Ending Human Trafficking

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192 – What is the Trafficking in Persons Report Feb 16, 2019

Show notes

Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak are joined by Chad Salitan, who serves in the State Department Trafficking in Persons office. As a Deputy Coordinator for the Reports & Political Affairs Section, he works on the production of the annual TIP Report. He sheds light on the TIP Report and its value, the Tier statuses, and the 2018 report’s focus.

Key Points

The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report is an annual report released by the State Department that covers what each foreign government in 187 countries are doing in the area of prosecuting the criminals, protecting the victims, and preventing the crime in the first place.
The TIP Report is the U.S. government’s principal diplomatic and diagnostic tool to guide relations with foreign governments on human trafficking.
The Tiers create a system where they judge whether the foreign government is making significant efforts, relative to its resources available, to make significant efforts to fight human trafficking.
The focus of the 2018 report was integrating partnership to emphasize public efforts at the community level.

Resources

TIP Report

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Transcript

Dave: [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 192, What is the Trafficking in Persons Report?

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. Sandie, so, many partnerships and organizations that are part of this effort, and today we have a guest with us that’s going to bring really substantial perspective to us on the Trafficking in Persons Report, right?

Sandie: [00:00:58] That’s right. I’m so, excited to have Chad Salitan.

Dave: [00:01:01] Chad Salitan is in the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons office as deputy coordinator for the Reports and political affairs section. He works with the management team to lead the U.S. government’s diplomatic engagement on sex trafficking and forced labor. Chad’s team researches and analyzes how to best combat trafficking and engages foreign government officials in Washington and abroad to promote the adoption of effective policies. The section is responsible for the production of the secretary of State’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report, the TIP Report as it’s known, is the U.S. government’s principal diplomatic and diagnostic tool to guide relations with foreign governments on human trafficking. Prior to this managing role, Chad served as an analyst on the same team with primary responsibility for countries in Europe and Asia. He joined the State Department in 2011 as a Presidential Management Fellow. Chad was born in Rochester, New York and earned his B.A. in International Relations from the State University of New York at Geneseo and has an M.A. in International Affairs from the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Chad, we are so, glad to welcome you to the podcast.

Chad: [00:02:16] Well, thank you very much for having me.

Sandie: [00:02:18] We’re excited to have a conversation that you and I have been trying to put together for a few months. But the annual Trafficking in Persons Report is a significant document that has emerged as a valuable evaluation tool. And also, for my students and a lot of my listeners, we look at it every year and we can see how it has improved, increased our capacity to understand international as well as national issues around this. So, tell us first why the TIP Report is even done. What is the value?

Chad: [00:02:56] Sure, thank you. And maybe I should zoom out first, just for those who don’t know, the Trafficking in Persons Report is an annual Report released by our State Department and at its core, it is a roundup of what each foreign government, each government around the world is doing on human trafficking. So, we cover 187 countries every year and each narrative in there covers each country and what each government is doing in the area of prosecuting the criminals, protecting the victims, and preventing the crime in the first place. We also, cover a kind of a profile of what trafficking looks like in each of these 187 countries. This Report has been going on since the year 2000 when the U.S. Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. That was also, the same year that the United Nations passed the Palermo protocol, as it’s commonly called, which is kind of a global compact to fight trafficking. So, that the two acts are actually quite similar in their approach and those three keys of prosecuting the traffickers, protecting the victims, and preventing the crime in the first place. The TIP Report also, is a collection of special topics where we try to delve into research into new areas, try to be on the cutting edge of various topics that are going on in the human trafficking community, new things that we’re learning, new ideas that we want to make sure to get out there. But it’s also- we try to remind the whole world each year about what trafficking is. There’s, of course, a lot of myths around it, which a few of your episodes have done a great job of trying to clear up, such as about movement and things like that. So, it’s also, a good reminder to try to increase global understanding about what human trafficking really means.

Sandie: [00:04:37] So, who uses the TIP Report?

