The state Department of the Attorney General published its Human Trafficking Prevention Program web page Friday, marking the start of National Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

The initiative aims to raise awareness, provide educational resources and offer tools to help prevent human trafficking in Hawaii.

Passed by the Legislature in 2023, the Human Trafficking Prevention Program is designed to support victims and create statewide strategies to combat trafficking.

The program establishes a human trafficking prevention initiative within the Department of the Attorney General, focusing on addressing victims’ needs. It aims to develop and implement strategies to prevent trafficking, assist victims, raise public awareness and provide training. The program also mandates the Department of the Attorney General to submit regular reports to the Legislature detailing its efforts to combat human trafficking.

The federal definition of human trafficking refers to the use of force, fraud or coercion to obtain labor or a commercial sex act.

According to the latest available data from 2021, Hawaii ranked 46th in the nation for human trafficking-related signals received by the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

The data, which includes phone calls, SMS messages, web chats, emails and online tip reports from Hawaii, highlights 90 substantive reports — signals excluding hang-ups, wrong numbers or calls unrelated to human trafficking.

Of these reports, 77% involved sex trafficking, 13% involved minors and 80% of victims were female.

Dianne Bowen-Coleman, human trafficking abatement coordinator at the Department of the Attorney General, acknowledged that updated data is not yet available and it is still too early to draw definitive conclusions about the prevalence of trafficking in Hawaii.

“Our initial focus has been outreach and advocacy and raising awareness, which was demonstrated by our event today, the sign-waving event and resource fair at Fort Street Mall,” Bowen-Coleman said Friday. “Coming after January, we’re going to start looking at statistics and data, and we have a report that we need to write, so we’ll be diving into that as well.”

Throughout the month the Department of the Attorney General is hosting events for Human Trafficking Awareness Month, including a Virtual Lunch and Learn Speaker Series and a candlelight vigil.

The Virtual Lunch and Learn Speaker Series will feature experts discussing key human trafficking topics, while the candlelight vigil, set for Jan. 30 at the state Capitol rotunda, will honor survivors and those affected by trafficking.

The vigil aims to foster community reflection and commitment to ending human trafficking.

“There are needs. We’ve already seen some needs, and we’re going to be focusing more on what the gaps are so that we can help fill those gaps or at least have the discussions so that services that can be provided in the state of Hawaii reach the people that need those services,” Bowen-­Coleman said.