The Sarnia-Lambton Sexual Assault Survivors Centre was selected to receive over $230,000 in additional provincial funding.
The money is part of Ontario's Strategy to End Human Trafficking.
Executive Director Michelle Batty says the funds locally will go towards having a dedicated position to offer counselling and support to victims of human trafficking, as well as prevention and education initiatives.
She says for the last ten years, the centre has worked very closely with the Sarnia-Lambton Committee Against the Trafficking of Women and Children.
"Certainly at the Sexual Assault Survivor Centre and the Womens Interval Home we have seen and assisted survivors of human trafficking," says Batty. "I think that people are just not aware of how big of a problem it is in all of our communities. People think of human trafficking as an international issue, when there is a lot of domestic human trafficking occuring in our province and across Canada."
Batty says last year, about 500 women and men received some type of assistance or counselling from the Sexual Assault Survivors Centre.
