The concepts of trauma and trauma-informed care have continued to change and grow over the years. What does this really look like in an agency providing intensive survivor services? In this workshop you will have the opportunity to join us as we walk through three survivor stories highlighting the honest realities of this challenging but rewarding work. Through these stories we will share intimately about our experiences in working to provide holistic trauma-informed care, vicarious trauma, and the traumas of “collaborative” work. Just as the concepts of trauma and trauma-informed care have evolved, the ways in which we celebrate and grow the work we do with survivors also evolves. Please join us for an open discussion on these topics so that we may all learn from each other!
Read MoreThe use of drugs among those involved in sex work, prostitution or human trafficking is well known. While not everyone uses or is addicted to drugs or alcohol, for many prostitution or sex work serves as a means to an end of getting the substances they need. For others, while initially they are drug free, they may eventually turn to substance use/abuse as an act of self-medicating to numb and distance themselves from the reality of what they are experiencing. And then there are those who are forced to take drugs by their pimps or traffickers as a means of controlling them to ensure that they will do as they are told. But whatever the reason for the use, the outcome of substance use and abuse can have severe consequences both physically and emotionally. In addressing the individual’s recovery, aside from helping the individual heal from the sexual exploitation, it is important that we help them in their recovery from drugs and alcohol. This presentation will discuss the most common types of drugs abused; what their side effects, risks and benefits are; and appropriate forms of treatment.
Presentation Objectives:
· Name the 5 most common substances used by those in the sex trade;
· For each substance named, discuss its impact on the user as well as several common and serious side effects; and
Describe an appropriate form of substance abuse treatment for a given substance.
Young people are more vulnerable to human trafficking and are oftentimes the victims; hence they need to advocate against this human rights issue. The Academy for Prevention of Human Trafficking and Other Matters was created to raise consciousness of this issue and to develop the potential of young people as anti-human trafficking advocates.
One hundred and twenty young people (aged 17 to 40) from six states in Nigeria were selected through online and offline registration to participate in the training. Participants were equipped with advocacy skills, toolkits and information materials. They were expected to carry out anti-human trafficking advocacy in their various communities within six months after their training and give reports.
Results from the evaluation showed that 95 percent of the participants engaged in strategic anti-human trafficking advocacy and social action through the following approaches: media campaign, community sensitization, school awareness, radio talk, publication of articles, etc. Few participants reported incidences of human trafficking or the identification of victims. Through the training, participants developed a sense of responsibility to combating human trafficking. Anti-human trafficking advocacy training has been effective in equipping young people with how to carry out advocacy and social action. The participants used available resources that were inexpensive yet made a difference in their communities.
Presentation Objective:
This presentation explains how anti-human trafficking advocacy training empowered young people to effectively engage in advocacy and social action
Read MoreThe presenter will explain simulation’s role in ensuring holistic education is provided to healthcare professionals regarding current medical processes, development and implementation of victim-based simulation, and community resources for healthcare providers and victims. The presenter will discuss programs already implemented within the Interprofessional Immersive Simulation Center at the University of Toledo.
Human Trafficking Recognition was developed in response to research indicating 87% of victims receiving medical treatment during captivity went unrecognized. This portion of the presentation will discuss the implementation of educational sessions and how they provide a framework for simulation scenarios. Utilizing both simulators and standardized patients, learners will observe the challenges in recognizing victims through video footage of simulations where red flags were incorporated into patient history and interaction.
Sexual Assault Patient Education has been developed into simulation for the purposes of enhancing Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) training and to provide insight to other interprofessional providers on how this patient population should be cared for. This presentation will emphasize the benefits SANE programs gain from simulation practice and provide insight into development of curriculum for disciplines that do not regularly interact with sexual assault patients.
Presentation Objectives:
· To identify innovative approaches to developing and implementing simulation scenarios with a focus on forensic science education.
· To learn to incorporate new methods of training to augment SANE program education, competency and educate providers that work in areas lacking SANE resources.
