Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak are joined by Rena Shahandeh and Anh Truong to shed light on the most infrequently discussed topic in human trafficking, labor trafficking. Rena is the Deputy City Attorney assigned to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office’s Anti-Sex and Labor Trafficking Program.  She has over 20 years with the City Attorney’s Office. Anh is the Director of the Anti-Sex and Labor Trafficking Program within the L.A. City Attorney’s Office.

Rena Shahandeh

Rena Shahandeh (SHA-HAN-DAY) is the Deputy City Attorney assigned to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office’s Anti-Sex and Labor Trafficking Program.  She has over 20 years with the City Attorney’s Office.  As a trial deputy in the criminal branch, she handled domestic violence, assaults with a deadly weapon, battery, and driving under the influence cases.  She quickly worked her way up to the specialized gang unit, where she was assigned to the Northeast and Pacific Community Law Enforcement and Recovery (CLEAR) units.  There, she prosecuted the City’s most hardcore gangs, including MS, 18th Street, Avenues, Venice Shoreline Crips, among others.  Most recently, Rena was in the civil branch defending complex, high-profile LAPD civil rights cases in both state and federal court.  Notably, she defended LAPD from a civil lawsuit filed by the traffickers in the notorious Guatemalan sex trafficking case involving juvenile girls.  Rena has also defended against class actions, including one involving 5,700 plaintiffs.  She has served as lead trial counsel in over 60 jury trials. Rena was previously awarded the Wiley W. Manuel Certificate for her pro bono legal work for Bet Tzedek on a home equity fraud class action.  She was also recently appointed to the Judicial Appointments Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association for a 3-year term. Rena graduated from UCLA School of Law and earned her bachelor’s degree at UC Berkeley with honors and high distinction in philosophy.

Anh Truong

Anh Truong is the Director of the Anti-Sex and Labor Trafficking Program within the LA City Attorney’s Office.  He previously served as the Assistant Supervisor of the Citywide Nuisance Abatement Program, focusing on civil enforcement actions to rid problem properties of narcotics, gangs, and vice activity.  As trial and appellate counsel, Anh obtained a series of favorable published decisions, especially with respect to medical marijuana.  He is a recipient of the Anti-Defamation League’s 2017 Sherwood Prize for Combating Hate for his work on the San Fernando Valley Peckerwoods, a white supremacist gang.  With respect to human trafficking, Anh is currently chair of the Labor Trafficking Subcommittee of the Los Angeles Regional Human Trafficking Task Force, and he previously served on the LA Metro Taskforce on Human Trafficking.  He drafted legislation to expand civil abatement laws to address human trafficking (AB2212; Pen. Code, § 11225).  He has also filed civil abatement actions against motels that have served as bases for human trafficking, narcotics, and other illegal activities.  Prior to joining the City Attorney’s Office, Anh was with Alschuler Grossman Stein & Kahan LLP, focusing on securities, business, and entertainment litigation.  While in law school, Anh consulted for the Appointed Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission as well as the Pasadena Charter Reform Taskforce on recommended changes to their respective city charters.  Anh was a former Los Angeles Coro Fellow, and previously served as City Attorney James K. Hahn’s Special Assistant.   Anh graduated from U.C. Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law, where he received the American Jurisprudence Award in Complex Civil Litigation.  He graduated from Occidental College with honors in Public Policy.

Key Points

Resources

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Dave: [00:00:01] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 187, Why is Labor Trafficking so Hard to Find?

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: [00:00:37] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking, and Sandie we have an exciting pair of guests with us today.

Sandie: [00:00:49] Yes, we do, two Los Angeles City Attorneys.

Dave: [00:00:54] I am glad to welcome to the show Rena Shahandeh. She is the deputy city attorney assigned to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office anti-sex and labor trafficking program. She has over 20 years with the city attorney’s office. She has prosecuted the city’s most hardcore gangs including M.S., 18th Street, Avenues, Venice Shoreline Crips, among others. Most recently, Rena was in the civil branch defending complex high-profile LAPD civil rights cases in both state and federal court. Notably, she defended LAPD from a civil lawsuit filed by the traffickers in the notorious Guatemalan sex trafficking case involving juvenile girls. I’m also, pleased to welcome Anh Truong to the show. He is the director of the anti-sex and labor trafficking program within the L.A. city attorney’s office. He is the recipient of the Anti-Defamation leaks 2017 Sherwood prize combating hate for his work on the San Fernando Valley pecker Woods, a white supremacist gang. Anh is currently c...

Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak discuss the value of collaboration with Helen Sworn, founder of the Chab Dai organization in Cambodia. Helen has provided a replicable framework that emphasizes the need for partnership in order to end human trafficking.

Key Point

Resources

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Dave: [00:00:01] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 186, Building a Coalition and Building Capacity.

