A letter to the editor by LifeWay Network Executive Director Ali Boak published in The Recorder newspaper, serving Bedford, Lewisboro, Pound Ridge and Mount Kisco, New York, on November 28:
While the public focuses on the salacious details of the Epstein files and the high-profile names, the human beings at the heart of this tragedy — the survivors whose lives were stolen, commodified and silenced — are too often lost. These documents are not merely evidence of crimes; they are records of systemic failure. They show how wealth, power and social influence can shield perpetrators while leaving survivors to rebuild their lives in the shadows.
As a longtime anti-trafficking advocate and the executive director of the only transitional housing program dedicated for trafficking survivors in the New York metropolitan area, I’m not shocked. Both sex and labor trafficking are alive and well in virtually every community across the United States, including right here in Northern Westchester. My hometown of Pound Ridge has seen several cases of human trafficking in the time that I have lived here. In 2024, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children recorded 27,800 reports of child trafficking; the victims’ average age was just 15 years old.
Human trafficking is a daily occurrence in our community, and we lack the resources and services survivors need and deserve to recover from the heinous crimes perpetrated against them. As these files reignite public outrage, I urge readers to turn that outrage into action. Learn about trafficking in your own communities. Support the organizations such as LifeWay Network, providing housing, counseling and long-term services to survivors. Demand accountability not only from the individuals involved, but from the systems that allowed such abuse to flourish.
Sincerely,