About twice a week, anti-human-trafficking nonprofit Safe Harbor founder Angie Sedore and her volunteers hear from local families in need of help and support.

“I get a lot of calls from parents who are discovering that their children are being groomed online,” Sedore said Tuesday.

Sometimes, those being preyed upon have developmental disabilities. Sedore said Safe Harbor, based in Coeur d'Alene, recently assisted a family whose 17-year-old daughter with autism had been talking online to a questionable someone in the Midwest.

"She had a plan to buy a ticket and be with this person she had never been with before," Sedore said.

The person asked the 17-year-old to bring her Social Security card and birth certificate.

"Fortunately, those parents are very tech-savvy," Sedore said. "They got the authorities involved."

With help from Safe Harbor, the family worked with law enforcement to go through the daughter's contacts and find IP addresses to conduct a thorough investigation. The mom was able to acquire legal guardianship of the daughter once she turned 18. 

"These traffickers will pose as young men," Sedore said. "They have fake profiles and start connecting with these girls. They'll say, 'You're so pretty. If you were my girlfriend, I would buy this for you,' making them feel loved and safe."

Eventually, those relationships can turn dangerous, affecting teens and kids 9 years old or even younger.

"Little by little, as that young girl or boy becomes more and more vulnerable with this person, that’s when they are asking to do things that are way outside of their comfort level," Sedore said. "This is trafficking. They are taking those underage photos and they're selling them on the web or on the dark web to other people. That is trafficking. They are sexually exploiting minors."

According to the Denver-based anti-human-trafficking nonprofit OUR Rescue at ourrescue.org, there are 49.6 million people in modern slavery worldwide, and 12 million of them are children. The National Human Trafficking Hotline, humantraffickinghotline.org, received 92 signals from Idaho in 2023, and 13 of those received were from human trafficking victims or survivors.

Education is the key to prevention, and Safe Harbor is all about both.

"People can look for signs of their kids being groomed online," Sedore said. "If we can teach them how to look for things and how to prevent these things from happening in the first place, that’s the single most important thing."

Safe Harbor will host the Freedom 5K at 9 a.m. Oct. 5 in Riverstone Park, 1805 W. Tilford Lane, Coeur d'Alene, to raise funds and awareness for Safe Harbor's efforts to work against human trafficking.

Registration is $20 for ages 5-11, $35 for ages 12 and older and $70 for families of four. Information and community business booths will be on-site, as well as local food vendors. 

Prizes will be awarded to men, women and children.

"There will be a surprise award at the end that most 5Ks don’t do," Sedore said. "I think it’ll be pretty cute."

Proceeds will help pay for Safe Harbor's 24-hour resource line operated by an experienced staff member: 208-514-2971

Funds will also support Safe Harbor's contract with Cultivation Counseling to keep a spot open once a week for survivors to receive immediate trauma-informed care.

Info: safeharborforfreedom.com