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: [00:00:35] 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. Sandie, we often talk about the power of partnerships on the show and today a conversation with someone who is a tremendous leader in this way.

Sandie: [00:00:58] Well, I am so, excited to introduce my dear friend and colleague, Helen Sworn. She is the founder of Chab Dai and absolutely has been a model for me to follow how she does international programming, how she builds partnerships. And so, we’re just going to dive right in, Helen, and welcome you to the show.

Helen: [00:01:23] Thank you very much. It’s great to be on is Sandie, with you.

Sandie: [00:01:26] OK. And for those of you who just heard Helen for the first time, she’s located in the UK, but she has lived in Cambodia for many years as well. So, tell us about Chab Dai and kind of the meaning and the history.

Helen: [00:01:44] Sure, so, Chab Dai in the Cambodian language means “joining hands”. And that really underpins the entire ethos and foundation and practice of everything that we do as an organization whether we’re doing prevention work, whether we’re doing our legal work, whether we’re working within the coalition, whether we’re doing research or advocacy, joining hands is how we do it.

Sandie: [00:02:17] Tell me just a little bit about how you came to be in Cambodia.

Helen: [00:02:23] So, yes very long story cut very short. I had been working for a number of years in a very kind of cutthroat business world in the UK and my husband and I kind of came to faith and really had a sense that we wanted to move outside that comfort zone and go into some type of full-time Christian work. So, we thought well we’d better go and study about this. So, we took ourselves off to seminary for three years and it was while we were there that we really got a heart initially to work with street kids and homeless youth and really Southeast Asia opened up for us. We went there for an internship and then moved there at the beginning of 1999 with a small mission agency from the UK with our two children. Our daughter at the time was four and our son was six months old. So, yes, we were those crazy ones that I think our families were somewhat shocked at and the work that we were going to do. My husband went to set up a vocational training school in I.T. and I actually went with my kind of research and strategic planning background to help the organization do its strategy for the next couple of years and in the work that it was doing. So, that was what took us out there originally.

Sandie: [00:03:48] And then I think what kept you there was what started Chab Dai right?

Helen: [00:03:57] Yeah. What kept me there was a very strong vision that God gave me on a physical journey that I took from Phnom Penh up to the Thai Cambodia border later on in the year 1999. And we had seen a lot of street kids and families going missing and we couldn’t work out what was happening. We really didn’t have the language ourselves or even of human trafficking. We’re just trying to work out what happened to these kids. So, I took a very challenging journey in a very old Russian prop plane that had chickens in the aisle that I did not know whether we were going to get there safely. To then in a very old Land Cruiser in these like horrendous roads that something of which I had never seen the light of day before. So, it got to the border area and started to see these children being traded through the border into them finding out what happened. And many of them of which we now call it human trafficking was being traded through the border. Many of them going into Thailand as beggars. I can remember strikingly one four-year-old girl who had a six-month-old baby on her hip which was the same age as my own kids at the time. And she was totally responsible for this child. She didn’t know where her family, her parents, had been. She just had lost them on the streets in Bangkok somewhere. And it was at that moment that I knew that this was going to be my life work. And that kept me in Cambodia for 19 and a half years.

Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak revisit the important influence of health care providers on human trafficking victims. They discuss new resources that have moved away from awareness, and into a more training focused aspect in order to identify and assist a trafficking victim. They discuss the significance of health care providers creating a four-step plan to assist victims through a safety plan, knowing how to refer, understanding mandatory reporting, and establishing a protocol.

Key Points

Resources

106 – Health Consequences of Human Trafficking

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Dave: [00:00:01] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 185, Educational Resources for Health Care Providers.

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: [00:00:35] 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. Sandie as we were preparing for today’s conversation on educational resources for health care providers, we were discussing some of the past episodes that we’ve aired. Actually, a bunch of episodes specifically diving in with health care providers and some of the resources available and this prompted me wondering well what is new? What’s the reason for us revisiting this topic? And It turns out there’s a whole bunch of things that are new, aren’t there?

Sandie: [00:01:16] Absolutely. I think there is a growing sense that our health care providers are seeing victims of human trafficking, both sex trafficking, and labor trafficking, and they need more tools to help them identify to assess and to take some sort of action. And I think one of the early episodes that we did on this was with Laura Letter. Her research has become seminal in pushing this agenda forward. One of the initiatives that are out there, and I’m going to pull it up really quick, is the infographic that S.O.A.R. did. S.O.A.R. is stop, observe, ask, and respond to human trafficking. And so, when people are approached in a health care environment, administrators, directors, nurses, doctors the first thing they want to understand is why do we need to do this. And the infographic that S.O.A.R. put together actually identifies two basic premises. One is that the number of endangered runaway youth that are likely to be sex trafficking victims is one in six of those runaways. And that’s a powerful number when you realize that one person that is able to stop for a moment observe what’s going on. What are the verbal and nonverbal indicators? Ask a question. I don’t know how many times a survivor has said to me if someone would have asked, but nobody asked. And then finally the end of that acronym stop, observe, ask, and respond and the response is possibly going to be different depending on the circumstances. So that one in six graphics is super important, but the other. And we interviewed Laura Letter in podcast Number 106 about her research and they use this statistic here 87.8%. The amount of human trafficking victims that have come in contact with health care professionals that didn’t realize who they were seeing. So, this is justification for really ramping up our focus on equipping health care providers.

