ABSTRACT

This paper discusses a collaboration among a non-profit organization, designers, and artists to create a labor trafficking awareness campaign. The project’s purpose was to explore a new and effective approach to human trafficking awareness campaigns. By prioritizing empathy and information over stereotyping, sensationalism, and over-simplification—the campaign aimed to convey the complexity of labor trafficking, provide practical information on identifying signs, and educate the public on victim rights. The campaign presented real-life survivor stories in the form of graphic novels supplemented with key points and summary text. The involvement of culturally relevant artists helped to ensure that the survivor stories were authentically and empathetically represented. This paper shares the project’s purpose, process, challenges, and outcomes, as well as insights into the effectiveness of the methodology.

KEYWORDS: labor trafficking, graphic novel, awareness campaigns, visual storytelling, collaboration