The Heart of Texas Human Trafficking Coalition (HOTHTC) is a multi-disciplinary task force that seeks to support and encourage a collaborative effort among local and federal law enforcement, prosecutors, and victim service providers to end human trafficking in our community.
The HOTHTC stakeholders serve the Bosque, Falls, Freestone, Hill, Limestone and McLennan counties. Membership is available for representatives from regulatory agencies, social service agencies, victim service providers, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations and criminal justice system-based victim assistance components.
Partner agencies within the Heart of Texas Human Trafficking Coalition and Heart of Texas Human Trafficking Task Force are committed to collaborate in the fight against human trafficking by:
Increase community awareness for the prevention and identification of human trafficking victims,
Increasing investigation and prosecution of human trafficking cases at a local, state, and federal level, and
Providing coordinated, comprehensive, trauma-informed services to meet the individualized needs of human trafficking victims
Our community’s location on the I-35 corridor gives perpetrators easy access to both Dallas and Houston, which are rated two of the top estimated trafficking cities in the United States. Poverty and homelessness, especially among youth, make many of our neighbors vulnerable to traffickers. Since the formation of the Heart of Texas Human Trafficking Coalition in 2015, there have been more than 3500 cases of trafficking in Texas reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
Heart of Texas Human Trafficking Coalition partners have been serving human trafficking cases for years, with an increase in investigations and prosecutions since its inception.
The HOTHTC will continue to work as a multi-disciplinary task force to enhance the collaboration of law enforcement, social, and legal service agencies to protect our community against human trafficking and to better serve human trafficking victims and survivors.
We are committed to making the Heart of Texas a safe place for our children, a healing place for survivors, and a dangerous place for traffickers.