Dave: [00:03:42] This is one of those areas Sandie that I know as we’ve talked through it over a number of years on the show I think I appreciate this more than I did. But at first, I came to this conversation I think where some of our listeners will come to, especially if you’re picking up the episode or one of the first episodes are listening to of thinking like well what’s the need to educate health care providers on human trafficking more so than any other profession? Of course, we all need education on it, but what you just said is so critical in that often the health care provider is the person that comes into contact.

Sandie: [00:04:20] Actual, physical contact.

Dave: [00:04:23] Not only with the victim but also potentially with the trafficker, potentially in the same room.

Sandie: [00:04:28] That’s why training is so important because you don’t want to take risks that might put your patient at risk. And I think for listeners that you’re not a health care provider, you know a health care provider that hasn’t jumped into this conversation yet. And Dave you may be sitting in your studio, you may be out training leaders, and doing all kinds of wonderful things where you don’t engage with trafficking victims, but you might see something when you’re driving by a sight. But you do know people who are physicians, and nurses, and radiology technicians, and so on and so forth. And I think we limit our ideas about who health care providers are. Health care providers are school nurses, and they are walk-in clinic workers, and sometimes they’re the receptionist in that walk-in clinic, and they’re the person who sees them for the very first time. Primary care physicians often think that this is not happening in their offices and yet we have story after story where a victim...

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...

Kelsey Galaway, the founder of Willow International, shares her strategic plan that is implemented in Uganda with Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak. She emphasizes restoration, partnership, and prevention as interrelated strategies that are necessary to work together in order to create a holistic program to combat human trafficking.

Resources

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Transcript

Dave: [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 183, Restoration Partnership and Prevention in Uganda.

Production Credits: [00:00:10] Produced by Innovative 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: [00:00:37] 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, I am so, impressed with how much work you have done over the years and how much work the Global Center for Women and Justice has done over the years to build so, many partnerships around the world. And today’s conversation is yet another example of wonderful partnerships that are working together with us to really address this issue.

Sandie: [00:01:07] Well I’m very excited to introduce to our show Kelsey Galaway, founder and executive director of Willow International. Kelsey, welcome.

Kelsey: [00:01:19] Thank you.

Sandie: [00:01:20] so, let’s just dig right in. When I think of the word Willow, I think of one of those really big overarching trees that where the leaves reach all the way to the ground. And I imagine that there is probably some sense of connection with that image in the selection of the name of this organization. So, will you tell us about Willow International, what it is? What does it do?

Kelsey: [00:01:51] I’d love to! And our name comes from one of the Psalms and it talks about when the Israelites were going into captivity or slavery that they hung their harp on the willow tree. And I read a commentary about that and it said that part of the Israelite’s identity is that they were worshippers and when they went into slavery they didn’t want their captures to take advantage, to exploit their identities. So, they put their instruments on the willow tree for safekeeping so, that when they were released from slavery they could walk into that identity, pick up their instruments, and worship again. And so, that’s part of the core of who we are at Willow, is that we are a safe haven and a protector so, that when people are released from horrible situations of exploitation, they can walk into their God-given identity again.

Sandie: [00:02:45] Well how did you end up in Uganda? I mean you’re a California girl, right?

Kelsey: [00:02:51] I am yeah. I grew up in Orange County and my whole life I wanted to travel to Africa. Just one of the places since I was a kid that I wanted to go to. And I went on a mission trip when I was 17 with Rockharbor Church in Orange County. And it was quite the contrast from what I knew growing up and I loved every bit of it. But it also completely challenged my worldview.

Sandie: [00:03:19] Challenged your worldview. I need to know more about what that means.

Kelsey: [00:03:24] Oh that’s a whole other podcast in itself.

Sandie: [00:03:26] Let’s just take a three-minute detour because I think we do have like these really established worldviews where we think we know what we’re talking about.

