What is human trafficking? Ask most people, and there would come to mind an image from crime show television — law enforcement personnel yanking open the back door of a plain white truck, or busting into a basement, where dozens of women and children are shackled to the walls.

Those things do happen in the real world, but more commonly, human trafficking happens in a sneakier way — criminals get children hooked on drugs, then get them to perform sex acts in exchange for drugs as a form of sexual servitude.

Ugly stuff, but Schuylkill County has the team in place to fight it. The county is using a $250,000 STOP grant, awarded by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, to help eradicate such crimes. The county is in its first year of the two-year grant. Under the grant, county District Attorney Mike O’Pake, Schuylkill Women in Crisis and the Sexual Assault Resource and Counseling Center have joined forces.

At 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Schuylkill County Courthouse, representatives from those groups will recognize the World Day Against Trafficking by participating in a “red sand” project. During a red sand project, people are invited to fill sidewalk cracks with red sand to remind survivors that they have not been “lost between the cracks.” Projects have taken place since 2014. For more information, see www.RedSandProject.org.

During a meeting Wednesday, the Schuylkill County Commissioners did a proclamation, resolving to join advocates and communities across the country to recognize the World Day Against Trafficking and help prevent it.

“We want to raise awareness and gain support,” said Stefanie Wenrich, anti-human trafficking advocate for SARCC. “We want to educate communities that it’s (human trafficking) in our county and worldwide.”