Kenosha County’s Division of Children and Family Services now has a social worker who specializes in working human trafficking cases.
She’s Julie Ortiz, who is this year’s winner of the Connie Reyes Award. The award was announced this week.
In an interview with WGTD, the protective services worker says she still investigates child abuse and neglect because the number of human trafficking cases in Kenosha County isn’t large enough to keep a worker busy full-time.
Human trafficking is defined as a relationship that involves either force, fraud or coercion, or a combination of the three. While there’s increased concern as of late with trafficking appearing to be on the rise, Ortiz says such cases aren’t new. "I don't think this is a new thing," she said. "I just think we're better able to identify it."
Part of Ortiz’ work is preventative. She cites as an example a recent case of a young-teenaged girl running off willingly with a man in his mid-20s. "Now would I say at this point that this is a human trafficking case? No, not necessarily," Ortiz says, answering her own question. "Is there a potential for it to be there? Absolutely."
Ortiz also works with Fight to End Exploitation, a coalition of groups in the Racine/Kenosha area.
By the way, the award that Ortiz won this week is named after a Kenosha County social worker who was murdered as a result of a case she’d been working on.
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