Kelsey: [00:03:38] When I went, my first trip was to Namibia, and I saw a developing nation. And what I found was so, much different than what I expected. There was so, much joy, so, much resiliency, so, much community, and social support. It was so, different from the old commercials we used to see of the starving child with wives all over them and sad eyes. There was so, much joy and at the same time, there was also a lot of exploitation, a lot of poverty, and a lot of diseases that broke my heart. And when I came back to Orange County as a 17-year old I didn’t know how to put all of that together. Like OK, I wanted to be a first-grade teacher. Yeah, that doesn’t, I don’t feel like that’s what I want to do anymore after I’ve seen all of this. I just wanted to learn more. I wanted to dive into what nonprofit work looks like on the ground and how I could make a difference. And so, I started exploring that.

Sandie: [00:04:43] Well and you’ve developed an amazing strategic plan for Willow. How did you prepare to develop your strategic plan first? And then secondly let’s talk about your strategic plan.

Kelsey: [00:04:58] First of all, I spent three years on the ground in Uganda as country director for a nonprofit that did aftercare for victims of human trafficking. So, that was step one, was living it out, learning it, and being there on the ground. So, a lot of exposure to the issue. When I had an opportunity to start Willow, I knew that I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel. That there are incredible organizations and incredible leaders out there who have been doing this for 15, 20 years. And so, step one in that was talking to anybody who would talk to me. So, I spent hours and hours on skype phone call at crazy hours talking to people in Cambodia, and Thailand, and China, and Kenya and anybody who would share their experience with me and taking it from there. So, learning what they had done and then talking to our team in Uganda and saying hey how would this work in our context talking to our Ugandan national staff. And saying these are the programs that are out there, this is what other people are doing, how do we want to do this at Willow? What do we want to take in? What do we want to leave out? And so, we worked on that strategic plan together.

Sandie: [00:06:13] Okay so, you mentioned Cambodia, and you and I have mutual friends there. And I’ve learned a lot from Helen Sworn who has been very instrumental in developing coalition models and the Freedom Collaborative, we’ll put links to that. So, I can kind of imagine how you collected all of this experiential wisdom. And I applaud you for that because so, many times we sort of start out with our plan before we collect all of the wisdom from people who have already had an engagement in these issues.

Kelsey: [00:06:50] Thank you. Yes. Helen was very instrumental in developing our program. I traveled out to one of their coalition member meetings in Phnom Penh and got to see their work on the ground, learned about their research projects, learned about their prevention programs, ...

Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak reflect on all that the Global Center for Women and Justice are involved with because of Ending Human Trafficking listeners! Partnerships with agencies, organizations, industries, leaders, and listeners far and near really do broaden the message for ending human trafficking and support the vision of the GCWJ! By supporting the podcast, you are directly supporting these programs and the growth and impact of the GCWJ, thank you.

Key Points

Through the support and resources from partnerships, GCWJ has been able to implement:

Resources

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Transcript

Dave: [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 182, Where Your Support Goes.

Production Credits: [00:00:09] Produced by Innovative 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: [00:00:37] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. And you are making a difference in ending human trafficking by listening to this show, by continuing to study the issue So, that you can be a voice and make a difference in this issue. And you by virtue of the fact that you’re listening to us right now, you are a supporter of the work that Sandie does, the larger strategy of the Global Center for Women and Justice, and of course, most importantly ending human trafficking. So, thank you on behalf of both of us, thank you for listening, supporting us whether this is the very first time you’ve listened to this episode or you’ve been listening with us all along since we began back in 2011. And we wanted to do something a little bit different with this episode. We have just completed the annual Priceless Event, Sandie. And it’s an important time for the center as far as strategic vision forward and what’s next. And we wanted both to spend some time today to thank you as a supporter of us for where we have gone thus far. And perhaps as important if not more importantly where we are going next, right Sandie?

Sandie: [00:01:59] That’s right. And Priceless was an amazing opportunity to celebrate the work that we’re doing, to cast a vision for the future, and to really join forces with our community. And the people that attend are from all walks of life, Attorneys, judges, police officers, women business leaders, men in the business. They were all there and my husband was there. And baseball player Albert Pujols was there. His wife, DeeDee Pujols, was our keynote speaker.

Dave: [00:02:37] Past guest on this show.

Sandie: [00:02:40] That’s right. And he came to show his support for her and she did knock it out of the park, it was amazing. As she drew attention to the fact that we not only need to have restorative programs for victims, but we need to have programs that help the most vulnerable become more employable and have a future.

Dave: [00:03:05] Sandie, it’s also, such a great example of partnerships So, much of the work that they have done personally as a family but also, has translated to more visibility through the Angels organization and even through a day at the park last year.

Sandie: [00:03:19] Strike out Slavery. We were there the week before, it was great.

Dave: [00:03:23] It’s just a great example of how partnerships really do broaden the messages and the support that otherwise people may not be aware of what’s happening. And like many people who have partnered with us and with the center over the years and supporting this. There are So, many others that are not yet aware or if they are aware, they’ve maybe heard something in passing about trafficking.