To gain appreciation for the role healthcare providers play in identifying human trafficking victims and caring for the sexual assault patient. Presentation Objectives:
· To provide the results of the 2015 & 2016 Youth Experience Survey
· Contrast non-sex trafficking needs with victims of trafficking to help guide client needs
· To discuss how to expand prevention and interventions for trafficking victims within a homeless, youth serving program
· To build engagement strategies for existing clients to share their experiences and access services
To leverage community partners for needs such as legal, medical and housing.
Presentation Objectives:
· To learn what human trafficking looks like in rural communities
Read MoreTwo of the most prominent social justice issues of our time are human trafficking and oppression of sex/sexuality/gender minorities (Smith 2015; Tomaszewski, 2014), yet frequently overlooked is how these two issues converge. Yearly, hundreds of thousands of LGBTQ+ individuals are victimized through human sex trafficking (Martinez & Kelle, 2013). Moreover, they are at higher risk of being trafficked than their non-LGBTQ+ counterparts (Cochran, Stewart, Ginzler, & Cauce, 2002; Martinez & Kelle, 2013). In addition to a general awareness, what is often missing in the conversation is how and why this population is at particular risk of being sold for sex. This presentation will address awareness, prevention, intervention, and social justice of LGBTQ+ sex trafficking through a three step process. An overview of the research findings on this segment of the issue will be detailed, bringing the awareness into clear focus. Next, education will be provided on the issues faced by LGBTQ+ individuals which puts them at particularly high risk of being victimized. Finally, the presenter will provide specific, concrete tools that can be utilized to combat the trafficking of LGBTQ+ persons. Such resources include LGBTQ+-affirmative approaches (Rose & Baltrinic, 2016), which can be utilized by any professional or student across a wide-range of disciplines including law enforcement, criminal justice, social work, and counseling. Resources for prevention and social justice will also be provided. Through this approach, participants will leave this presentation with the information and resources to address the problem of LGBTQ+ human sex trafficking.
Presentation Objectives:
· To provide the results of the 2015 & 2016 Youth Experience Survey
· Contrast non-sex trafficking needs with victims of trafficking to help guide client needs
· To discuss how to expand prevention and interventions for trafficking victims within a homeless, youth serving program
· To build engagement strategies for existing clients to share their experiences and access services
To leverage community partners for needs such as legal, medical and housing.
Presentation Objectives:
· To learn what human trafficking looks like in rural communities
Read MoreHomeless youth and young adults present increased risk factors and exploitation for sex traffickers. Tumbleweed Center for Youth Development in Phoenix, Arizona provides services for homeless youth ages 12-25 and wanted to explore increasing programs and interventions for youth who experienced sex trafficking. Our agency partnered with five other agencies and were awarded the demonstration grant for Domestic Victims of Human Trafficking through the Department of Health and Human Services. Along with the grant, Arizona State University’s Office of Sex Trafficking, Tumbleweed and two homeless youth service programs in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona partnered on the Youth Experience Survey. The survey explores the trafficking experiences of homeless youth and young adults (18-25). This presentation will share insight from the findings of the survey, along with program development to assist in meeting the unique needs of homeless trafficking victims, including groups, counseling, healing, housing and supportive coordination amongst direct service providers in two counties.
Presentation Objectives:
· To provide the results of the 2015 & 2016 Youth Experience Survey
· Contrast non-sex trafficking needs with victims of trafficking to help guide client needs
· To discuss how to expand prevention and interventions for trafficking victims within a homeless, youth serving program
· To build engagement strategies for existing clients to share their experiences and access services
To leverage community partners for needs such as legal, medical and housing.
