UPDATE: MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - Activists, lawmakers, and citizens filled the Senate Hearing Room to learn what they can to do put an end to human trafficking.

The panel included lobbyists, counsel staff members, former legislators and survivors.

Leslie King, President and CEO of Sacred Beginnings, shared her story.

"I was pimped out here, in Grand Rapids Michigan at the age of 15," she explained.  "At the age of 15 I was seen as a 15-year-old prostitute, not a 15-year-old prostituted child."

The National Human Trafficking Hotline has received 303 calls from people in the state of Michigan already this year. Many of these calls came from women being trafficked.

The panel urged people in the room to get in touch with their legislators and spread awareness about the issue.

"They think we are talking about sex crimes…but there's more to it," explained K.C. Steckelberg, the Director of Public Affairs for the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan.  "The idea of letting a legislator know we are talking about our children in Michigan, labor sex trafficking, all these things that they may have no idea about, but you guys are the experts."

Senators Gretchen Whitmer of East Lansing, Judy Emmons and Tonya Schuitmaker of Lawton and Rebekah Warren of Anna Arbor hosted the event.

For more information about human trafficking visit www.polarisproject.org.


ORIGINAL STORY: MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - Activists and concerned citizens gathered in Lansing recently to talk about the issue of human trafficking...and it's not as far from home as some might think.