Sandie: [00:03:45] Or they think it’s happening someplace else. One of the things about, and I could do this in almost any community, but I’m in Orange County. So, we had a map that our task force provided for us that showed some of the most recent cases where they were located, and they were in places like San Juan Capistrano and Laguna Hills. Those kinds of places where you think this isn’t happening here. And our task force investigators they were there on site to answer people’s questions.

Dave: [00:04:17] There’s So, much that has been done. And I thought it might be helpful for us to just spend some time highlighting some of the things that the Center has been working on and of course what’s next. And there are at least 10 areas you highlighted during the Priceless event that I think could be helpful for us to spend some time looking at in detail.

Sandie: [00:04:38] Well let’s do it. We really will. We’ll put that [00:04:42] graphic [0.6] in our show notes. But this idea that we have these building blocks and we’re actually building a structural agenda to combat human trafficking and these are the ways that we’re doing it.

Dave: [00:04:56] One of the big ones, of course, has been a longstanding important part of the center’s vision and presence in the world is the Ensure Justice conference. The annual conference, Sandie, for those who may not have heard about us talk about the conference before, what is the aim of the conference and what’s next for the conference in the coming year and years?

Sandie: [00:05:16] Ensure Justice started in 2007, and 2019 the theme will be When Home Isn’t Safe. Because we know that the vulnerabilities that are often characteristic of victims are people who are fleeing violence, kids who are running away from a home where there is sexual exploitation or sexual abuse, people who find themselves homeless. The opioid crisis has created a huge gap in services to children of addicted parents, So, Ensure Justice will be When Home Isn’t Safe, and we’re going to try to respond to how we can make homes safer and how we can bridge that gap. And our partners will be from all across the U.S., DEA will be here again, we’ve already confirmed that. And we will have CEUs for nurses and continuing education for attorney...

Joining Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak to discuss holistic care is Stephanie Taylor. Stephanie is the Program Coordinator for The Salvation Army’s Anti-Trafficking Services Program in Orange County, is part of the core leadership team for the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force, and is an Adjunct Professor at Vanguard University teaching the importance of holistic after-care services to human trafficking victim-survivors.

Key Points

Resources

23 – Victim Needs Served by the Salvation Army

138 – The Role of Victim Advocates

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Transcript

Dave: [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 181, Strengths-based and Survivor-informed Aftercare.

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. And Sandie today we have a friend with us.

Sandie: [00:00:47] That’s right. I’ll let you introduce her.

Dave: [00:00:50] I am glad to welcome to the show today Stephanie Taylor. She is the program coordinator for the Salvation Army’s Anti-trafficking services program in Orange County. She serves as part of the core leadership team for the Orange County human trafficking task force and works with the United States Department of State International Visitors Delegation providing training on best practices in Orange County addressing human trafficking to delegates from countries around the world. Through a grant awarded by the California Office of Emergency Management Services, Stephanie travels throughout the state providing training to law enforcement and victim advocates on identifying victims of human trafficking, along with best practices, and serving victims of human trafficking after they have left their trafficking situation. She also, works as an adjunct professor at Vanguard University teaching the importance of holistic aftercare services to human trafficking victims survivors. Stephanie, we’re so, glad to welcome you to the show.

Stephanie: [00:01:51] Thank you so, much. Thank you so, much for the invite.

Sandie: [00:01:53] Well you have such a broad experience base, you lived in a Phnom Penh for a while as well working with international human trafficking issues, correct?

Stephanie: [00:02:05] Yes. That’s kind of what launched me into going back to grad school and being able to get an education, so, I could serve the population.

Sandie: [00:02:12] Well when we think about providing aftercare for human trafficking the idea of holistic care comes up over and over again, comes up in your bio, comes up in your syllabi because you teach at Vanguard, I see those things. Can you kind of give us a little context for what that means? Its way out there and people have different ideas about what holistic means.

Stephanie: [00:02:35] Holistic from the way that we approach it as a framework is Maslow’s hierarchy, the framework that we’re all very familiar with. And it’s just addressing the needs of a person, both bio-psychosocial and spiritually and that looks different for every survivor. So, it’s just bringing value to the whole person, seeing them as more than their trafficking victimization, seeing them as a person that has goals and dreams that are you know mothers, daughters, partners, and grandparents even to others. And so, we see that when we bring them into our program and that’s kind of how we approach them. We know that their trauma is a piece of who they are, but it’s not all of who they are.

Sandie: [00:03:15] So, when the Salvation Army here in Orange County started years ago being our partner with the law enforcement to serve victims, they really took the lead especially with international victims. Can you give us a couple examples of the diversity of survivors that Salvation Army serves?

