Dr. Sandie Morgan is joined by three speakers from the AVODAH Collective, an organization that is partnering with churches to create space for women survivors of sex trafficking, young people, and families to find restoration through trauma-informed aftercare. They all discuss ingredients of the “secret sauce” to sustainable housing and aftercare.

Speakers

Deb O’Hara-Rusckowski, RN, MBA, MTS

Delegate and Special Advisor to the Ambassador on Human Trafficking for the Order of Malta to the United Nations

Co-Founder of Global Strategic Operatives

Deb is a critical care nurse by training with a BSN, MBA and a Master’s in Theology with a concentration in bioethics. After working in healthcare and the private sector for 30+ years, she now concentrates in public, non-profit organizations, and philanthropy. She works in areas where she can combine her passion for healthcare, business and faith.

Keenan Fitzpatrick

Co-founder of the  AVODAH Collective

Keenan and his wife, Brianna,  live in Denver, Colorado with four children and a fifth on its way. After spending 8 years of fundraising work for catholic initiatives, including anti-human trafficking, Keenan and Brianna founded a 501c3, The AVODAH Collective, by acquiring land through impact investment to build its first location for care modeled after the Metanoia Manor of trauma informed care.

Sister Mary Anthony

Eucharistic Heart of Jesus Order in Lagos, Nigeria

Key Points

Resources

Transcript

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 265 Sustainable Housing, Aftercare, and Existing Resources with AVODAH Collective.

Production Credits [00:00:11] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

Dave [00:00:31] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie [00:00:37] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave [00:00:39] 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, today we have such a wonderful panel with us that is going to, I know, illuminate so many wonderful things that are happening with AVODAH and I’m so glad to introduce. We have three guests today, so I’m going to jump right in and actually share a bit about our guests. First of all, so glad to welcome Deb O’Hara-Rusckowski. Deb is a critical care nurse by training. After working in health care and the private sector for over 30 years, she now concentrates in public, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropy. She works in areas where she can combine her passion for health care, business, and faith. She’s the special advisor to the ambassador on human trafficking for the Order of Malta to the United Nations. I’m also glad to welcome Keenan Fitzpatrick to the show. Keenan and his wife, Brianna, live in Denver, Colorado, with four children, a fifth on the way. After spending eight years in fundraising work for anti-sex trafficking, Keenan and Brianna founded a 501(c)3, the AVODAH Collective, by acquiring land through impact investment to build its first location for care, modeled after the Metanoia Manor of trauma informed care. And I’m also so thrilled to welcome Sister Mary Anthony from the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus Order in Lagos, Nigeria. Welcome to all three of you to the show.

Deb [00:02:05] Thank you, Dave.

Sandie [00:02:06] Really good to have you here. And anybody who knows me knows collaboration is my favorite thing to talk about. So doing a panel from a collective seems like a dream. So I’m very excited. We’re going to start. I met Deb more than a decade ago doing a health care training out in New Hampshire, and Deb and I have stayed connected and collaborated as often as possible, so we share a unique concern about some of the challenges. So, Deb, what are the biggest obstacles in providing long-term housing and care?

Deb [00:02:56] Well, that’s a great question, Sandie. And what we learned after training so many health care providers–and their purpose was to train them how to identify potential victims and take appropriate action–was that once they were identified, there was what Homeland Security always said:...

Co-hosts, Dr. Sandra Morgan and Dr. Dave Stachowiak, discuss the wellbeing of all our children. The emphasize the need to provide access to education and access to social services in order to see that all the children are fine, which will lead to a strong community.

Key Points

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Transcript

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 264, How Are All the Children?

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, in our last episode, we talked to Stephan Lambert about all of the current issues with substance abuse going on with kids and teens right now. It’s a fascinating and difficult conversation, but such an important one. I hope folks will go revisit if they haven’t already heard it. And it’s a great lead-in to today’s conversation, isn’t it? How are all the children?