Chad: [00:04:41] We have seen such a wide array of use. Now, I will say of course that we do make it for ourselves principally, and we do use it as our principal diplomatic tool because we use this as kind of the foundation for all the bilateral engagement we’re going to have government to government. So, if we want to say the U.S. and say the government of Moldova for example, you know where the basis for that conversation is going to be on what was in the last Trafficking in Persons Report because that Report is really pinpointing where the greatest needs are and also, where is any government really making progress that we could share with other governments in like situations. So, we do use it for ourselves quite a bit. Besides those diplomatic engagements, we also, use it in a diagnostic sense for our foreign assistance. So, the State Department and other agencies in the U.S. governments that says the USA does a lot of money every year, millions for specifically human trafficking and we want to make sure that that money is going towards the most needed areas. So, although you know the approach the trafficking is the same in terms of those three P’s, every government has specific areas where they would be most in need of assistance. And having the TIP Report, identifying where the biggest shortfalls are, we can target t...

191 – Joseph: An Ancient Human Trafficking Case Study Feb 03, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak discuss the Biblical and historical story of Joseph and how it relates to human trafficking survivors today. Sandie observes how we can integrate an understanding of this ancient case study into how we fight against human trafficking and respond to survivors in our communities.

Key Points

Sandie looks at the story of Joseph through the perspective of Genesis 16:8 when the angel of the Lord said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
Similar to Joseph, human trafficking victims typically have dreams of success when they’re young, causing them to be more likely to take risks and experience dangerous situations.
When Joseph weeps at the sight of his younger brother, he exemplifies how successful survivors are still susceptible to sorrow and grief over their past.
Understanding where people have been is not only important for rehabilitating human trafficking victims, but also in improving our relationships in our own communities.
Sandie says, “And I am always reminded that while bad things happen to good people and those things can be redeemed, that we don’t attribute the cause of those bad things to God, but God does redeem.” [00:08:55]

Resources

Genesis 16:8
Genesis 37-50

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Transcript

Dave: [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 191, Joseph: An Ancient Human Trafficking Case Study.

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. And as you expect on each episode of the Ending Human Trafficking podcast, Sandie we’re taking everyone to Broadway today, right? I think that’s what you told me.

Sandie: [00:00:53] Yeah that’s right. That’s right and you’re going to start us off with the theme song.

Dave: [00:00:57] Go go go, Joseph. You know what they say. Hang on now Joseph you’ll make it someday. Sha la la Joseph. That’s the one we’re doing, right?

Sandie: [00:01:06] That’s it. That’s it. Wow. How many of you remember coloring the coat of many colors from the story of Joseph.?

Dave: [00:01:15] Yes of course of course. I remember my brother singing that soundtrack all around the house. He was Joseph in production in our local community.

Sandie: [00:01:23] Oh my goodness. Well you know this month, every year at our church I’m asked to speak on Freedom Sunday. January is our National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. And so, I just came back from Istanbul last week and then on Sunday was able to bring awareness and understanding about some of the issues around human trafficking and use a case study from the Book of Genesis. And that’s where Joseph comes from people. He was not dreamed up in a graphic artist studio. He was a historical figure.

Dave: [00:02:10] And interesting about this story a lot of us are familiar with it either because of our Sunday School curriculum or because we’ve seen the Broadway show and the popularized version of it. But one of the really interesting things about this story is, although it is an ancient story, how many similarities there are with some of the things we see in modern-day trafficking, aren’t there?

Sandie: [00:02:34] Absolutely. And I think one of the things, especially in our faith-based communities, we look at the justice side of fighting human trafficking and we don’t look back at our own historical connection to institutionalized slavery. And when we go back to the very beginning and we’re not actually going to start in Genesis 1, but if we look in Genesis 16 we see a really famous story about a slave named Hagar, who was a slave to Sarah. Sarah was the wife of the patriarch Abraham. And Hagar runs away because she’s been mistreated. And the Genesis 16 says that the angel of the Lord comes to her and says, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?’ And when I first read that, and I am always looking for great stories that illustrate issues around slavery and how we deal with people who have experienced that kind of trauma. And people often talk about how for Hagar to be seen, to be noticed was so, important in her struggle. And the way that that particular phrase is broken down into where have you been and where are you going, is a good way to look at a case study on human trafficking. So, I’m going to use those two questions to look at the story of Joseph.

