We had the great honor of interviewing earlier in 2024 Theresa Flores, the indomitable founder of The SOAP Project. Theresa’s tireless endeavors in combatting human trafficking shed light on a grim reality that often lurks in the shadows of our society.
In late June, 2024, The Ohio House passed a slew of bills during a marathon session before going on summer break. Of those bills included a bill that allows human trafficking survivors to apply for expungement of conviction records for a misdemeanor, fourth-degree felony or fifth-degree felony they committed while being trafficked.
State Sen. Stephanie Kunze, R-Dublin, introduced S.B. 214 earlier in 2024 and it passed in the Senate in April.
Currently, human trafficking victims can have their records expunged for convicted crimes of soliciting, loitering and prostitution. Expungement is not automatic and people must go through a hearing process.
People who are victims of human trafficking are typically forced to commit crimes, like shoplifting and credit card theft while under the threat of violence
The Human Trafficking Hotline has received 11,224 signals and identified 3,102 cases of human trafficking in Ohio since 2007.
Ohio is a target for human trafficking for many reasons, including its close proximity to the Canadian border, location to several major cities and high number of truck stops, according to Human Trafficking Front.
Theresa Flores established The SOAP Project (Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution) in 2006 with a singular mission—to rescue young individuals from the horrifying grip of human trafficking. As a survivor herself, Theresa’s journey is a testament to resilience and an unyielding will to enact change. The SOAP Project is renowned for its unique approach. This is done by distributing bars of soap labeled with hotline numbers that victims can call for help. These simple yet effective tools are strategically placed in locations where traffickers often operate. This helps bridge the gap between victims and life-saving resources.
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Recorded in Studio C at 511 Studios. A production of Circle270Media Podcast Consultants.