Sandie [00:01:11] Oh my goodness. Yeah. The timing couldn’t have been better, really. And back at Vanguard, our students are back in person and it’s a very different environment, and anxiety and stress responses are different. But I was inspired by a school superintendent from Long Beach a few months ago who mentioned there is an African greeting that says, How are the children? And I thought, that’s pretty interesting. So I dug into it and spent a few hours on the internet reading and discovered that there is a Maasai warrior greeting. And the key here, Dave, is warrior. The key word. And I think sometimes we think the frontline in human trafficking is raiding brothels. But over and over again, I come back to prevention and that starts in childhood. So these warriors greet each other and Maasai warriors are very tall and very strong, and they look intimidating. And so when they greet each other with how are all the children, the correct response if you’re protecting your village is all the children are fine. So Dave, you’re a Maasai warrior. I’m a Maasai warrior. How are all the children, Dave?

Dave [00:02:53] All the children are fine. Or, are they not are?

Sandie [00:02:58] Ah, and I was telling this story at Priceless and Judge Maria Hernandez and Judge Joanne Motoike, who have worked with our children CSEC survivors for years, both said at the same time, all the children are not fine. And that’s why I believe that we need to reframe prevention as the front line. And if you start thinking about what that looks like, we aren’t going to have the number of victims further on down the road if we do prevention. Look what happened when America decided enough with lung cancer and they got on track for prevention to stop smoking? Did we end smoking? We did not. But did we reduce smoking? I haven’t been to a restaurant where they allow smoking in a really long time, and it wasn’t in California. So you can have impact with prevention. We just have to think about what that looks like. So when I started thinking about this Maasai warrior greeting, it energized me to be just a little stronger in my approach to prevention. I want to see myself as a prevention warrior.

Dave [00:04:33] When you think about that distinction between doing what you were doing before and being a prevention warrior, what’s different about your thinking or actions that you’re now taking?

Sandie [00:04:46] Well, I think I want to begin to frame the front line in terms of the battles that are going on. So for instance, right here in Orange Cou...

Dr. Sandie Morgan is joined by Stephan Lambert, the Prevention Coordinator with OCDE. Together, they discuss the prevalence of substance use amongst youth, prevention strategies, and intervention to teach youth about the harms of substance use and the signs of withdrawals, addiction, and mental health disorders.

Resources

Transcript

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 263, Substance Use Prevention in Schools with Stephan Lambert.

Production Credits [00:00:10] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

Dave [00:00:30] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie [00:00:36] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave [00:00:39] 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, we’ve had so many conversations over the years about partnership, and of course, schools have come up in these conversations often. Today, I’m so glad for us to be able to welcome an expert that will help us to look at this issue through the lens of school. And of course, some of the current things that are happening right now that’ll help us all to be better educated and to be able to take the next steps. I’m so pleased to welcome Stephan Lambert to the show today. He is the prevention coordinator at the Orange County Department of Education. His 14 years of experience and substance abuse prevention, positive youth development, family and community engagement and developmental asset building. In his role at OCDE, he supports schools and districts with training and technical assistance around alcohol, tobacco and other drug prevention. Stephan, we’re so glad to have you on the show.

Stephan [00:01:37] Thank you. So glad to be here.

Sandie [00:01:39] Well, I’m excited to have this conversation. Every time I have the opportunity to learn from you I walk away shocked, sometimes a little overwhelmed, but definitely better equipped to deal with what our kids are facing and how I can help other parents know exactly what to do. So I thought of you recently because I’ve read yet another story in our Orange County newspaper of a fentanyl overdose death. Can you describe what’s happening with this very disturbing trend and why it’s happening?

Stephan

In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Sandie Morgan is joined by Dr. Shauntina Sorrells, Chief Program Officer at Orangewood Foundation. Dr. Sorrells discusses what a human-centered design is, the various stages, and how to implement it.