Dave: [00:04:18] Where have you been and where are you going.

Sandie: [00:04:20] Where have you been and where are you going. Absolutely. And so, many times we hear counselors, we hear therapists say to people that they want to help coach in working with victims of any kind of trauma or emotional distress, don’t ask them what’s wrong with you. Ask what’s happened, what’s happened to bring this to where it is today? So, we’re going to look at Joseph, and unlike the musical, it doesn’t happen in an hour and 30 minutes.

Dave: [00:04:56] Indeed.

Sandie: [00:04:57] In fact, Genesis 37-50 covers a span of 93 years. And it’s so, interesting in the story because we get a lot of detail about Joseph in 14 chapters. It starts off and actually says he was 17 years old when he told his brothers about his dreams. And what you know from either your Broadway experiences, musicals and TV and all of that, or from your studies in your Sunday school class that you were mentioning that Joseph had dreams where he told his brothers that someday they were going to bow down to him. Right? So, you’ve got to ask where did that come from? And one of the things that I’ve noticed about a lot of survivors that I’ve talked to they have had dreams that made them very vulnerable to being trafficked. We sometimes think that it’s the weakest that become trafficking victims. But in the last couple of years in going to Greece and working with refugees escaping violence, what I saw with the 16, 17, 18-year-old young men and young women is they had a mission- they wanted to make something of their lives, they wanted to be important in helping their families. And so, they would take risks because of those dreams. And if someone offered them a position, a job they based on those dreams of success and a future they often took risks and were very courageous that ended very badly. And so, if you really asked Joseph where you’ve been, and we look at his history we can see that there were some family problems that were more than just about the dreams though. He was the first-born son of Jacob’s second wife. And you have to go back, and you read all these stories and you find out that Jacob had worked to ear...

190 – Wellness Training: A Path to Empower Jan 20, 2019

Show notes

Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak are joined by Ramona Braganza, celebrity trainer and global fitness expert. Ramona shares her 30-year journey of wellness, and how she is using her passions and expertise to contribute to the fight against human trafficking. She shares her goal of providing real-world education and skills training in the health and wellness sector to young female survivors caught in the vicious cycle of India’s Sexual exploitation and trafficking business through a North American based non-profit organization she established, 321 Empower.

Key Points

According to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, approximately 20,000 women and children were survivors of human trafficking in India in 2017, a rise of nearly 25 percent from the previous year.
Ramona empowers victims on a personal level and manages to give them job skills for a growing 1.8 billion dollar fitness industry in India, that’s mostly dominated by male fitness trainers.
321 Empower is a perfect example of how anyone can start right where they are, with the expertise and skills they already have, to be a voice and make a difference in ending 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 190, Wellness Training: A Path to Empower.

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: [00:00:34] 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, every time we get together we are either having a conversation ourselves or we’re bringing in a conversation with a partner, someone else in the world who is doing some incredible work on helping us to end human trafficking. We’ve had so, many amazing partnerships and conversations that have emerged over the years. And this conversation is going to be similar, right?

Sandie: [00:01:04] That’s right.

Dave: [00:01:06] I am so, glad to be able to welcome to the show today Ramona Braganza. Ramona is a celebrity trainer and global fitness expert, and maybe most known for sculpting hot Hollywood bodies including that of Jessica Alba’s and Halle Berry’s, but also, for her love of fitness and her quest for excellence that has facilitated the transformation of hundreds of people’s bodies and attitudes worldwide. Recognized as one of the top personal trainers in the world among the entertainment industry. Ramona has worked as Jessica Alba’s personal trainer for over 12 years and continues to train many other celebrities. Ramona has over 30 years in the fitness industry and has contributed editorial content to a dozen magazines including Shape, Marie-Claire, Men’s Health, Allure, Fit Pregnancy, and many others. She is also, a regular contributor to The Huffington Post. And she has established 321 Empower, a North American based non-profit organization with a goal of providing real-world education and skills training in the health and wellness sector to young female survivors caught in the vicious cycle of India’s sexual exploitation and trafficking business. Ramona, we are so, glad to welcome you to the show.

