth, our families, to do something to end (human trafficking),” said Douglass-Franco, who is also a member of the task force’s core leadership team. “To protect each other, and to make our community safer.”

Saturday’s event will feature a wide array of activities to inform, educate and entertain students. The Long Beach Police Officers’ Association and local Long Beach hotels will sponsor a free lunch for all attendees, and there will also be a DJ, raffle prizes like an iPod and AirPods, plus sports competitions in basketball, soccer and football, giving students the chance to win gift cards and other prizes.

There will be a youth panel to answer questions from the audience and share their lived experiences. This will give the opportunity for parents to hear from survivors of human trafficking who can share some red flags to look out for. Topics to be covered include information on fentanyl and other drug use, teen dating, gang activity and more. The WomenShelter of Long Beach will also host dating violence workshops for youth and adults.

Douglass-Franco hopes that these events will help raise awareness of this issue and better prepare students to navigate the dangers around them.

“Every single one of the schools that I’ve done these workshops with, the kids have mentioned something, whether somebody was following them home, or whether human trafficking actually did occur in their school and they know it,” she said. “We’re not trying to scare anybody off and make them feel helpless and hopeless. There is very much hope, and that stems from the ability of these kids to genuinely connect with each other and care about what’s going on with their classmates.

“When they see somebody who needs help, and there’s certain signs that you can look for in a school setting in particular, they can watch each other’s back and more important than that, care about watching each other’s back,” Douglass-Franco continued. “The empathy there is really what’s going to change the trajectory of exploitation and end it.”

Free parking will be available on-site, and all middle school and high school students along with their parents/guardians are invited to attend.

The Salvation Army of Long Beach is located at 3000 Long Beach Blvd., Long Beach. For more information on the city’s efforts to combat human trafficking and to find additional resources, visit the city’s website here.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the sponsor of the free lunch.