When most organizations plan to offer services pertaining to human trafficking, they most often contemplate a large, dedicated care facility. However, the stationary model may not allow access to the client base due to location, and the incredibly high cost places it out of reach for all but the most well-funded organizations. Over the past year, The Imagine Foundation of Cleveland, Ohio has been developing a unique facility and programming model taken from small, start-up businesses—the pop-up. This temporary and highly mobile model enables a low-cost alternative to high-cost infrastructure by utilizing existing, underused facilities, a professionally trained volunteer base, and a network of partnered organizations.
The Cleveland Pop-up is part of a prevention and recidivism reduction model that aims to implement career services to those involved within human trafficking—both potential perpetrators and victim/survivors in the belief that access to the formal economy through employment can help alleviate some of the contributing factors leading up to exploitation. During the intensive, one-day program, career services are located in close proximity to high-risk areas including hotels/motels, areas known to be conducive to prostitution, and halfway houses or prisons. In the Cleveland area, during the past year, over 200 clients have come to the various pop-up locations seeking career services to leave “the life” and earn employment within the formal economy.
The objective for this presentation is to introduce the advocacy and care community to a new and unique service model that allows providers to operate in a highly localized, mobile and cost effective way.
30 Nepali girls were trafficked into India with the intent of being forced into the sex trafficking industry. Tomorrow 30 more will be trafficked. They will be locked up, beaten and raped until they give in and accept the hell that will thereafter be their life. Meanwhile, as these girls continue to suffer, more will be added to their number.
SAVE THE LIFE operates more than 3 Border Monitoring stations at crucial points along the Nepal- India border. These stations are overseen by Subcommittees, and employ border guards to watch for signs of Trafficking, and try to intercept girls as they are being trafficked into India and other Country.
The workshop will provide an overview of reentry. Reentry reintegration of ex-offenders into mainstream society from a period of incarceration is a process not an event. The longer one has been incarcerated and the more severe the offense, the more challenging reentry can be. This presentation will deal with the major barriers and challenges faced by the reentry population, and the many roles social workers can play to increase the likelihood of successful reentry. While the needs of the reentry population are not unique (employment, housing, transportation, behavioral and physical health) and shared by many others, a criminal record often creates an additional barrier to obtaining these needs. Emphasis will be given to the role of social workers on both the micro level (providing direct services to individuals) and macro level (community advocacy). The presenter will tell their personal experience on being a convicted felon in Ohio and how they have become a social worker. In order to help this particular population there needs to be an emphasis on reducing the stigma associated with being convicted felons. The presenter will share his research that was conducted in Toledo, Ohio including effective rehabilitation and reentry efforts. It is a study with 67 participants and how they view their treatment and ambitions. Peer support can be affective for convicted felons and the role of mentors need to be addressed for convicted felons. This workshop will help demonstrate the change of people and motivate for success.
Objectives:
1) To understand the specific barriers that the reentry population faces;
2) To see the important role that social workers play in successful reentry;
To learn about a study and its findings done in Toledo involving reentry.
Read MoreWe have a monster hiding in our own backyard. This monster is growing larger, demanding more victims, acquiring vast amounts of wealth, becoming bolder by night, increasingly seen even in broad daylight. This monster, one that we unknowingly feed, through our lack of education, awareness, and/or action is known as Sex Trafficking.
Objectives:
1) Raise basic awareness about human trafficking, particularly domestic sex trafficking.
2) Discuss the current social policy and reform occurring in the United States.
3) Enable participants to have the tools to actively seek change within the social policy and legislation of their own regions and states.
Statistical data, policy reform issues, and various legislative topics will also be discussed. This research has been gathered by both third party organizations, such as the Polaris Project, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and Not on Our Watch America Foundation, as well as Ms. KiloMarie Granda. The material presented will both build upon existing research and incorporate measurable outcomes based upon Quantitative and Qualitative Data.
For more information about our mission to end Domestic Sex Trafficking, please check us out at www.unspokenvoices.net or https://www.facebook.com/unspokenvoicesorganization.
Inequity and a lack of human rights is at the root of human trafficking. Human trafficking education, awareness, and micro level interventions will not contribute much to ending trafficking, without attention paid to those institutional forces that drive inequality to create a thriving market for labor, sex, and drug trafficking. Using Latin America as a case in point, the audience will learn about the causes for the prevalence in trafficking, which include: (a) U.S. broken foreign policy with Mexico and Latin America, including trade agreements and immigration laws that criminalize the poor and supports endemic corruption and drug cartels; (b) U.S. global corporate supply chains and investor greed; and (c) our broken U.S. Congress and their inability to guarantee mechanisms for citizens and immigrants to exercise their human rights, civil rights and labor rights. This is a call to attack institutional inequality by creating a counter institutional moment among the victims and the poor. Examples of how to fight back and restore human rights and human dignity will be provided.
Read MoreIn July 2014, the State of Ohio’s Office of Criminal Justice Services received a grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to increase the identification of foreign-born trafficking victims in Ohio. The program that Ohio established is executed through state and local partners and has led to successful identification of previously hidden populations of trafficking victims. Beyond awareness, though, this panel of presenters has have been working with HHS to provide services for trafficking victims, and have learned to navigate the seemingly complex channels to accessing these services. The presentation will give both an overview of the role of HHS in anti-trafficking work among foreign born populations and will also provide concrete examples of initiatives to improve identification and services for foreign trafficking victims in Ohio.
Objectives:
1) To explain the role of the US Department of Health and Human Services in both identifying and serving foreign-born victims of human trafficking.
2) To illustrate Ohio’s initiative to identify foreign-born trafficking victims through the grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services, including the approach, partners, and entities trained through the grant.
3) To explain the specific efforts and priorities in identifying foreign born trafficking victims in northwest Ohio through the Lucas County Human Trafficking Coalition and its local outreach partners.
To demonstrate outcomes to date and the importance of raising awareness and collaboration with existing federal programs to increase the protections for potential trafficking victims.
Read MoreMichigan currently ranks 5th in the nation for human trafficking (Shared Hope International). While Michigan legislature works tirelessly to enact laws that will change the shape of victims' services in this state, certain arenas remain untapped. According to a Stanford University study, the first uninvolved people to come in contact with human trafficking victims are medical professionals (Collins & Grace, 2009). Recently the State of Michigan passed into law a requirement for medical professionals to be trained to identify the signs of human trafficking in patients. While this amendment is extremely important, a lot of necessary information was left out of the Public Act itself: Who will conduct the training? What will the training? How long will the training be? Will the training be comprehensive enough that healthcare professionals feel comfortable identifying possible victims? Can healthcare professionals be held liable for reporting suspected cases? In order to address these questions and any others that may arie, the State of Michigan has created a small grant to be used via the Genesee County Medical Society through the Greater Flint Health Coalition as fiduciary to create a physician's toolkit through the compilation of multiple resources. The finished product will be given back to the State of Michigan, and will be disseminated in Genesee County. Physician feedback, competence, and reporting data will be monitored following the dissemination of the toolkit. The objectives through the creation and dissemination of this physician toolkit are to increase awareness of human trafficking as a public health issue among the health professions and to increase consistency in reporting human trafficking cases within the State.
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