Ramona: [00:02:19] Thank you very much. I’m excited to be here and thank you very much to Dr. Sandie Morgan and to you Dave for having me here.

Sandie: [00:02:26] Well, we’re excited about what you’re doing and let’s start off with what exactly is the 321 Empower nonprofit that you’ve started.

Ramona: [00:02:39] Well it’s a passion project that I’ve started working with girls in India and it takes girls that have been saved from trafficking and helps to transform their lives through fitness. So, I empower them on a personal level and then I also, manage to give them some job skills for a growing fitness industry. It’s a 1.8-billion-dollar industry currently in India, that’s mostly dominated by male fitness trainers.

Sandie: [00:03:05] So, one of the things I want our listeners to pick up right away that I love about talking with you is you start right out with the business model. You’re not just about oh we want to do something to help the girls, but you’ve done your research. And when we want to do something to help survivors we have to have more than just passion, we have to have some expertise. And you bring a lot of expertise. Tell us just a little bit about your background in wellness and fitness.

Ramona: [00:03:40] Sure. I actually started as a gymnast when I was very young, and I grew up in Canada. My parents are from India. And for me I grew up in a small town that was very, there were very few minorities, and so, I found gymnastics as a real help in my own empowerment. And through the gymnastics that led me to do some dancing, I became a cheerleader with the NFL and then I went on to do fitness strength training and a lot of the fitness competitions. So, my own personal journey with exercise, it’s completely formulated who I am. And having dealt with adversity, it really helped empower me. And as my life continued, fitness evolved into becoming a fitness trainer. I ended up having Jessica Alba as a client and went on to start my own fitness company in Canada. And during that time, I managed to make a trip back to Mumbai where my parents are from, be a part of the fitness industry there and I recognized a real need in an industry where girls aren’t necessarily treated as they’re treated here in the United States and Canada. So, that really empowered me to do something about it and my own wellness journey led me to this cause.

Sandie: [00:04:54] All right. I love how you call that a wellness journey because we’re recording this in January and lots of us start out the new year with goals for diet, nutrition, and exercise, and how many miles we’re going to walk every day. And so, this journey concept is a powerful image. But let’s look at how you chose to do this in India. You have your own personal connection, but on your website, you talk about the problem and you say that there are almost 20,000 women and children who are survivors of human trafficking in India, just in the year 2017, up 25 percent from the previous year according to the Thompson Reuters Foundation. And child survivors make up 40 percent of India’s prostitution industry. And for people who know me using the word child and prostitute in the ...

189 – Lessons Learned Serving Domestic Survivors of Sex Trafficking Jan 13, 2019

Show notes

Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak inquire about lessons learned from The Lighthouse, a transitional living program for young women who are survivors of sex trafficking, from the program supervisor, Polly Williams. Polly has over 18 years of experience in all aspects of working with youth including those experiencing homelessness, mental health challenges, and substance abuse. She developed and implemented Orangewood Foundation’s The Lighthouse in 2016 using a framework of trauma-informed care, harm reduction, and a survivor-centered approach. Polly introduces a thoughtful report and review of 11 learned lessons from this program.

