Lake County will receive nearly $700,000 in federal funds for the creation of a human trafficking task force.
The Lake County Board’s Law & Judicial Committee passed a joint resolution Tuesday morning accepting the funds, awarded by the Office of Justice Programs to the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office. The $686,000 grant is designed to cover three years’ worth of task force expenses.
Committee Chair Mary Ross Cunningham praised the program. The resolution will next go before the full County Board, and she expressed confidence it will pass easily.
“I’m happy to see that the state’s attorney got the program because this is a great program to save many lives,” Cunningham said. “This is good for our community to enhance collaboration.”
According to meeting documents, the State’s Attorney’s Office will partner with A Safe Place, a domestic abuse treatment center, to establish the Lake County Human Trafficking Task Force. The task force will aim to reduce human trafficking, provide services to survivors, and find and prosecute traffickers.
“The whole of Lake County has issues,” Cunningham said. “We need this program in Lake County.”
Funding includes salary and benefits for a full-time human trafficking task force investigator/training coordinator, and a full-time human trafficking assistant state’s attorney. Funding also covers half the salary of a human trafficking task force coordinator, a role that will be shared equally with A Safe Place, which is covering the other half of the salary.
If additional funding isn’t secured after the grant period ends, the program and staffing will be eliminated.