Dr. Shauntina Sorrells, MSW DSW

Dr. Shauntina Sorrells joined Orangewood Foundation in 2019. She holds a Master’s and Doctorate in Social Work. Dr. Sorrells is certified in Trauma Informed Training and has been a Trainer of Trauma Informed Practices for various Orange County establishments such as the OC Probation Department and the OC Juvenile and Family Court Judges. She loves to see youth accomplish something they set out to do. “I believe that every youth can reach their greatest potential and I believe that is what Orangewood has always done.” When Dr. Sorrells is not advocating for OC youth, she loves to craft and go camping with her family.

Key Points

Resources

Transcription

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast, this is episode number 262 Human-centered design with Shauntina Sorrells.

Production Credits [00:00:10] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

Dave [00:00:30] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie [00:00:36] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave [00:00:39] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Today, we’re so glad to introduce to you a local partner, someone who’s just a wonderful voice, an expert in helping us all to move forward on ending human trafficking. I’m so pleased to introduce to you, Dr. Shauntina Sorrells. She is the Chief Program Officer at Orangewood Foundation, a transitional age youth serving organization here in Orange County, California. Shauntina completed her doctorate in social work at USC. She holds a master’s degree in social work from Cal State University of Long Beach and obtained her bachelor’s in psychology from Vanguard University. Shauntina also serves as a professor for her alma mater, Vanguard and Walla Walla University. Courses she enjoys teaching include program development, social psychology, child and adolescent development, community psychology, treating addictions and couples, and domestic violence. Shauntina has worked with families, youth and foster care, individuals in crisis, and organizations seeking innovation and change. Her expertise is in programs that provide community based programing to change the social norms that challenge systemic issues facing underserved populations. Shauntina is certified in trauma informed care training and has been a trainer of trauma informed practices for the Orange County Probation Department, the O.C. Juvenile Court, public defender’s office, and other youth serving agencies. She’s been asked to sit as a former foster youth voice for Orange County Department of Education and Social Services. Shauntina, what a pleasure to have you on the show. Welcome.

Shauntina [00:02:17] It’s an honor to be here today with you both.

Sandie [00:02:20] Well, and Shuanitna and I just had lunch together with 250 other people last month, and she was representing Orangewood, our Diamond awardee, at Priceless because of their amazing programing that covers the spectrum of ending human trafficking from prevention to aftercare. And so I am so delighted to have you on Ending Human Trafficking today.

Shauntina [00:02:50] I cannot believe that I’m here, but I am so excited to be here talking about human-centered design with you today, Sandie.

Sandie [00:02:57] I’m really excited about this because it’s such a massive topic. And when I first heard the term human-centered design, I just went down all kinds of rabbit holes. And when I talk to you and we really reviewed how the programing is designed in your work, it seemed like a really good model to help people get a better handle on this. So it’s a massive topic. But everybody, we have an expert here to walk us through the process. So let’s start with defining human-centered design.

Shauntina [00:03:39] Sure. I think, you know, human-centered design is something that once I start talking about it, you’ll go, ah, it totally makes sense. But it can definitely be one of those phrases that can kind of send you going, wait, what am I doing and how am I doing this? So human-centered design really is, in my opinion, a thought process. It’s a way of thinking about a problem and then a solution. In the formal world of human-centered design, we kind of think o...

Dr. Sandie Morgan is joined by Sarah Byrne, founding member of the National Survivor Law Collective. Dr. Morgan and Sarah discuss the need for trauma-informed legal services for survivors of human trafficking and their complex legal needs.

Sarah Byrne

Sarah has years of experience representing survivors of sex and labor trafficking and is nationally recognized for her work in combatting human trafficking. Sarah is a frequent conference speaker and advocate for legislative change in support of trafficking victims. She is a founding member of the National Survivor Law Collective, a national network of trauma-informed lawyers providing legal aid to survivors. Representing MVA as a participating member, Sarah works with the United Nation’s Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking (“FAST”) Initiative to increase survivor access to financial services and guide banks on the Survivor Inclusion Initiative.