Key Points

At The Lighthouse, a victim-centered approach is giving the power back over to the trafficked victims and empowering them to say what their needs are, what their concerns are, and for them to lead survivor-driven services.
#1 Labels – It is important to take an individualist approach to labels because some residents embraced being labeled as “victim” or “survivor”, while others were reminded of their past traumas.
#2 Curriculum – Having a daily, structured curriculum held residents back from societal reintegration, an individualized program was needed to empower the women.
#3 Trust – At The Lighthouse, there’s a large emphasis on trust to promote safety, security, and ultimately to reduce detrimental behaviors through a “restorative justice approach”.
#4 Cell Phones – Creating safety protocols together, both residents and staff, prevented controlling actions that triggered and re-traumatized residents.
#5 Staff – Having staff that can provide guidance and suggestions rather than being hyper-vigilant is significant in creating a therapeutic environment.
#6 Life Skill Development – They found that role modeling life skills is more effective and impactful in comparison to life skill groups.
#7 Resident Guidelines – Residents and staff collectively create guidelines in order to have realistic expectations for each other and create a sense of empowerment.
#8 Case Management – Residents responded more favorably towards case management when meetings occurred offsite at their chosen locations.
#9 Interviews – During interviews they do not require details of time in ‘the life’ and take breaks when needed in order to minimize risks of re-traumatization.
#10 Applicants Under 18 – An applicant aged 17 years, turning 18 within the next month, has the option to spend her days at The Lighthouse, to relieve the stress and anxiety of moving to a new program.
#11 Reducing Length of Time Back in ‘The Life” – When a resident chose to self-exit The Lighthouse and go back to her trafficker, staff pro-actively remained in contact. The goal was to reduce her length of time back in ‘the life’, through the provision of compassionate and unconditional support, and two months later she asked to come “home.”

Resources

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Transcript

Dave: [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 189, Lessons Learned Serving Domestic Survivors of Sex Trafficking.

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: [00:00:38] 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 have been on a journey together for the last eight years in producing the show and really aiming to do if not all three of those at least one of those every time we get together studying the issues, being a voice, and ultimately making a difference in bringing an end to this terrible thing that we all are working hard to end. And today a conversation that I know will help us all to learn some more lessons, correct?

Sandie: [00:01:12] Absolutely.

Dave: [00:01:14] Well we are thrilled to welcome to the show today Polly Williams. Polly has over 18 years of experience in all aspects of working with youth including those experiencing homelessness, mental health challenges, and substance abuse. Polly’s love of working with young people came from extensive practical experiences as an outreach worker on the streets of Melbourne, Australia where she provided crisis response, harm reduction, needle exchange, and overdose support to homeless youth. Polly also, spent six years working at Venice Beach as Director of Programs at Safe Place for Youth, in which she developed, implemented and managed their street-based outreach, case management, drop-in, and onsite therapeutic programming. Polly is currently the program supervisor of Orangewood Foundation’s The Lighthouse, a transitional living program for young women who are survivors of sex trafficking. Polly developed and implemented the program in 2016 using a framework of trauma-informed care, harm reduction, and a survivor-centered approach. Polly, Sandie and I are so, glad to welcome you to the show.

Polly: [00:02:20] Thank you for having me.

Sandie: [00:02:21] Well we’re excited and I know that your rich background contributes significantly to how you approach working with the young women in your care. And so, I thought we should kind of revisit a couple of important priorities in delivering care for survivors and that would be looking at the victim-centered approach, how that works, and how you implement it at The Lighthouse.

Polly: [00:02:54] Sure, so, victim-centered approach really is the concept by which we live and breathe when we work with our young women at our transitional living program. The way that we work with a victim-centered approach is that we provide, and we give the power back over to the young lady who’s being trafficked for them to tell us what their needs are, what their concerns are, and for them to lead us in their journey. So, their priority might be around their health, maybe around getting into education, maybe around safety. So, we work with them and they lead us. We support them in their journey.

Sandie: [00:03:34] Wow. So, this idea of empowering them and then it becomes survivor driven services, really.

Polly: [00:03:45] Absolutely.

Sandie: [00:03:46] Yeah. So, that is very counter. I mean you know I’m a pediatric nurse by my background and so, I would come, and I have a protocol and I follow that. I don’t go around to my patients and say How would you like me to serve you. And so, I have conversations with people who don’t get that. What is the rationale what drives you to be so, responsive...

188 – Building an MDT for Victims of Child Sex Trafficking Dec 30, 2018

Show notes

Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak speak with Lieutenant Joe Laramie about the difference between multidisciplinary teams for child abuse and sex trafficking, the challenges associated with MDT, and the direction we need to move forward with. Joe is the program manager with the National Criminal Justice Training Center of Fox Valley Technical College working in the Missing and Exploited Children’s and the Internet Crimes Against Children Training and Technical Assistance Programs. With more than 30 years of child protection, investigation, and training experience he sheds light on this topic with a fresh perspective.

