DETROIT – Hundreds of thousands are expected to visit Detroit for the 2026 Auto Show, but along with the excitement comes a serious concern: human trafficking.
The nonprofit organization The Soap Project is working to raise awareness and protect vulnerable people during the event.
The Soap Project, which stands for Save Our Adolescents From Prostitution, urges attendees to stay alert.
Its founder and survivor Theresa Flores says, “Men that have younger girls or boys with them and they look like they’re not happy. They don’t want to be there. Their eyes are down, not making eye contact looking timid.”
Flores encourages people to trust their instincts.
“If you get that gut feeling that this does not look like a good situation. It probably isn’t,” she said. Reporting suspicious situations is always better than ignoring them."
Flores knows the dangers firsthand. She was a normal teenager from Birmingham, Michigan, until she was targeted and groomed.
“I got groomed by a cute boy and he wanted to give me a ride home from school one day, and it was just that simple. I got in the car and he didn’t take me home,” she recalled.
Her mission now is to ensure others get the help they need.
Ahead of large events like the Detroit auto show, The Soap Project and its volunteers distribute soap and makeup remover wipes labeled with the human trafficking hotline in hotels.
Flores explained, “I remember the only time that I was alone was in the bathroom.”
The group also hands out missing teen posters to help spread awareness.
Volunteer Darnell Boynton praised the effort, saying, “This is absolutely wonderful. I mean this is what community is all about, right, and when people take out their time, their busy schedules to come for such a worthy cause it just brings you together for community and it’s just an awesome event.”
Flores finds it difficult but healing to return to Detroit, where she was trafficked.
“It’s always difficult to come here because this is where I was trafficked at and I live in Ohio now, but it’s really cathartic because I can heal and help other survivors too,” she said.
The Soap Project’s work brings communities together and makes a real difference in the fight against human trafficking during major events like the Detroit Auto Show.