Stephanie: [00:03:39] Well currently to date we have served survivors from up to 38 countries. We worked with survivors from about 18 or 19 different dialects of language. You can see that is a broad range of survivors we worked with. Each culture is different, each approach to life is different. And so, it’s really important that we do enroll a survivor into our program. That cultural competency is a big piece, that’s a big piece of the holistic services and that we just get to know them for who they are, what their needs are, what their dreams are. And we also, understand that in some cultures collectivism is the primary piece of their culture. So, we know that that’s a big piece of the healing process in getting them connected with a community, whether it’s a community of their own from their own culture or getting them connected to a new community depending on the level of safety. And so, that’s part of the holistic services where there are times when some programs are unable to kind of address all of the needs. We kind of see where thee needs are and we have a great collaborative team through the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force that helps us meet those needs so, that we’re not just providing basic needs or just the psychological needs, but we’re also, working toward self-actualization, like in the Maslow’s hierarchy framework. If that is our goal in working with the survivors, then we’re going to cover a lot of things in working with them. And it’s their choice on where they go in the process and what they choose to address. But you know our biggest goal is just to walk alongside them, you know help them access resources, help them access what they need in the healing process until they become ...

For part two, Dr. Jackie Parke joins Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak again to further discuss resilience in adversity. Jackie is a licensed psychologist and Assistant Professor of Psychology at Vanguard University in Southern California who focuses on resilience-building among youth, evidence-based treatment for mental health disorders, and refugee mental health. Jackie provides more insight into the 5 factors related to resilience and how we can help build resilience in others.

Key Points

Resources

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Contact us with questions, comments, or suggestions at [email protected].

Transcript

Dave: [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 180, Building Resilience Factors: Part 2.

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

Dave: [00:00:28] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie: [00:00:33] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave: [00:00:36] 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, on the last episode we began a conversation with Dr. Jackie Parke on the role of resilience when facing adversity. And today she is back to continue that conversation and to really do a deep dive on some of the building resilience factors, some of the critical ones that we should know about. And so, for those who didn’t listen yet to Episode 179, if you didn’t, by the way, you can go back and listen, what should people be remembering from our previous conversation, Sandie?

Sandie: [00:01:15] Well, Dr. Jackie Parke is amazing and her experiences, you can go back and listen to her bio, but she is also, a colleague and valued friend at Vanguard University. And her work with adolescents and with refugees, she just brings a wealth of experience and I love the definition she introduced us to on the last podcast. So, welcome back Dr. Jackie Parke, and why don’t you remind us of the definition of resilience that we’re working with.

Jackie: [00:01:48] Sure, So, we were talking about a definition of resilience that I saw in a literature by Grotburg in 1995. So, the definition is that “resilience is the human capacity to face, overcome, and be strengthened by, or even transformed by the adversities of life.”

Sandie: [00:02:13] Wow. Just like last time, I’m just So, inspired by the idea of transformation because of adversities. And you introduced us to two ends of the spectrum of risk factors and the protective factors. And one of the things that really inspired me about protective factors is that you identified those also, as preventative. And when you are working with adolescents how does that prevention mentality inform how you do that?

Jackie: [00:02:49] Yeah there’s a paradigm that some people look to when they’re working with youth and it’s called positive youth development. But it’s basically this idea that we want to as much as possible identify and highlight the protective factors that are present in a person’s life. We also, want to shore up their psychological resources by if possible increasing the number of protective factors in their life. So, we want to highlight the protective factors that are there. We want to build in more protective factors as possible, with an understanding that this may even prevent them from suffering future difficulties if we can shore up their resources for being resilient.

Sandie: [00:03:37] I love that. And So, for me sometimes it’s the idea that it’s like brushing your teeth with toothpaste that has fluoride in it. I don’t have to have a cavity and take you and get it filled. I just have to teach you how to protect your teeth. And we don’t have to wait for the risk factors to overwhelm a young person or someone who has survived some kind of trauma, but we can actually build those protective factors. So, we talked about two things the last podcast and we’re going to add three. But let’s go back and review social support, Dr. Parke.

Jackie: [00:04:18] Social support is the idea that someone has a team, they have a group of people whether his family, or friends, or professionals who are caring for them. There are people who are trustworthy, and who love them, who care for them unconditionally, and who are there for them. They have a tribe in a sense.

Sandie: [00:04:41] I like the term tribe. I had a conversation recently with someone who was running an aftercare program for adult women with substance abuse issues. And she said, “oh no we’ve got three empty beds because we had three people who broke the rules. And So, now they’re no longer there and So, we can take blah blah blah.” and it’s like well I don’t want to put them there because it feels like that unconditional part. And So, building that support. How would you respond? I had nothing to say, I just got really quiet. How can you have some social support in really difficult circumstances?