Key Points

MDT, or multidisciplinary team, accentuates that approaches with collaborative work are more beneficial than individual work.
The main difference between an MDT for child abuse and an MDT for child sex traffickingis the expanded team members in trafficking investigations.
Challenges of MDT include scheduling time and location, professional attitudes, forensic interviewer training, the role of a victim advocate, and medical evaluations.

Resources

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Transcript

Dave: [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 188, Building an MDT for Victims of Child Sex Trafficking.

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: [00:00:38] 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, you’ve been empowering me for eight years of learning new things on this topic and we will be down that road again today because the acronym MDT is in the title of this episode. I have absolutely no idea what that is and I’m guessing some in our listening community also, do not know what that is. So, this is going to be an education for all of us today, I believe.

Sandie: [00:01:07] Good, I always love it when I can teach you something new.

Dave: [00:01:11] We have, as always, an expert with us today that is going to really help open up the doors and help us to even learn more about this complex issue. I’m pleased to welcome an expert to the show today and that is Lieutenant Joe Laramie. He is the program manager with the National Criminal Justice Training Center of Fox Valley Technical College working in the Missing and Exploited Children’s and the Internet Crimes Against Children training and technical assistance programs. He retired in 2010 from the Glendale Missouri Police Department with more than 30 years of child protection investigation and training experience. During his time with the Glendale PD, he was Police Juvenile Officer and child abuse investigator, a D.A.R.E. officer, and in 2001 created the Greater St. Louis Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. He is nationally known as a speaker on the topic of online child exploitation, child sex trafficking, and technology related protections for youth families and professionals. Lieutenant Laramie, we’re so, glad to welcome you to the show.

Joe: [00:02:15] Well thank you so, very much. I’m really excited to have this opportunity today.

Sandie: [00:02:20] We should start right at the beginning with putting Dave out of his misery here and let’s talk about what is an MDT, and why is that the best process?

Joe: [00:02:32] Well for the law enforcement officers who listen in, MDT does not stand for a mobile data terminal. That’s the computer that you normally see in police cars. It stands for multidisciplinary team. And truly, multidisciplinary teams have evolved over the last 35, maybe 40, years to address child abuse investigations and they are pretty much the standard all across the United States and in foreign countries as well. They’re building out team approaches to investigating child abuse and exploitation. And it all boils down to it doesn’t take away each individual discipline; so, that’s law enforcement, that’s Child Protective Services, it’s the prosecution, and that’s the forensic interviewer, the child at the center, the medical staff, the child advocate, and mental health. They are all part of the team and each of them has their own role, but as they work to an investigation a review of the situation and the incident of the abuse, their collaborative work is so, much better than their individual work.

Sandie: [00:03:52] That’s really powerful that collaborative work is more beneficial than all of our little individual. So, when we come together it sort of amplifies the team experience.

Joe: [00:04:07] Oh, absolutely. And it reduces trauma to the victim, it provides- well I don’t want to say one-time interview of the victim because they’re still going to be multiple interviews of the victim, but it certainly reduces the number of times that the victim has to tell their story.

Sandie: [00:04:23] Okay. So, what’s the difference between an MDT for child abuse and an MDT for child sex trafficking?

Joe: [00:04:32] Well I think the biggest difference is the members. It’s still the same type of process where people can come together, they can talk about the situation that they’re familiar with, they’re part of their investigation, the things that they need other people to help them with. But we’ve expanded out a team in the trafficking investigation to include people that you may not have even thought of before. We’re going to add foster families to the mix. And when we talk about teams, it doesn’t mean that teams all sit in the same room and talk about everything in front of everyone. So, I don’t want anybody to think that when the team comes together that this is all inclusive, everybody gets to know what everybody else is doing kind of thing. There are times when the foster family of a trafficking victim, it’s possible that the victim, the survivor, does not have a foster family, they have a regular family but many times they do have a Foster family. So, the school should be involved, the non-government organizations where they are providing services to the survivor. So, this person who has been trafficked is now receiving extra services, sometimes it’s housing, sometimes it’s mental health, sometimes it is support, sometimes it’s medical, all of those things come together, and non-government organ...

