Annual conference equips hundreds of students with trafficking prevention tools
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Human trafficking victims in Orange County are getting younger and younger.
According to the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force’s 2025 Human Trafficking Victim Report, minors now account for 50% of all trafficking victims assisted locally, with an average age of 14 years old for a minor sex trafficking victim.
This underscores the need for early education. Hundreds of middle school students can feel better equipped to know the warning signs after Monday’s fourth annual “Know More, Do Better” prevention-focused education conference at Vanguard University.
January was National Human Trafficking Prevention Month. The conference, presented by the task force in collaboration with more than 30 government and nonprofit agencies, taught over 600 students across 24 Anaheim, Fullerton and Santa Ana middle schools how to recognize exploitation, navigate online risks, understand healthy relationships and know how to seek help for themselves and their peers.
Waymakers is the lead victim service provider of the O.C. Human Trafficking Task Force, while the Anaheim Police Department is the lead law enforcement agency. Lita Mercado, the Waymakers’ chief program officer for victim assistance programs, said she was pleased the conference has grown over the years to connect with more students.
Mercado understands on a personal level the need for early trafficking awareness.
“My daughter just turned 15,” she said. “I took her out of school so she could come to this event last year. I was curious what her thought was going to be. She goes, ‘That was pretty good. I wish I heard this last year.’ And I was embarrassed.”
Pew Research Center statistics show that nearly all United States teens — 96% — say they use the internet every day. Nearly half, 46%, say that they are online “almost constantly.”
The California Healthy Youth Act, instituted in 2016, mandates that California public school districts require specific instruction on human trafficking prevention and education. Waymakers uses that requirement as leverage to start conversations with local school districts, Mercado said.
“There’s a big difference between a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old,” she said. “At 13 and 14, if we’re not talking about it, then they’re not going to be comfortable talking about it. There’s power in voice, power in speaking out.”
Monday’s event featured presentations by nonprofit Higher Ground, as well as Vanguard’s Live2Free student-led campus club.
Martha Trujillo, in her third year as a speaker at the event, is a human trafficking survivor who was jumped into a gang when she was just 10 years old. She now holds a master’s degree from UC Irvine and formed nonprofit Full Circle to help at-risk youth in Southern California.
“You matter,” Trujillo told the students. “Not later, not when you’re older, not when you’re better behaved. Right now. Every single one of you in this room has value that existed before anyone judged you, labeled you or decided who you were supposed to be.”
The middle school students were able to connect with resource booths from various Human Trafficking Task Force partners. They were asked true or false questions which, if answered correctly, would earn them raffle tickets to win prizes.
Zoe Morales, a member of Vanguard’s Live2Free group, taught the students about the dangers of online gaming, using Roblox as an example.
“These adults are going on these sites and creating a trusting environment for children, whether it’s offering up money, emotional support or general friendship,” Morales said. “They’re trying to get something in the end, and that’s usually something like a sexual image or explicit picture.”
Her advice to students included switching to a single-player game if they didn’t feel comfortable in the online universe, as well as not switching sites to talk to strangers.
Lisa Delamater, who has been working in social services for more than three decades, is the Commercially Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC) coordinator for the County of Orange Social Services Agency. The “Know More, Do Better” conference was launched around the time that she took over as CSEC coordinator four years ago.
“We’ve always had some kind of programming or recognition of human trafficking awareness, but I wanted to bring it to kids,” Delamater said. “I wanted this to be something where the kids themselves got to learn about how to keep themselves safe.”
The first event, held at Cal State Fullerton, drew more than 400 students but it has grown since then. Delamater invited any other school districts interested in attending to email her at lisa.delama@ssa.ocgov.com.
The prevention model has had a measurable impact. According to the 2025 Victim Report, students who participated in peer-led education programs showed an 84% increase in their ability to recognize signs of trafficking and a 115% increase in confidence about how to report concerns or access help.
“We want to reach kids before they become victims of human trafficking or exploitation or sextortion,” Delamater said. “It’s really important to start educating our kids, at the very least, right before they have access to the internet. We know even little kids have access to the internet, but you see the point. We’ve seen that as online extortion and sextortion has risen, the average age of victims has been declining.”
