The Joy Smith Foundation, soon to be headquartered in Niverville, is getting ready to launch its annual fundraising gala aimed at exposing the ugly reality of human trafficking. On March 12, the Illuminate Hope Gala will be held at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

“When it comes to human trafficking, it really is a fundamental human right to have your freedom,” says Janet Campbell, CEO of the Joy Smith Foundation.

She points out that the museum is an appropriate venue, as Joy Smith herself played a role in opening the museum more than a decade ago. Today, a prominent display tells the story of how Smith paved the way to make human trafficking a punishable offence in Canada.

This year, Meagan Walker will take the podium as the gala’s keynote speaker.

Walker has been advocating to end human trafficking since the 1990s. Based out of London, Ontario, she served as executive director of the London Abused Women’s Centre.

“She grew that agency so that the many girls who were impacted by human trafficking were supported,” Campbell says. “She really understands the link between human trafficking and violence toward women.”

Walker was also a key resource for Joy Smith during her years in provincial and federal politics.

Today, Walker works on the police service board. Over her years of advocacy, she’s been a recipient of some well-deserved awards, including the Governor General’s Award and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Award.

The gala will provide a full night of inspiration with entertainment by a youth choir, Metis jiggers, and Indigenous hoop dancers. Guests can expect an art exhibit along with an opportunity to meet the artists and bid on their pieces.

“It will be a very hopeful, inspiring, uplifting evening for something that is such a dark subject,” says Campbell.

At least some of the funds raised at the gala will be allocated towards the next chapter of the Joy Smith Foundation story: a teaching campus to be constructed on a rural property near Niverville.

“The campus will be a game-changer in the effort for this fight in Canada. There are many systemic barriers that get in the way of [our work] and the campus will really start to bring those pieces together.”

The teaching campus will be a place for education of individuals, communities, and advocates of every stripe. It will be a hub for resources and services, all under one roof.

It will also be a place for survivor support. When survivors gain their freedom, Campbell says it often takes everything they’ve got just to figure out how to continue on, let alone thrive.

That’s where counselling, therapy, and foundation’s resources come in.

“Many of the services that survivors access now are fragmented,” Campbell adds. “They often have costs associated with them. We want the campus to support survivors without that financial burden on them. We want to focus on their healing.”

The campus will not act as a crisis centre, she explains. There are already provincially funded facilities for that kind of short-term support. Instead it will focus on long-term reintegration supports to get them back on their feet.

The dream, though, is still years away. Campbell is hopeful that it will be completed in her mother’s lifetime. Joy Smith turned 79 this February.