187 – Why Is Labor Trafficking So Hard To Find? Dec 19, 2018

Show notes

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

Common misconceptions of labor trafficking include the differences between smuggling and trafficking, victims having to be physically confined, and that labor trafficking is less common than sex trafficking.
Their two-pronged approach includes expanding the eyes and ears of their network and creating a systematic way to detect labor trafficking. This includes:
- Expanding awareness and strategically bringing in new partners who could make a huge difference.
- Trying to put together passive indicators that could be used for particular industries or populations to gain more information without relying on a witness coming forward.
Traditional prosecution models include criminal remedies, however, this office approaches it from the civil side in order to ensure restitution for victims.

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Transcript

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...

186 – Building a Coalition and Building Capacity Dec 02, 2018

Show notes

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

Chab Dai established a coalition as a response to the rapid but uncoordinated growth of anti-trafficking individuals and organizations trying to combat the issue. The framework for being part of the coalition includes legal government registration as a way to provide accountability and child protection policies in order to ensure no harm to victims.
Helen speaks of the significance of collaboration, “I think that I have to kind of start with the problem that we’re addressing. And I truly believe that the reason that people are able to be trafficked and exploited all over the world, and it’s so interconnected around the world, is because those criminals that are behind it are super well networked. And that they don’t need to like each other, they don’t need to be friends, but actually, they have a common vision and that enables them to focus on their networking… And so, for us, collaboration has to underpin every single thing that we do.”
Finding common ground is how we can collaborate. Our common ground is not about serving these institutions, it’s ultimately about serving those who we have set out to serve.
Building a movement is important because this issue is going to outlast our lives and maybe even organizations. But the movement is our legacy, so in building the movement we have to focus on collaboration and capacity.
- Collaboration: There is no one sector that can address this problem, so people need have a multidisciplinary view on it.
- Capacity: In order to hold each other accountable, we must have professional standards that are a guiding set of principles, rather than a set of rules, that can be adapted to fit within specific contexts.
5 Pillars in Chab Dai’s strategic plan:
- Coalition and Capacity
- Prevention and Protection
- Justice and Client Care
- Advocacy
- Research

Resources

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Transcript

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.

185 – Educational Resources for Health Care Providers Nov 18, 2018

Show notes

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

S.O.A.R. (stop, observe, ask, and respond to human trafficking) has provided new resources for health care providers, see below.
The first part of a plan to assist victims is safety. A safety plan can include having resources available to give victims.
Along with this, is knowing how to refer victims to the proper resources.
The next step for health professionals is understanding the mandatory reporting requirements and steps to take for a victim-centered approach.
Protocols are complicated and require a lot of processes, quality assurance, and a legal team. However, once that is in place, frontline health care providers will be empowered to actually identify and assist human trafficking victims.

Resources

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Transcript

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...

184 – A Toolkit for Faith-Based Communities Nov 04, 2018

Show notes

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

The Toolkit’s purpose is to do a better job of communicating messages that are practical, actionable, and usable for our faith leaders.
Faith leaders need to be equipped with resources because they are trusted messengers, force multipliers, cultural keep holders, community investors, and most importantly influence their congregations as well as the broader community.
Trauma-informed principles to implement within a house of worship:
- Safety – Create a private, safe environment and set a positive tone through interactions.
- Trustworthiness and transparency – Build trusted and transparent relationships without judgment.
- Peer support – Social networks and support are necessary for transformative impact.
- Empowerment, voice, and choice – It’s important to recognize and build upon the individual’s ability to make their own decisions.
- Cultural, historical, gender issues – Be mindful of racial, ethnic, gender, and cultural past traumas and present needs of individuals.
There is value in alerting law enforcement of a possible human trafficking situation, rather than personally intervening, in order to prevent causing more harm to the victim and allowing professionals to take the appropriate measures moving forward.

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...

183 – Restoration, Partnership, and Prevention in Uganda Oct 21, 2018

Show notes

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, ...

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