OMAHA — A convoy of 30 school buses and a semi-truck disrupted traffic flow Tuesday and created a spectacle as it traveled about four miles across southwest Omaha.
The highest levels of city government were aware — and in fact were part of the planning that had the parade at one point in the wrong lane, literally moving against traffic.
The stunt led by nonprofit Project Harmony was designed to highlight a ramped-up effort against child sex trafficking in and around Nebraska’s most populous city. “Omaha Against Traffick” is a new awareness campaign aimed at helping people better identify signs and curb the crime. It is expected to bolster a $12.5 million Project Harmony-led anti-trafficking initiative involving more than 60 organizations.
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The initiative, which involves agents of the Omaha Police Department and Douglas County Attorney’s Office, was founded in 2024 after Project Harmony secured buy-in from various groups that serve youth and families. Last year, the effort raised the $12.5 million, mostly from private sources but also government, said Gene Klein, chief executive of Project Harmony.
“We want to make sure the public understands when you say child sex trafficking that we all have a similar definition of what that is and that we would know what to do as a result of seeing someone or suspecting that someone might be sex trafficked,” Klein told the Nebraska Examiner.
Angela Roeber, Project Harmony communications officer, cited results of a community assessment last year. She said the vast majority of respondents reported having heard about the issue, but “knowledge was really low” when it came to deeper questions such as what conditions put kids at greater risk of being trafficked.
She said her team does not want the campaign to be just another headline grabber. Still to come will be billboards, bus wrap ads and continued educational efforts locally and in other markets.
“We want this to be something that lives for quite a few years,” Roeber said.
Project Harmony has served more than 90,000 youth during the past 30 years. Its campus includes police and federal investigators, Nebraska Health and Human Services Department staff and other professionals who work on child abuse cases.
Supporters drew distance between the Project Harmony initiative and, for example, media announcements that shine attention on potential human trafficking during large events such as the College World Series.
Omaha’s police officials didn’t readily have related data when participating, along with Gov. Jim Pillen, Omaha Mayor John Ewing and top Nebraska law enforcement agents, in a June pre-CWS press conference alerting the public about potential human trafficking during the annual baseball tournament. The department recently provided the information and said Omaha police did not make any human trafficking-related arrests during the most recent CWS or the previous two.
Police spokesman Lt. Neal Bonacci said the department wants to be proactive. He said officers also are offered additional training to help better recognize signs.
Roeber said the CWS press conference looked more broadly at human trafficking whereas, she said, Project Harmony’s lens is sharply focused on youth.
Klein defined child trafficking as sexual assault in exchange for something of value such as food, clothes, money or shelter.
He said Project Harmony’s efforts are rooted in a new approach its team took around 2018. He said Omaha police at the time were dealing with a few thousand reports of missing minors, many “running away from something at home or running to something that might not be safe for them.”
At the time, said Klein and Sgt. Brett Schrage of the OPD Missing Persons Unit, common practice had been finding and returning the youths, though the pattern typically continued. They said the Project Harmony team pivoted to focus on that runaway group, recognizing that many engaged in high-risk behaviors that fit the definition of sex trafficking.
Buoyed by data from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Roeber said the team came up with criteria that helped better pinpoint youth most at risk for being trafficked.
Prior to 2018, Klein recalls seeing “zero” child sex trafficking investigations or charges in Omaha. Since the start of 2023, the group said that the Douglas County Attorney’s Office secured 31 convictions associated with sex trafficking. It counted 59 victims of child sex trafficking in the Omaha metro area during that time.
Project Harmony said official trafficking numbers likely are undercounted.
Klein said local child trafficking cases don’t resemble TV-style episodes where a youth is abducted and taken overseas. Often they’ve run away from home and are homeless, he said, and are vulnerable to traffickers offering a place to stay and food.
“These are Omaha children that grew up in Omaha,” Klein said. “Their families are pretty fragmented. They don’t have a lot of consistency in their lives.”
Tuesday, the convoy traveled from Omaha Burke High School, near 120th Street and West Dodge Road, south to Project Harmony’s campus near 120th and Q Streets. Omaha police stopped east and westbound traffic at Q Street to allow the buses to turn, causing a bit of a traffic buildup.
Vehicles honked. People working on the initiative waved from within the buses.
“This campaign launch is really to catch people off guard, to spark curiosity and intrigue them enough to learn more and want to be a part of creating a safe community for all of our children,” Roeber said.
The campaign includes partners such as Boys Town, which provides three beds dedicated to high-risk youth who need a safe space to stay, and Creighton University’s Community Connections program, which offers family resources.
Project Harmony said that signs to watch for in children include receiving unusual and extra attention from an adult; isolation from friends because of an adult and adult-youth relationships that reflect dishonesty, dependence and control.
Said Klein: “In driving against traffic with a convoy of school buses — symbols of childhood innocence — we ask our neighbors to understand that child sex trafficking happens everywhere and to join us in the fight to protect our youth.”
This story is provided by States Newsroom, a nonprofit state news network and Blox Digital content partner.
