As part of Domestic Violence Awareness month, Weber State University will be hosting its first-ever Human Trafficking Symposium in the Shephard Union Ballrooms on Oct. 27.

The free event will be held from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. with speakers from the Attorney General’s Office, YCC of Ogden, the Sheriff’s Office, the WSU Women’s Center, the Department of Social Work and the Division of Ethnic Studies at the University of Utah.

Professor Julee Smith is a big part of planning this event. Smith became part of the Utah Trafficking Intervention Coalition after learning that girls in her own neighborhood were being trafficked.

Smith helped to create the symposium in order to teach about this big issue after learning that both Brigham Young University and the University of Utah had been hosting this event for years.

“We said, ‘let’s make sure people are aware,’ because it’s amazing how naive people are,” Smith said. “So, we got key people, key departments and got it going.”

Molly Sween, WSU professor and Department of Criminal Justice Chair, is also part of the planning committee for this symposium. She was asked to assist with the planning of this event after Smith came forward with the idea.

Sween said there would be a focus on resources provided to Weber State students, and they were looking forward to teaching about resources or concerns about human trafficking with students’ friends or family.

“We want to make sure that the students feel safe, they know the resources if there’s a problem going on, they know who they can go to, and that’s the big emphasis on this symposium is the resources are going to be there,” Smith said.

Sween and Smith have been working to create this event for months, and on Oct. 27, the event will take place. It is free to the public, and the first 175 people to register will receive a free lunch.

“This is something that is important for anybody at any age and we need to educate ourselves and then share that with others,” Smith said. “Let’s spread the word because to me knowledge and skills are empowerment and we want to empower everybody, not just a select few … Weber State is an amazing place and we want to continue to be an amazing place. [We want students to be] succeeding and safe.”

Registration for the event is available at https://www.weber.edu/socialscience/human-trafficking-symposium.html.