Posts tagged 22:10:15
Saving Our Boys to Save Our Girls

Many of the discussions, prevention and intervention programming, and front-line assessments are designed to target either the victim (survivor) of sex trafficking or the buyer by addressing demand through legal interventions or educational programming. While anyone, regardless of gender, can be a trafficker, this workshop is specifically focused on male perpetrators. This workshop provides a holistic view of the circumstances or vulnerabilities that may lead a young man to engage in criminal behaviors inclusive of trafficking, including but not limited to, the mass marketing of hyper-masculinity, socioeconomic inequalities, and institutionalized oppression. By discussing the trafficker as someone needing prevention services we position ourselves on the national level to make systemic changes for young men to enhance their well-being and to potentially save our girls.

Presentation Objectives:

·       Address the circumstances that may lead young men to engage in human trafficking

·       Allow participants to critically reflect further on how they assess trafficking cases and provide a new means of services to explore

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Safe Harbor Expansion: Minnesota’s Leap Into a More Comprehensive Approach to Child Victim/Survivors of Human Trafficking

The State of Minnesota joins with other communities in asking: “How can systems be changed to better protect child trafficking victims, prosecute traffickers, and prevent trafficking?” The session will begin by explaining the history of Minnesota’s safe harbor model in the context of other state and federal responses to the trafficking of children. Then, the discussion will utilize interactive methods to discuss complex issues: interagency systems change, access to services, policy and service changes necessary to integrate labor trafficking into existing safe harbor models, development of survivor advisory boards, creation of multi-disciplinary teams and agency protocols, and the specific role of the child welfare system in the safe harbor response under the Minnesota No Wrong Door model. Participants with diverse backgrounds, including multi-disciplinary systems professionals, survivors of sex and labor trafficking, and researchers, will also benefit from the open-ended style of this workshop.
Presentation Objectives:

·       Explain the Minnesota safe harbor response model, including ongoing efforts funded by a federal OVC grant to expand safe harbor to all trafficking victims under age 24

·       Discuss the role of the child welfare system under recent federal laws and state amendments requiring identification and response to trafficking

·       Discuss Minnesota’s public health approach and the regional navigators model for improving access to services for victims of both sex and labor trafficking

·       Engage participants in a multi-disciplinary discussion on systems change designed to better protect victims, prosecute perpetrators, and prevent all forms of human trafficking

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DID...Living/Surviving/Thriving with Non-Integrated Personalities: A Survivor’s Perspective

Ann Marie Babb is a Satanic Ritual Abuse and Human Trafficking survivor who was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) in her early 30's, and has spent the last 25 years navigating the mental health maze looking for help. She will talk about her experience and the fact that integration was not an option for her. She challenges the mental health community to think outside the box and that integration is not the only answer or cure for DID. She will use her past experience as an educational experience about DID and be transparent about coping and surviving with DID.

Presentation Objectives:

·       Share her personal experience with trauma and recovery

·       Explain her challenges in living with DID

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Clinical-Based, Survivor-Informed Treatment and Services: The Street’s Hope Model

This workshop presents a comprehensive overview of the needs and characteristics of adult women seeking treatment and services over the course of a decade at Street’s Hope, a residential facility for women leaving the sex industry and escaping sex trafficking. Street’s Hope provides transitional housing and is part of a larger grassroots movement nationwide to provide necessary services to women in need. Street’s Hope is one of approximately two dozen facilities nationwide that provide these specific services, and is known as a leader in the Rocky Mountain region. This workshop addresses how Street’s Hope’s unique clinical-based, survivor-informed treatment and services model has been developed and implemented over the last several years, and how this can be a model for other organizations as more specialized facilities develop nationwide.
Presentation Objectives:

  • Present participants with an evidence-based and survivor-informed perspective on the scope of human trafficking and the women Street’s Hope serves
  • Describe the needs women face when leaving the sex industry or escaping sex trafficking, and how Street’s Hope comprehensively addresses these needs
  • Describe what additional services need to be in place in order to assist survivors with long-term success
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Six-Year Analysis of Sex Traffickers of Minors: Exploring Characteristics and Sex Trafficking Patterns