Presentation Objectives:
· To learn what human trafficking looks like in rural communities
Read MoreCome to this session to learn how to navigate the disability program. Many survivors of trafficking may qualify for disability to for mental/emotional conditions or physical conditions. What is the basic definition of disability? This will be a great opportunity to learn how to help your clients with the process, and have a better understanding of what to expect. Who qualifies? What is the difference between SSI and Social Security? Can my client’s case be expedited? Is everyone denied the first time? What do people need to file for benefits? How do you file an appeal, and do you need an attorney? These are just some of the questions Social Security will answer. This session should help streamline the process so you can better help a friend, a client, a loved one, or even yourself. Social Security will also demonstrate how to access your own account online through Social Security’s website, and what a client will be eligible for.
Read MoreThe objective of this presentation is to relay the impact of the heroin epidemic on the children caught in the aftermath of addiction and how they are used as sexual currency traded for a fix. The presenter will share 40 years of experience in working in the turbulent, violent, shame-filled underworld of abused and trafficked children. Ten thousand children have passed through the doors of One Way Farm Children's Home. The presenter will share founding the facility with only $59, growing to have 32 employees, an annual budget of $1.6M and serve the most innocent casualties of severely dysfunctional families. While it's noble to research, analyze data, and theorize about this national crisis, at its core, it's a human issue. Statistics don't mean much to the child whose only experience with adults is perversion. The essence of what we do is stabilization then normalization. Living with these victims, comforting them and sharing the presenter’s deeply abusive childhood gives them hope of a life beyond the hand they have been dealt. The presenter’s evidence based research is born from real life, and has shaped the experience based methods of what works in a real life scenario to turn children's lives around. To date, 10,000 children have been rescued and sent on a course they would never have otherwise known.Presentation Objectives:
· To provide the results of the 2015 & 2016 Youth Experience Survey
· Contrast non-sex trafficking needs with victims of trafficking to help guide client needs
· To discuss how to expand prevention and interventions for trafficking victims within a homeless, youth serving program
· To build engagement strategies for existing clients to share their experiences and access services
To leverage community partners for needs such as legal, medical and housing.
Presentation Objectives:
· To learn what human trafficking looks like in rural communities
Read MoreHuman trafficking affects every zip code in the United States, and happens in communities of every size in Ohio. This session will explore some commonalities and differences between what human trafficking looks like in rural communities and urban areas. Participants will also learn about the difference between human trafficking identification and response efforts in rural and urban areas. By examining existing recognition of and response to sex and labor trafficking broadly, the session will delve more deeply into how to create an effective human trafficking response in rural communities. The participants will practice identifying trafficking through a scenario exercise and will brainstorm tools and coordinated steps they can take to improve their own response, whether they serve a rural or an urban area. Finally, using a multi-disciplinary lens, the presenters will guide participants in developing a safety-focused response to human trafficking in their own communities.
Presentation Objectives:
· To learn what human trafficking looks like in rural communities
Read MoreAlthough sex trafficking has been a social issue long before the conception of the Internet, the arrival of a world-wide network has increased sex traffickers’ reach and anonymity, potential victims’ vulnerability, and buyers’ selection. Via the Internet, sex traffickers can advertise trafficking victims anywhere in the world. When the trafficker decides to relocate the victim, they can easily change the name and number associated with the victim online. Traffickers can link the victim’s contact information to a “burner” cell phone that authorities are often unable to connect with a real identity. However, data mining initiatives allow law enforcement agencies and researchers to gather and analyze data from webpages that potentially contain sex trafficking information. For example, DARPA created the Memex program in order to index the data from webpages on the Deep Web. The Memex program shares similarities with popular search engines, which index the webpages that most users access every day. Gathering and analyzing data in new ways will allow for a greater understanding of how sex trafficking is being performed in the digital world, by providing insight into the modus operandi of sex traffickers, and providing valuable information about the victims themselves.
