Each month, Thurston Community Media (TCMedia)’s Mission Nonprofit connects with local organizations and agencies that positively impact our communities. In September 2024, Mission Nonprofit host Deborah Vinsel sat down with Jeri Moomaw, founder and executive director of Innovations Human Trafficking Collaborative.
The front page of their website has a compelling message: “Our mission is to engage first responders, tribes, and other stakeholders in eliminating human trafficking through solution-based knowledge and trauma-informed strategies, and to empower survivors to heal and build self-sufficient, affirming lives.”
Moomaw is a human trafficking subject matter expert and consultant for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Blue Campaign and a member of the U.S. Department of Justice Office for Victim of Crime. Her work in improving the lives of trafficking survivors has earned her awards from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs. Since 2016, her Olympia-based nonprofit, Innovations Human Trafficking Collaborative, has worked hard to help end human trafficking and help trafficking victims regain their lives.
The knowledge and expertise she has does not come from a book, she shares. But from her own experience being trafficked from the age of 13 to 19. “I was chosen because I was the perfect storm of vulnerability and I was targeted by who I thought was my knight in shining armor,” she shares. “And my knight in shining armor turned out to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. And through systematic – what I call brainwashing – I ended up staying with him for six years and I was a child.”
She now uses her experience to try and prevent it from happening to anyone else. “My ‘why’ is because I’ve experienced it and there is not enough education, there’s not enough awareness,” Moomaw shares. As a Native American – Moomaw is an enrolled tribal member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe – she is an expert in Native issues and human trafficking within in that community as well.
During her travels to speak with other tribes about the signs and how to prevent human trafficking here in the Olympia area, she noticed no one was doing anything about it. So she felt compelled to do something and that led her to the creation of the Innovations Human Trafficking Collaborative in 2017.
After their creation, they joined the Thurston County Family Justice Center. They began with just one program that was going out and speaking, raising awareness and education and training for schools, law enforcements, hospitals, etc.
As they grew and received grants, they expanded their program to help victims of both sex and labor trafficking.
Today, they continue with direct survivor support, national training and awareness – with a focus on LGBTQ2IA+ and Native Americans – and systems creations. You can help by donating or volunteering.
For more information, watch the full video above or visit the Innovations Human Trafficking Collaborative website.
You can watch Mission Nonprofit on channel 22 on Sundays at 3:30 p.m., Tuesdays at 1:30 p.m., Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., and Saturdays at 10 a.m. You can also watch on TCMedia website, Video On-Demand or our Roku channel. To learn more about what TCMedia does, visit the Thurston Community Media YouTube channel or the TC Media website and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