Over the last several years, law enforcement has seen a massive increase in the number of sex trafficking cases involving minors in the US. There has been limited research on a national picture of sex trafficking of minors. The ASU Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research examined sex trafficking cases of minors throughout the United States from 2010 to 2015. The research identified 1,416 persons arrested for sex trafficking of a minor in 46 states. Details about the cases will be explored and characteristics and sex trafficking patterns of traffickers will be presented through an interactive dashboard that explored maps and graphs of the study findings.

Presentation Objectives:

  • Present the study findings
  • Identify the characteristics and patterns of minor sex traffickers
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Identifying Human Trafficking Victims on a Psychiatry Inpatient Service

Six cases were identified from the general population of an inpatient psychiatric hospital unit, including one male and five females. Two had been labor trafficked and four were suspected or confirmed to have been sex trafficked. The cases demonstrated a tremendous diversity of demographic and psychiatric risk factors. Risk factors included substance use, homelessness, psychosis, and immigration status. These cases indicate the importance of routinely screening for trafficking victims in medical settings, specifically inpatient multidisciplinary medical settings, such as inpatient psychiatry services. Identification of cases is a requisite step in providing informed and evidence-based treatments and enabling the secondary prevention of re-exploitation. Inpatient mental health teams are encouraged to be attentive to the complex relationship between psychiatric symptoms and human trafficking. Additional research is warranted given the limited current empirical research on this topic area. While there currently are many readily available screening questions and tools, there are no validated screening tools for trafficking victims in the medical setting. This acts as another major obstacle to overcome in moving from clinical suspicion to a more effective, generalized screening process in medical services. Human trafficking is a serious and prevalent human rights violation that closely intersects with mental health. Limited empirical attention has been paid to the presentations and identification of trafficking victims in psychiatric settings.

Presentation Objectives:

  • Describe the sometimes-insidious nature of many presentations of trafficking victims to mental healthcare providers
  • Present psychiatric illness as an independent risk factor for becoming a victim of trafficking
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Empower and Equipping Positive Change

Gain understanding of how the empowerment approach can be used to empower and equip individuals with reaching their goal and working through past trauma.

Presentation Objectives:

·       Explain the process of change

·       Describe the art of building therapeutic rapport for positive change

·       Teach participants to understand how one’s bias can affect positive change

·       Discuss and teach participants skills to go from motivation to inspiration in order to produce lasting change

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Sex Trafficking: A Public Health Hazard at its Best!

The right to adequate health and the wellbeing of humans is undoubtedly a universally recognized right in the human rights discourse. For centuries, international human rights instruments, including landmark declarations such as the UDHR, treaties, and standards, have since embraced “health” as a human right. However, there are significant variations in how health policies and laws are being implemented by member States. These cause a variance in the type of services and care provided by different states. Furthermore, sexual and reproductive health rights are becoming recognized as part of the right to health in several countries, including South Africa as stated in section 27 of the 1996 constitution. When addressing the horrors of human trafficking, focus is often on prosecution of perpetrators, which States view as one of the pillars of tackling the trafficking problem. Although this effort is commendable, it creates a narrow perspective, which may result in a non-existent discussion on some significant human rights violations that may also arise as a result of human trafficking. Central to this is the right to health which includes the sexual and reproductive health rights of the victim or survivor, particularly where the trafficking activity is for sexual exploitation. State and international responses to the trafficking of persons must take into consideration the health of women, especially their sexual and reproductive health needs at all stages of trafficking.

Presentation Objectives:

·       Discuss what is included in human rights and how this relates to the rights of trafficking victims and survivors

·       Explain how human trafficking, particularly sex trafficking, is a public health hazard

·       Discuss the health implications of sex-trafficking for women

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