Jackie: [00:05:23] Yeah, maybe I have nothing to say too. No, I’m just kidding. It’s a difficult question but I think what my mind goes to is that the love, and support, and the care are unconditional. But unconditional love and care and support do include boundaries. It does include limit setting it does include safety but that may have to work differently from setting to...

Dr. Jackie Parke joins Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak to discuss the role of resilience in lives with high-risk factors. Jackie is a licensed psychologist and Assistant Professor of Psychology at Vanguard University in Southern California who focuses on resilience-building among youth, evidence-based treatment for mental health disorders, and refugee mental health. Together they examine risk factors and protective factors that influence a person’s vulnerability, as well as how resilience plays a role in their future.

Key Points

Risk factors include individual, family, and social or community characteristics that are associated with increased vulnerability in a person’s life.

Researchers think that the total number of risk factors a child experiences may weigh more heavily on vulnerability than the particular type of risk factors they experience.

Protective factors include the individual, family, and social or community characteristics that are associated with positive adaptation.

Resources

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Contact us with questions, comments, or suggestions at [email protected].

Transcript

Dave: [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 179, The Role of Resilience when Facing Adversity: Part 1.

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

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

Sandie: [00:00:36] 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, I don’t know how often we say the word resilience, but certainly, that word comes up for me just about every time we record an episode of thinking about not only the resilience that all of us need in this work against human trafficking. But of course, the resilience most importantly of the people who are affected by this. And I’m really thrilled to welcome our guest today. She’s a pal of ours at Vanguard University and her name is Jackie Parke. Dr. Jackie Parke is a licensed psychologist who serves children, adolescents, college-age young adults, and their families. She’s currently an assistant professor of psychology at Vanguard University of Southern California. Her clinical and research areas of focus include resilience building among youth, evidence-based treatment for mental health disorders, and refugee mental health. And I know she’s going to really be helpful to us Sandie on some more perspective on this. Jackie, we’re so glad to welcome you to the show.

Jackie: [00:01:45] I’m so excited to be here. Thank you both for having me.

Sandie: [00:01:48] Well Jackie, when I first met you, you opened a door for me when I’m working particularly with survivors and aftercare for human trafficking but also with a lot of my kids who have come out of some kind of domestic violence situation because one of the things I’ve seen is trauma-informed care is very helpful. But why are some of my kids doing really well and others not? And it was like you showed me the next step. So that’s why I was so excited to have you bring that to our listeners, so welcome to our show. And where we’re going to start off with let’s just talk about the definition of resilience. \.

Jackie: [00:02:35] So there are different definitions of resilience in the literature. So, researchers kind of debate, and I’ve seen you know over the past few decades this debate happening, but there’s one definition that I lean toward in particular because it has more of a positive emphasis. And I saw this in the literature by Grotberg in 1995, “Resilience is the human capacity to face, overcome, and be strengthened by or even transformed by the adversities of life.”.

Sandie: [00:03:12] Wow. So, the “transformed by adversities of life” that caught me by surprise.

Jackie: [00:03:19] Me too, and that’s the piece that I really appreciate about this definition is that it’s saying yes people have adverse experiences that they face, that they can overcome but perhaps there’s even a pathway there where by way of the adversities they have faced, people can actually be transformed by those experiences.

Sandie: [00:03:44] So the idea that resiliency is like a little rubber ball that when you squeeze it regains its shape is really different in the context of this definition. And I think for a lot of us in this field and not really thinking through about resiliency we’ve sort of had this okay either it’s going to regain its shape or it’s not.

Jackie: [00:04:10] I think that’s what most people would imagine when they consider resilience you know can this person get back to who they used to be. You know when I talk with clients sometimes in therapy when they’ve been through adverse experiences sometimes they’re thinking of OK I need to get back to who I used to be, my old normal, my old self. But a hopeful, futuristic post-traumatic growth view of this would say well actually you’ll find a new normal and is it even the case that you might emerge from these really difficult experiences with new strength and new capacities and a new degree of transformation that wasn’t there before.

Sandie: [00:04:53] And looking at it from my perspective, I’m thinking I don’t want her to go back to her old normal because that’s why she was so vulnerable and so I want her to have a new strength. So, tell us how that works especially from a child perspective, you’ve done a lot of work with adolescents.

Sandie: [00:05:13] Well first off, I think thinking about an example that you just gave of not wanting someone to go back to the vulnerable self that they were experiencing. I think what happens is that people have to develop a capacity to dream and to hope of a new, better future. And so, it takes them, and it takes the people around them coming together to have a creative vision for who they can be. You know, loving the person for who they are now, but creating that new hope for future and vision of who they can become. So, part of this in terms of child psychology, child psychologist talks about developmental pathways. And this is basically a term for just the trajectory of a person’s life over time. And it’s complex, is not linear, it’s not formulaic but it’s basically this mysterious combination of what are the risk factors a person has experienced and with their liv...

Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak invite Sara Catalan, deputy chief of staff, to the show. They discuss women in government and how that impacts human trafficking. As well as how women can take steps to get more engaged with politics.

Resources

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Contact us with questions, comments, or suggestions at [email protected].

Transcript

Dave: [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 178, How to Champion Advocacy in Government.

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

Dave: [00:00:28] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie: [00:00:33] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave: [00:00:36] 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, longtime listeners of this show even listeners who have just come to the show will recall and remember how much we talk about partnership, partnership at every level of organization and in government. And today’s guest I know is going to be helpful to us in really some of the perspective on how to advocate especially in government.

Sandie: [00:01:04] Absolutely. We are so happy to welcome Sara Catalan, deputy chief of staff to Representative Ed Royce to our show. Sarah, thank you for joining us.

Sara: [00:01:17] I’m excited to join you.

Sandie: [00:01:19] Well when I first met you through Congressman Royce’s office you were leading and directing and setting up all kinds of exciting opportunities for our community to engage with your office. And even though the congressman spent most of his time in Washington D.C. and I began to understand the role that you have as very influential and very significant to the issues that your office supports. And it reminded me a few years ago when our U.N. general secretary on International Women’s Day. And I’ve never told you this, Erin I’ve known you now for years, but when he’s said General Ban Ki-Moon said that countries with gender equality with women leaders perform better. I thought of you because you are such a presence in the congressman’s office, and locally in Orange County, and then by extension to Washington D.C. You’ve been a leader in policy advocacy on anti-human trafficking, so kudos to you. How many years have you been in this role?

Sara: [00:02:44] Well thank you, Sandie. That was very nice of you. I’ve worked for the congressman for 16 years.

Sandie: [00:02:49] Wow, that’s pretty outstanding. And when I think about some of the major accomplishments just in anti-human trafficking, I think you are the organizer and maintainer of the advisory committee. Can you talk about that just for a moment?

Sara: [00:03:11] Sure. I think the way that our office approaches human trafficking is a little bit different than some other local representatives and that’s because as you know Congressman Ed Royce is chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. So, in our perspective we always have that kind of international angle, so we focus a little bit more on international trafficking than we do on domestic. But the reason that we decided to kind of jump in this unique way was as I was getting more engaged with the issue of human trafficking I was getting overwhelmed because it’s such a diverse issue from labor trafficking, to sex trafficking, to minors, adults, foreign nationals, native-born, every single subset has their own issues, their own struggles. So, we really kind of grappled with this idea of like how do we get a holistic view of what the problem actually is. So, my solution was to develop a human trafficking congressional advisory committee and so I pulled this board together. And thank you, Dr. Morgan, for sitting on it, you are a critical member to have on the board with your knowledge and your expertise. And the model is just very unique in that we have members from law enforcement, we have social workers, caseworkers. We have members of the nonprofit community that come alongside the county services to provide a lot of services to our survivors of human trafficking. And then we also have the prosecutors and the federal law enforcement represented on the committee as well. And this committee meets with the congressman personally, regularly to keep him abreast of all the issues and all the challenges we’re facing with human trafficking. And as you’ve seen in some of our committee meetings, there are times when the congressman is able to solve a problem there at the meeting.

Sandie: [00:05:01] It’s amazing. We start talking about this problem, and he’s like, “Sara, can we do something about that.” And Sara says, “Well yes.” And the next thing you know someone is making a call and there we have a solution right on the table.

Sara: [00:05:17] Yeah. So, it’s a really unique model but it’s worked very well for us. And I think the other benefit is law enforcement and the non-profit community rarely speaks to one another. So, at these roundtable meetings in addition to communicating with the congressman, as you’ve seen Sandie, they communicate with each other. And there are times when I adjourn the meeting and people will sit in my office for another 30 minutes just to kind of you know catch up with one another because you just don’t have that opportunity when you’re in this full time.

Sandie: [00:05:51] Well and I have to tell you before the meeting starts in the little waiting area as we arrive, I’ve gotten in the habit of getting there as early as I can because that’s a chance to see people I don’t ordinarily see and find out what’s going on in their world. So yeah, congratulations on such a good job on that. You know the other thing that has always stood out to me is how you’ve used your position to educate in the community and to extend advocacy on behalf of women. And you know I’m a professor at a university, so I have a lot of young women and you’ve been on campus and I mean they look at me and I’m you know I have grandchildren they look at you in there like I want to be that. And so, I kind of want to start back from the beginning of how you prepared to do somethin...