Key Points

Resources

Transcript

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 261, Legal Advocacy with Sarah Byrne.

Production Credits [00:00:09] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

Dave [00:00:30] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak

Sandie [00:00:35] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave [00:00:38] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. If you’ve been listening for any length of time, you know one of the things that we love to do on the show is to be able to bring in the voice of partners and experts who can help us to understand more of the complexity around trafficking and also, most importantly, help us to take the first steps to end it. I’m so glad to welcome today Sarah Byrne to the show. She is an attorney in North Carolina who has been representing trafficking survivors for years. She understands trauma and carefully provides legal services to help her clients. Sarah is now leading the National Survivor Law Collective, where she helps lawyers at law firms from all over the country provide pro-bono services to survivors. Sarah has had years of experience representing survivors of sex and labor trafficking and is nationally recognized for her work in combatting human trafficking. Sarah is a frequent conference speaker and advocate for legislative change in support of trafficking victims. She’s a founding member of the National Survivor Law Collective, a national network of trauma informed lawyers providing legal aid to survivors representing MVA as a participating member. Sarah works with the United Nations Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking Fast Initiative to increase survivor access to financial services and guide banks on the Survivor Inclusion Initiative. Sarah, so glad to welcome you to the show.

Sarah [00:02:05] Thank you for having me.

Sandie [00:02:07] I was very excited when Ambassador John Cotton Richmond reached out to me and said, I want to introduce you to someone, and I always know that’s going to be an exciting conversation. And within a few days, Sarah and I had connected, and I’m sure we’re not going to be able to cover our entire conversation in one podcast. So welcome, Sarah.

Sarah [00:02:32] Thank you.

Sandie [00:02:33] We often hear folks with lofty, aspirational goals for restorative justice. I can still remember where I was when I heard that term. And I became really committed to finding restorative justice for survivors. But along the way, the path to restorative justice seemed to be filled with lots of challenges, lots of barriers. It was windy and it’s not easy. But you said something that stopped me in my tracks when we first talked. You said, I couldn’t find it, so I built it. Tell us about that experience.

Sarah [00:03:24] Oh, well, thank you for that kind of question, Dr. Morgan. So this was around 2012, 2013, and sort of alongside with a lot of the world, I was becoming more informed about human trafficking and its prevalence in my community in particular. And my law firm has a long history of providing pro-bono legal representation to various populations, and we had, and still have, a very strong domestic violence...

Dr. Sandra Morgan and Rachel Parker discuss labor trafficking outreach strategies, touching on community allyship, training and safety protocols, and outreach with and to the local community to identify labor trafficking victims.

Rachel Parker

Rachel Parker is the Anti-Human Trafficking Services Program Manager at World Relief Triad, which she had led for 10 years. She has a master’s in international studies from East Carolina University. Rachel coordinates and supervises outreach and direct services for survivors of both labor and sex trafficking, as well as supervising the coordination of the Triad Labor Trafficking Task Force, the Guilford Minor Trafficking Response Team, and the Triad Rapid Response Team to support victim identification and effective responses across Guilford, Forsyth and Davidson counties.

Key Points

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Transcript

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast, this is episode number 260 Labor Trafficking Outreach with Rachel Parker.

Production Credits [00:00:09] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

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

Sandie [00:00:35] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave [00:00:38] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Today, Sandie, so glad that we have an expert with us to really look at labor trafficking outreach in more detail. I’m so glad to welcome to the show today Rachel Parker. She has led World Relief Triad’s anti-human trafficking program for 10 years. She has a master’s in international studies from East Carolina University. Rachel coordinates and supervises outreach and direct services for survivors of both labor and sex trafficking, as well as supervising the coordination of the Triad Labor Trafficking Task Force, the Guilford Minor Trafficking Response Team, and the Triad Rapid Response Team to support victim identification and effective responses across Guilford, Forsyth and Davidson counties. We’re so glad to welcome you to the show, Rachel.

