Paul Roberts' Graphic Design to be Published

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Human Trafficking Awareness Poster by Paul Roberts.

CAZENOVIA, NY (11/01/2012)(readMedia)-- Students are frequently involved in the world outside the classroom, particularly when there is a chance to help make a difference in the world. Professor Laurie Selleck's "Protest and Propaganda" class at Cazenovia College joined with a local cause, CNY Freedom Makers, creating posters to raise awareness about modern day slavery, and raising funds for an anti-slavery effort in Manila, Philippines.

Selleck is a professor of visual communications, and the director of the Visual Communications Program at Cazenovia. She noted that the students were dismayed at the magnitude of the problem, and surprised that it isn't in the forefront of mainstream awareness. Her students submitted 12 posters, and of the seven posters accepted by CNY Freedom Makers, six were designed by Cazenovia College visual communications students, one of whom was Paul W. Roberts, of Newfane, N.Y.,  a junior in the program who is a graduate of Newfane Senior High School. The poster created by Roberts received special recognition from a Syracuse-based writer, and is slated to be published with an article about human trafficking in the Stone Canoe Journal.

Author Nancy Keefe Rhodes has written an article about a documentary film on human trafficking, Not My Life, by Robert Bilheimer, which was broadcast last year on CNN International. Rhodes saw the Cazenovia College students' work, and asked if she could use one of the posters with her story. She said, "I especially like Paul Roberts' work – it's a great graphic, a great use of statistics (and I'm not a fan of stats). It's compelling because it's a little startling: the figure that's been hovering for a little while is 27 million people enslaved, and actually it's grown significantly."

Of his poster, Roberts says, "I found that roughly 29 million people are currently enslaved worldwide, which is a staggering amount. From there, I wanted to give viewers a way to understand the size of 29 million people. I discovered that the 15 most populated cities in the United States combined still comes up about half a million short of that number. I thought this a fitting comparison – to try and imagine if every citizen of all those cities was instead a slave somewhere in the world. With that idea in mind, one can start to think about how large of a problem human trafficking really is."

Selleck says, "My students and I attended an event at Syracuse University's Hendricks Chapel, sponsored by the CNY Freedom Makers, where their posters were sold. Greg Darley, author of Passion is Not Enough, presented a talk about The Fight Against Modern Day Slavery." Selleck says, "The Visual Communications Club wants to carry this on with the CNY Freedom Makers; they have started a 'Loose Change to Loosen Chains' campaign on the Cazenovia College campus."

CNY Freedom Makers, in partnership with International Justice Mission (IJM), will financially support a comprehensive justice initiative through the IJM Manila Field Office with the goal of raising $100,000.

Support from the Central New York Freedom Maker Campaign will help send undercover investigators into brothels to collect evidence to show police where young girls are being offered for sale for sex; help send rescue teams and police to rescue these girls; provide social workers to walk with the victims during counseling and recovery; and help fund lawyers to build cases against pimps and traffickers.

The student work was displayed at ArtRage Gallery in Syracuse through November 5, and two of the posters are on the gallery's website: www.artragegallery.org/cat/exhibitions . Among the CNY Freedom Makers team members is Cazenovia College alumna, Emma Voigt, who is working with AmeriCorps VISTA Northside Urban Partnership, in Syracuse, N.Y. Images of the posters and the students' comments about the issue and their poster designs are on the CNY Freedom Makers website: www.cnyfreedommakers.org.

Image attached: Human Trafficking Awareness Poster by Paul Roberts.