Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak are joined by Nicole Wood,  the Program Advisor for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives, to discuss the recently published toolkit from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Campaign. It includes five areas of trauma-informed principles that can be implemented within a house of worship as well as resources for faith leaders and their communities.

Key Points

Resources

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Transcript

Dave: [00:00:01] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 184, A Toolkit for Faith-Based Communities.

Production Credits: [00:00:08] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

Dave: [00:00:29] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie: [00:00:34] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave: [00:00:37] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Sandie, so many people we’ve had on this program over the last gosh it’s almost over seven years now that we featured that have been such wonderful partners in the work that we’re doing and the work that you’re doing. And today another wonderful partner who has been a long-term friend of yours and someone who’s been a big supporter of the work that we’re all trying to do. So, I’m glad we get to welcome Nicole today.

Sandie: [00:01:12] Yes. And Nicole comes to us with when I first met her, she was actually part of the leadership of the Faith Alliance Against Slavery and Trafficking and then she left us and is now the program advisor for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives. It’s a center of the White House Office of Faith and Opportunity. And Nicole’s service as a subject matter expert and strategist and communication outreach on meeting the needs of survivors of disasters and human trafficking domestically and internationally. And she works with senior-level officials and the broader community on the traumatic impacts, underlying causes, how to prevent the harms of human trafficking and natural and man-made disasters. So, her work on training and technical assistance and public awareness resources for the faith and community leaders is what we’re here to talk about today. So welcome to the show, Nicole.

Nicole: [00:02:18] Thank you, Dr. Morgan, and thank you for extending the invitation to join in today.

Sandie: [00:02:22] So over the last few months we’ve had email exchanges because you were getting ready to release the final edition of this toolkit for faith-based communities. And you put a lot of work and resources into developing something simple and I think I want people to understand that simply takes more time than just pulling together and copy and pasting a lot of stats. So, I just want to start by applauding your dedication to this project.

Nicole: [00:02:55] Thank you. It took a lot of collaborative work with other colleagues throughout the Department of Homeland Security and am certainly grateful even for the reviewers. We had faith leaders, community leaders, survivors, subject matter experts who equally have provided their time in the review of this document. So, this was truly a unified approach in the review and development of this document so grateful for everyone who helped make it possible.

Sandie: [00:03:21] And I think that’s one of the things I like about your leadership style. Nicole, you are very collaborative and there’s always room at the table for somebody else. I appreciate that. So, let’s start off with why was there a need to develop a specific toolkit like this?

Nicole: [00:03:39] In my years of training and providing technical assistance alongside you, Dr. Morgan, among other colleagues in the field so many faith leaders have come up to me and said you know you’re sharing a lot of complex information. I’m doing so much already as a faith leader or you know my plate runneth over if you will with issues and content being put at me. You know I really would appreciate some very succinct, practical tips and tools that could help me as a faith leader. And I’ve also heard the need that recognizing not just when you do know the signs but what it is. And I kind of have a sense of what it is but I recognize people coming to me and needing resources and they’ve had traumatic experiences. It may not have been trafficking yet but maybe I could be part of the solution of preventing harm. But if I didn’t know the signs or maybe when they’re talking to me about domestic violence situation and or mom or dad is not at home or some other traumatic experiences that they may be experiencing as an adult or child that maybe that could clue me in that I need to make a particular effort to not allow further harm to that individual. And so, for that reason and hearing about this throughout the years, I said we need to do a better job in communicating messaging and communicating something that’ll be practical, actionable, usable for our faith leaders.

Sandie: [00:05:10] Wow. Practical, actionable, usable. Those are great goals. And I kind of want to front-load our conversation with the end of this little too...