Rachel [00:01:32] Thanks so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Sandie [00:01:35] I’m really excited to have this conversation today, Rachel. I think in recent days I’ve talked to so many victim service providers who were surprised when they learned from the survivors that they weren’t looking for someone to rescue them. They didn’t even know that anyone was looking for them. They didn’t identify as a victim, and they often were a little concerned when people approached them that they might get in trouble or lose their job, all kinds of other things. So learning to do outreach to identify victims of labor trafficking is a little different than identifying victims of sex trafficking. And that might be one of the issues we need to be addressing to improve our record of identifying labor trafficking. So tell us what you do on the Triad Task Force and Rapid Response Team.

Rachel [00:02:47] Yeah. So our Triad Rapid Response Team actually formed in 2009, and I’ve been facilitating it or supervising the facilitation since 2012. The name says it all. It’s a rapid response. So when identification occurs and emergency services are needed, we are looking to provide those rapid services across multi counties because of course, safety, security, maybe shelters are full, all of those different things to coordinate through. And so that allows us by having a multidisciplinary team that’s collaborative to respond. However, just kind of giving you guys back history a little bit. When we looked back through our data that we collected, we were really responding to primarily sex trafficking victims and from that the members, we assessed our members and our stakeholders, that were required and vital to a rapid response. And they were around law enforcement, spice narcotics units, child and sex adult crime units, and also the domestic violence and sexual assault shelters. So we really wanted to address what we were feeling was a gap in the identification of labor trafficking because we were receiving referrals from immigration attorneys and from various community sources, but not being able to really engage from our emergency service providers about labor trafficking sit...

Dr. Sandra Morgan and Dr. Corey Rood discuss what screening tools are, their prevalence in prevention and identification of human trafficking, and how diverse human trafficking screen tools are due to the complex nature of human trafficking and exploitation.

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 259, Which Screening Tool Should I Use with Dr. Corey Rood.

Production Credits [00:00:10] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

Dave [00:00:30] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie [00:00:36] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave [00:00:38] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Today Sandie, I’m so glad for us to be able to have an expert on the show who’s going to help us to learn even more about looking at this through the lens of children. So many complex situations, of course, that emerge. And I’m so grateful for the experts that take their time to teach us. I’m pleased to introduce to you Dr. Corey Rood. He is a medical director of child abuse pediatrics with the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California, Irvine, the Cast Medical Clinic, and the Child Abuse and Prevention Team at Miller Children’s and Women’s Hospital in Long Beach, California. He is an assistant professor of pediatrics with the UC Irvine School of Medicine. As a child abuse pediatrician, his work focuses on the diagnosis, care and management of potentially abused and neglected children. His clinical and research interests and expertise include commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC), including human trafficking, both international and domestic. His research endeavors include recent studies on sexting and online sexual solicitation, exposure among adolescents with suspected sexual abuse, and human trafficking screening of adolescent patients. Corey, such a pleasure to have you on the show. Thanks for taking the time to be here.

Corey [00:01:59] Yeah, thanks for having me, Dave and Sandie. It’s exciting to be able to talk about this topic and to be on the podcast.

Sandie [00:02:05] Maybe we’re going to have to have you another time because I do want to talk about your research on sexting and online solicitation. But today our subject is screening tools. I think this is this is an area where there are a lot of people who could be using screening tools, but they aren’t either because they’re not available or it never occurred to them that it fit their particular environment. So let’s start off with what is a screening tool?

Corey [00:02:37] Yeah, that a great question. And I agree with you that many people are interested and I often get asked about screening tools and just understanding what a screening tool is can help answer a lot of those questions. So a screening tool, even outside of the medical s...

