Abstract

This collaborative communication activism project documents the founding and growth of the Eastern Carolina Coalition against Human Trafficking (ECCAHT), a grassroots, community activism, non-governmental organization dedicated to advocating against human trafficking. Now an effective educational and political resource in coastal South Carolina, since its founding, ECCAHT has sponsored dozens of training, educational, and student workshops; has campaigned extensively in the community for gender equity and violence cessation; and has successfully assisted in the passage of two major pieces of state legislation that increase penalties against human traffickers and provide victims' services funding. Employing observation and participation, interactive interviews, and document analysis, this narrative ethnography analyzes and discusses the processes, structures, challenges, and celebrations of ECCAHT. Relational dialectics is used as a framework within which to examine the often messy and always complex interpersonal relationships that constitute the networks of individuals involved in ECCAHT's founding, organization, and success, and the management of those relational dialectics is identified as a key ingredient to the organization's continued operations.