HAUPPAUGE, NY — Beneath crystal chandeliers inside The Experience on Commerce Drive in Hauppauge, educators and service providers sat at round tables as panels and presentations moved through a difficult reality that speakers repeatedly warned is closer to home than many Long Islanders want to believe — human trafficking.
The event on Friday, Jan. 16, the “Shining a Light on Human Trafficking” conference, was hosted by EAC Network’s Safe Harbour program in partnership with Nassau and Suffolk counterparts.
EAC Network Suffolk Safe Harbour Program Supervisor Stephanie Muller said the 2026 gathering marked the fourth annual conference — and the first to be formally joined with Nassau’s Safe Harbour program under EAC’s expanded oversight.
Missing and runaway youth can quickly become targets for exploitation, those speaking explained, and the choices adults make in the hours and days after a youth returns can shape whether reunification becomes recovery — or another disappearance.
Speakers presented throughout the day, with programming focused on one particularly high-risk pathway into exploitation — missing and runaway youth.