Dr. Sandra Morgan is joined by advocate, Elizabeth Smart to discuss the importance of teaching young children how to protect themself, safe boundaries, and how to know who to trust. They conclude the conversation with the topic of bystanders and how everyday people can play a role in protecting women, men, and children.

Elizabeth Smart

David [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 258, Missing Children and the Overlap with Child Trafficking with Elizabeth Smart.

Production Credits [00:00:11] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

David [00:00:31] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie [00:00:37] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

David [00:00:39] 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, one of the things that I have been so grateful for over the years of being involved with you and the show and the Global Center for Women and Justice is just the wonderful connections and opportunities to coordinate with so many other leaders in the space. And today, absolutely, what a privilege we have to talk to someone who’s very much a leader, not only in her work, but also through her own lived experience. I’m so glad to introduce to you Elizabeth Smart. The abduction of Elizabeth was one of the most followed child abduction cases of our time. She was abducted from her home at the age of 14 on the night of June 5th, 2002. For the next nine months, her captors controlled her by threatening to kill her and her family if she tried to escape. Fortunately, her grueling imprisonment ended on March 12th, 2003, when an observant and courageous bystander took action alerting the police and ultimately leading to her safe return to her family. Elizabeth triumphantly testified before her captors and the world about the very private nightmare she had suffered during her abduction, which led to their convictions. Through this traumatic experience, she’s become an advocate for change related to child abduction, recovery programs, and national legislation. Elizabeth has helped promote the international AMBER Alert system, the Adam Walsh Child Protection & Safety Act, and other safety legislation to help prevent abductions. She is the founder of the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, an organization dedicated to bringing hope and ending the victimization and exploitation of sexual assault through prevention, recovery, and advocacy. Elizabeth, thank you so much for your work and what a pleasure to have you here on the show.

Elizabeth [00:02:25] Well, thank you so much for having me. It’s an absolute honor to be with you today.

Sandie [00:02:29] So, Elizabeth, tell us a little bit about your kids. As we were signing on, you had just transitioned from kid care to professional advocate.

Elizabeth [00:02:41] My children are the best part of my life–the most exhausting part of my l...

In this episode of the podcast, Sandie Morgan and Wendi Copeland, Chief Strategic Partnership Activation Officer, discuss how the mission of Goodwill is not just as a second-hand store, but to provide opportunities to people and help them thrive. The take a deep dive into what a human-centered framework is and how it can be useful for trafficking survivor reintegration efforts.

Wendi Copeland

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 257, The Role of Social Enterprise in Prevention and Intervention, with Wendi Copeland.

Production Credits [00:00:12] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

Dave [00:00:32] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie [00:00:37] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave [00:00:40] 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, we have been at it for over a decade on the podcast. And one of the things that I treasure so much of this show is being able to have really insightful conversations with experts who not only have so much wisdom for us, but also share the heart for ending human trafficking. And today, I’m so pleased that we have an expert in Wendi Copeland, who I know is going to help us to illuminate more and help us to think about this from a standpoint of social enterprise. I’m so pleased to introduce Wendi Copeland to you. She invests in people and business systems and developing a strategy to sustainably respond to community needs so everyone has the opportunity to thrive. As Goodwill Industries International Chief Strategic Partnership Activation Officer, she leads professionals who leverage relationships and resources to advance Goodwill’s life changing mission and social enterprises while fueling systems change. Her team’s portfolio includes partner engagement, government relations, resource development, and philanthropy. Over her 30-year workforce development career, Wendi has led rapid growth of business admission lines at three nonprofits. She serves on numerous national advisory and work groups that focus on equitable credentialing, career advancement, incumbent worker upskilling and economic mobility. Wendy, so glad to welcome you to our show.

Wendi [00:02:13] Thank you, Dave. It’s good to be here.

Sandie [00:02:16] Wendi and I met on my last big trip before covid. I was out in Washington, D.C., and she invited me up to their international offices and I took a train. And it was a wonderful excursion because I don’t know your part of the world very well. And I was just telling Dave, we found so much to talk about that we literally they were closing the building down when we finished our conversation. Maybe we didn’t finish our conversation. And that’s why we’re starting a new one today.

