Human trafficking experts will discuss the role men – specifically fathers – can take in preventing human trafficking at the inaugural Father Con, a daylong educational event at Long Beach City College on Saturday, Nov. 3.

Father Con founder Patrick Erlandson, an advocate to prevent human trafficking, said the event aims to educate attendees on what leads people into human trafficking – both the victims and the buyers who keep the demand up. Erlandson, who has worked with the Long Beach Human Trafficking Task Force for six years, said that in his own and other’s research, a lack of a positive father figure is a trend.

“The link component is not having a protective father figure or father in their life that gives order to their childhood,” he said. “I kept running into the same thing – the vulnerability is a missing father, abusive father or disengaged father.”

There are different dynamics between mothers and fathers with their children, but having a positive father figure is important for boys to have a role model and know how to treat women, Erlandson said.

“And a girl’s first relationship on how she should be treated by men is from her father,” he added.

Claudia Garcia, one of the event’s organizers, said the community needs to come together to fighting human trafficking.

“This is also about protecting foster youth,” she said. “Because they are the number one target for human trafficking.”

Garcia helps to run LBCC’s Foster & Kinship Care Education Program, a statewide program that offers training for foster parents and caregivers.

There will be a variety of workshops, with some geared toward different types of fathers: fathers-to-be, those who feel they are off track and want to get back on track, father figures, mentors and foster fathers. Experts will include former FBI and survivors of human trafficking, among others.

Anyone is welcome to come.

“We don’t want human trafficking to move forward, so we want as many people to be involved,” Garcia said.

If you go:

When: Nov. 3. Registration is at 8:30 a.m. and the events lasts until 3 p.m. Free lunch is provided.

Where: Long Beach City College, LAC Campus 4901 E. Carson St., Long Beach

Cost: Free

For more information: Call (310) 994-1141 or (562) 938.3114, or email fatherconevent@gmail.com or cgarcia@lbcc.edu.