Presentation Objectives:
· To describe how the advent of the digital age has influenced sex trafficking, as well as sex trafficking prevalence data;
· To articulate the difficulty of tracking and collecting information about sex traffickers online;
To explain several possible solutions being implemented to aid researchers and law enforcement agencies. Presentation Objectives:
· To provide the results of the 2015 & 2016 Youth Experience Survey
· Contrast non-sex trafficking needs with victims of trafficking to help guide client needs
· To discuss how to expand prevention and interventions for trafficking victims within a homeless, youth serving program
· To build engagement strategies for existing clients to share their experiences and access services
To leverage community partners for needs such as legal, medical and housing.
Presentation Objectives:
· To learn what human trafficking looks like in rural communities
Read MoreIn partnership with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD), the Arizona State University Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research (ASU STIR) developed a research plan to explore and analyze sex trafficking case files from 2010 to 2015. These files included police reports, records of interviews of alleged sex traffickers, interviews of alleged sex trafficking victims, and case-related information including evidence collected and case update notes by LVMPD staff. The purpose of the study was to explore the law enforcement work on sex trafficking in Las Vegas and to identify trends and patterns. The findings presented will be a one-year snapshot of sex trafficking cases developed by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s Vice & Sex Trafficking Investigations Section in 2014. One hundred and fifty-nine cases were analyzed for 2014, representing a total of 190 victims. Of the 190 victims, 67 (35.3%) were adult victims, and 123 (64.7%) were minors (under the age of 18). In the sex trafficking cases, 118 sex traffickers were identified. The sex traffickers were mostly males (n =103, 87.3%) with only 15 (12.7%) females. Patterns of recruitment and exploitation of both minor and adult victims will be discussed, as well as any differences in trafficking experiences of minors versus adults. Trafficker typology will also be discussed, as well as patterns in trafficker criminal histories and tactics.
Read MoreThis presentation will lay a foundational knowledge base defining the transgender umbrella, gender identity and gender expression. It will examine the myths and facts of being transgender and identify the increased risks that a transgender individual and community faces in our society. We will explore some state/federal laws and policies and identify strategies for advocacy and work as an ally.
Presentation Objectives:
· To define gender identity and gender expression
· To identify at least three increased risks to the transgender community
· To increase participant advocacy and ally skills
Read MoreIn 2012, three sex worker activists came together to create a research project specifically designed to capture information from industry insiders, including sex workers, clients, and other individuals employed in the sex trades regarding their experiences with trafficking and coercive practices. Tired of biased, misinformed research on sex work conducted by academics and anti-trafficking organizations that seeks to further criminalize and marginalize sex work, they sought to conduct their own research, using their strength and knowledge as industry insiders to gather their own data regarding the impact of trafficking in the sex trade in the United States. Launched in 2013 in conjunction with DePaul University’s Social Science Research Center, the Erotic Labor Market Survey (ELMS), has gathered around 1000 responses regarding each respondent’s experience with trafficking or coercive practices within the context of being a worker, client, or employee/manager. This first ever research project of its kind was created by sex workers in order to provide other sex workers, activists, and academics a more accurate portrayal of trafficking in the sex trade. The presenters will share some of the preliminary findings of the research as well as the process they went through in developing this community-based participatory research project and working with an academic institution to develop a sound research process and methodology for the survey.
Read MoreLearn the results of a 4-year study that interviewed over 250 survivors of domestic sex trafficking. The study consisted of personal accounts combined with an extensive questionnaire on the physical and mental health needs of victims while being trafficked and then as survivors. Why was this missed in our healthcare system? Hear recommendations for how to identify and respond.
Read MoreThis presentation analyzes the experiences of a disabled sex worker and argues for an understanding of the experiences of sex work as a form of self-care. Sex work can function as a form of self-care by affirming one’s sense of self; by providing for basic necessities; by assisting one to realize their personal goals; by allowing one to work out trauma and providing access to community. Finally, sex work is a political act of resistance to capitalist modes of labor that can be exclusive. Additionally, this presentation examines the rarely theorized intersection of sex work and disability from the position of a disabled sex worker; an attempt to create space for an absent subject. This presentation will add to the growing body of scholarly first-person sex work narratives (Love 2013; Redwood 2013; JJ 2013; Johnson 1999; Frank 2002) and add more sex worker voices to the conversation about sex work.