Wendi [00:02:53] Thank you, Sandie. It is. And it’s an honor to be here today and have an opportunity to talk about what really matters and how we can connect people with opportunity, because, as we say, everyone deserves the opportunity to thrive.

Sandie [00:03:08] I love that. And on your web page, it describes your mission...

Dr. Sandra Morgan and Alan Smyth, Executive Director of Saving Innocence, discuss his newly released book, Men! Fight for Me: The Role of Authentic Masculinity. Together, they go in detail into the four pillars of authentic masculinity and the significance of men’s role in the fight against human trafficking.

Alan Smyth

With over 25 years of nonprofit management and experience, Alan Smyth joins the team to cultivate strategic partnership on behalf of Saving Innocence reporting directly to CEO and Founder Kim Biddle. Most recently, he served for 14 years as the Regional Director for Young Life in the Greater Los Angeles Region and before that he was an Area Director for Young Life in San Francisco Bay for 11 years. During his tenure, Alan was responsible to fundraise for and oversee an overall annual operating budget of 4 million dollars as he led a charge to expand work into South LA. His responsibilities included recruiting, hiring, training & supervising staff as well as volunteers. Additionally, Alan executed hundreds fundraising events, strategic planning activities and developed marketing strategies that proved successful for Young Life in Los Angeles. Alan got his Bachelor of Communication Studies from San Jose State University.

Key Points

Resources

Transcript

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 256, Men! Fight For Me, with Alan Smyth.

Production Credits [00:00:09] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

Dave [00:00:30] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie [00:00:35] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave [00:00:38] And this is where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Sandie, today, another guest with us who has just doing some incredible work on supporting all of our efforts to end human trafficking. I’m so glad to welcome Alan Smyth to our show today. He serves as the Executive Director for Saving Innocence, an anti-human trafficking community-based organization focused on the recovery and restoration of child victims of sex trafficking. Alan is the co-author with Jessica Midciff of Men! Fight for Me: The Role of Authentic Masculinity. Alan, we’re so glad to have you with us today.

Alan [00:01:23] Oh, great. It’s an honor to be here. Thanks for having me.

Sandie [00:01:26] Alan, I actually was on my phone and saw the live reel that you did with Saving Innocence when your book was released. And I was so excited, I immediately downloaded it on Kindle and reached out to you. I was also wanted to mention to our listeners that the forward is written by Ambassador John Cotton Richmond, who served as ambassador until this last year. So, welcome from me. I want to start this conversation with what attracted me to this book. The concept of authentic masculinity in the fight against human trafficking. What brought that concept into your sphere of passion?

Alan [00:02:31] Yeah, that’s a great question and that really is the spirit of the book. It really it’s a book for everyone. There’s a lot of the book. Most of the book is not talking to men specifically; it’s human trafficking survivors telling their stories. But there is very much a specific challenge from me, man to man and my male voice challenging men to step into an authentic, as opposed to a counterfeit or cheapened or diminished version of masculinity, which is sold to us every single day, thousands of times on all of our media devices in the movies, TV, song lyrics. It’s a watered down, cheap and destructive, hurtful version of masculinity. And the reason why that was so important to bring into the human trafficking world is, as you mentioned in the intro, I’m the executive director for Saving Innocence, and we focus our efforts on child victims of sex trafficking. And it didn’t take very long when I came to Saving Innocence six years ago before I realized the reality that most, and the biggest part of this problem is caused by men. Most of the buyers are men. Most of the traffickers are men. Men are the biggest part of this problem. And then the next sort of revelation, if you will, when I started going to trainings and whether it was a county workshop or whether it was a Saturday afternoon at a church awareness event they were putting on in their community, there was almost no men there. And so that was really botherin...