NEWS

NEWBERRY — Newberry College will host its second annual Shedding Light on Human Trafficking & Exploitation Conference. The event will be held Friday, April 4, at the College’s Center for Teacher Education, 1121 Speers St.

The conference will feature sessions covering every aspect of human trafficking and providing resources on how to recognize and deal with exploitation in a variety of circumstances, including law, business, social services, nonprofits and more.

“We are excited to offer our second human trafficking conference,” said Cynthia Haynes Eshleman, associate professor of criminal justice and the event organizer. “This year’s conference will have a wealth of information on juveniles and young adults and how they find themselves in trafficking situations, what can be done to prevent them, reporting, and what is being done to combat this serious crime here in South Carolina. In fact, sadly, Newberry County has even had a recent case of human trafficking. This conference will be invaluable for practitioners in a vast range of industries and lines of work.”

Presenters will include professionals from the South Carolina Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Task Force, Newberry Police Department, Newberry College, and the Greenville-based nonprofit SWITCH, among others.

Preston Shipp (pictured above), a former prosecutor turned speaker and advocate, will deliver the event’s keynote. As a Tennessee attorney, he argued for the sentence of Cyntoia Brown, who at age 16 was convicted of robbing and murdering the person who bought her through sex trafficking. Later, he advocated for her clemency, leading to her release from prison in 2019.

The conference is open to the public and geared toward businesses, professionals and community leaders engaged in helping survivors and bringing offenders to justice. The event has been approved for Continuing Legal Education credits, South Carolina Law Enforcement Continuing Education credits, and Victim Service Provider credits for attendees working in those areas.

Spaces are limited, with a $50 individual registration fee. The registration deadline is Tuesday, April 1. Individual and corporate sponsorships are available.

For more information, visit newberry.edu/sheddinglight.