Read MoreThe training will educate you on how human trafficking has impacted the Developmental Disabilities population. The speakers will share history and powerful stories of individuals who have experienced human trafficking. Attendees will have a better understanding of how to recognize signs and symptoms human trafficking and how prevalent it is with the DD population. There will be a discussion about how human trafficking is not only affecting the United States but other countries. The speakers will also cover Labor Trafficking and Organ Harvesting because the DD population is not exempt of this type of trafficking.
Read MoreThis presentation will focus on the hours spent researching the presence of indicators of human trafficking in massage parlors in Jackson County, Michigan. The presentation will begin with a review of the relevant literature on Asian massage parlors, proceed with the research questions set out to answer, continue with the methodological approach employed, and then conclude with the data collected. The purpose of this presentation is to expand awareness of how Asian massage parlors function, their connection with organized crime, and explore whether or not their employees may be victims of human trafficking. Finally, the possibilities for future research and scholarship on the study of Asian massage parlors as venues for human trafficking in Southern Michigan, as well as potential obstacles to continuing this type of research will be discussed.
Read MoreThis presentation redefines what the trauma-informed care model looks like when accompanying survivors of human trafficking. The content builds on the Trafficking Conference 2015 session, “Lessons Learned in Providing Trauma-Informed Services to Human Trafficking Survivors” and is based on an article on this topic by the presenters. The presenters recently conducted a conference on accompaniment of trauma survivors in Central America, where one of their principle learnings was the power of accompaniment as a tool when working with trafficking survivors. The presentation comes from the multidisciplinary perspective of the presenters, and will develop and apply five core Trauma-Informed Practices (TIP’s) that service providers, academics, and policy makers can utilize in improving response to all forms of human trafficking. The heart of the TIP’s is to view service provision as accompaniment of survivors by creating safety and reciprocity with, for, and among survivors and service providers. The purpose of this workshop is to engage practitioners in developing an anti-trafficking response that give survivors something to move towards, not just something to escape from.
In this intermediate- to advanced-level workshop, participants will accomplish the following objectives:
· Learn a new framework for creating a survivor-driven trauma-informed care model;
· Discover and discuss specific Trauma-informed Practices for accompanying human trafficking survivors while providing assistance after exiting the trafficking situation;
Engage law enforcement, policy makers, service providers, academics, and survivors in improving the anti-trafficking response by learning techniques to create safety and reciprocity with and among survivors and responders.
Read MoreFor those working in the helping professions, compassion fatigue is as common as “turbulence” during a windy flight. In order to address this turbulence, one must develop self-care strategies and warning systems to let them know they are moving into the caution zone and the oxygen masks will soon deploy. Prevention and self-care can best happen when professionals are able to distinguish between and identify personal and professional vulnerability. This interactive workshop will help professionals renew their passion and commitment to the field and their work.
Read MoreOhio Crime Victim Justice Center is a statewide 501(c)(3) non-profit that provides free legal assistance to crime victims during the criminal justice process. OCVJC also provides victims’ rights trainings to various professionals who work with crime victims to help them understand and enforce the rights of Ohio’s state and federal crime victims during the criminal justice process. This training will teach participants about crime victims’ rights at all stages of the criminal justice process, including the hospital, investigation, prosecution, and post-conviction.
This presentation will also focus on educating participants on OCVJC’s Crime Victims’ Rights Toolkit, a first-of-its-kind online resource dedicated to helping crime victims and those who advocate for them to understand all rights and other useful information available to Ohio’s state and federal crime victims. This tool can be used to manage advocate cases and create an online forum for interaction between advocates and their clients.
Presentation Objectives:
· Recognize when victims’ rights issues are implicated in their cases;
· Identify which victims’ rights are implicated and how to address these rights; and
Describe how to utilize the toolkit to victims and coworkers.
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