This story discusses human trafficking. If you or someone you know is being trafficked, call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. You will be connected with a local provider offering confidential, free 24/7 support. Click here for more resources in Wisconsin and beyond.
MADISON, Wis. — Mercies Coffee is a quaint coffee shop located on Madison’s East Side.
Mallory Orr is the owner of Mercies Coffee and she said at first Mercies may look like a normal coffee shop, but it is actually much more than that.
“We are here to both provide high quality coffee and products to the community of Madison but also build a community around survivors of human trafficking,” Orr said.
Orr often holds educational events about human trafficking at the coffee shop and also does fundraisers.
She said her goal is to one day hire sex trafficking survivors to work at Mercies, but for now, she works on educating the public "about what [trafficking] looks like and why it is happening and who it is happening to, just to make it not as much of a secretive topic," she said.
The Department of Justice reported a total of 1,912 people were referred to U.S. attorneys for human trafficking offenses in the fiscal year 2022. Of the 1,070 defendants charged with any of the three types of human trafficking offenses in U.S. district court in the fiscal year 2022, 91% were male.
Jason Fields is the president and CEO of the Madison Regional Economic Partnership; he said it is time for men to start standing up against human trafficking.
“Human trafficking is occurring every day and in our communities,” Fields said. “HEMAD is asking men to take a public stand against human trafficking and the commercial exploitation of adults and children.”
Fields said Human Trafficking Educators working with Men and Boys to Stand Against the Demand, or HEMAD, has a goal of collecting 75,000 signatures of men agreeing to take a stand against human trafficking.
“We want you to be thinking about this and talking about it around the dinner table, during TV time or before football or basketball games and at other social gatherings,” Fields said.
Fields said many people often think of human trafficking as a "not in my backyard" issue.
Sex trafficking in particular often starts with a process known as grooming and often occurs on social media.
“I hope and pray that people don’t start to take things seriously once it hits their front door; we should be taking things seriously before that happens,” Fields said.
With the large majority of sex trafficking victims being women, Orr said men have told her they often feel helpless. But Orr said they shouldn't.
“Show them what an example of a healthy male-female relationship looks like and what it looks like for a man to take care of a woman in a way that is not sexual or abusive,” Orr said.