Attorney General Daniel Cameron joined the Kentucky Beer Wholesalers Association (KBWA) to announce a joint effort to raise awareness of human trafficking in the Commonwealth. KBWA will partner with the Attorney General’s Office as part of the ‘Your Eyes Save Lives’ statewide human trafficking awareness campaign.
“The KBWA has a proven track record of raising awareness about the dangers of human trafficking, and we are fortunate to have them as a partner in our statewide Your Eyes Save Lives campaign,” said Attorney General Cameron. “Our campaign is focused on empowering Kentuckians to play a meaningful role in identifying and stopping human trafficking. KBWA’s members are present throughout the Commonwealth and well positioned to assist in this effort.”
“We are proud to join forces with Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron in this important effort to identify, address, and stop human trafficking in our Commonwealth,” said Jennifer Doering, Chairwoman of the KBWA. “Training and engaging our employees who deliver products to retail, restaurant, and bar locations all across Kentucky every day will put hundreds of extra eyes and ears into the fight against human trafficking. This is a critical issue for both our state association and the National Beer Wholesalers Association which launched its own ‘Distributors Against Human Trafficking’ campaign in 2020.”
KBWA and the Attorney General’s Office of Trafficking and Abuse Prevention and Prosecution will join forces to provide beer distribution employees with Your Eyes Save Lives training and awareness materials, which focus on the dangers of human trafficking and information on how to recognize and report both sex and labor trafficking in the Commonwealth.
These materials will include a training video and informational website graphics, which will be displayed on the KBWA member website, social media accounts, and shared with distributors.
Attorney General Cameron launched the Your Eyes Save Lives campaign earlier this year to encourage Kentuckians to recognize the signs of human trafficking and report it. The campaign is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.
The KBWA participates in the National Beer Wholesalers Association’s (NBWA) Distributors Against Human Trafficking, which launched in 2020 and seeks to combat human trafficking throughout the country. The initiative has trained more than 10,000 beer distribution employees to recognize and report the signs of human trafficking.
Across the country, beer distributors visit an estimated 600,000 licensed retail locations and often have access to locations unseen by the public, where human trafficking may be more likely to occur.
To report suspected human trafficking, dial 911 in an emergency or, in a non-emergency, call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.
Distributors participating in the campaign include:
• Clark Distributing Co. (headquartered in Bowling Green area / distribution centers: Owensboro, Paducah and Versailles areas)
• Kentucky Eagle, Inc. (headquartered in Lexington / distributes to: Corbin, Lexington, London, Richmond, Shelbyville and Versailles areas)
• Chas. Seligman Distributing Co. (headquartered in Erlanger / distributes to: Northern and Central KY regions)
• River City Distributing (headquartered in Louisville / distributes to: Louisville and Elizabethtown areas)
• Stagnaro Distributing (headquartered in Erlanger / distributes to: Northern KY region)
• Standard Sales Company (headquartered in Louisville / distribution center: Owensboro / distributes to: Elizabethtown, Louisville and Owensboro areas.
