3rd Annual Regional Human Trafficking Summit
ADDRESSING RESILIENCE AND IDENTIFYING EQUITABLE SOLUTIONS
For Advocates Against Human Trafficking
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2023 • 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2023 • 8:30 AM to 11:30 AM
VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
VIRTUAL/HYBRID OPTION NOW AVAILABLE
Summit Agenda
VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2023
MC – Shamere McKenzie, Training for National Human Trafficking Hotline, Polaris
| 8:30am | Registration Opens |
| 9:00am | Welcome – David P. Chelmow, M.D., Interim Dean at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine |
| 9:05am | Krystal Ka’ai, Executive Director, White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (WHIAANHPI)
Ms. Ka’ai will examine the scope of the problem as it relates to the Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, with a focus on labor trafficking. She will identify challenges for this population to build and sustain a coordinated system of services. |
| 9:15am | Luis C.deBaca, Former Ambassador of Human Trafficking for President Barrack Obama
Ambassador (ret.) Luis C.deBaca, developer of the “victim-centered approach” to investigating and prosecuting human trafficking, will challenge participants to supplement such reactive strategies as awareness-raising, capacity-building, and open-door approaches by affirmatively seeking out perpetrators and aggressively serving survivors’ needs. |
| 10:15am | Break |
| 10:30am | Join a diverse and distinguished panel of lived experience survivor leaders whose work has helped lay the foundation in key areas of both the sex and labor anti-trafficking movement. Hear first-hand historical accounts of the challenges they experienced as survivors, as leaders, and in organizing grassroot initiatives in the movement. The panelists will also share the many successes made in the last two decades as well as highlight where barriers and gaps still exist. Rooted in history, the panelists will provide recommendations to guide current advocacy toward a clearer, more equitable future in the anti-trafficking field.
Dawn Schiller, Training Director, Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking (CAST), LA County Project, Consultant, Speaker, Lived Experience Survivor Leader Moderator: Charlee Borg, Senior Program Officer, Learning and Development Management, International Rescue Committee |
| 12:00pm | Lunch |
| 1:00pm | Between sessions and workgroups, take a moment and breathe. In this brief interlude, we will come together as a community fighting trafficking to focus on refilling our cup with some breathing exercises and chair yoga. No preparation, special clothing, or flexibility required. This session is meant to help you digest lunch and regroup before the work begins in the afternoon.
M. Elizabeth Bowman, Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work at Gallaudet University |
| 1:30pm | Breakout Sessions Attend one of the following breakout sessions and become part of an ongoing conversation to identify and work on completing one short-term goal and one long-term goal to disrupt human trafficking. These sessions will be led by experts in the field. The results of each session will be presented to the attendees on Thursday morning. Quarterly meetings will be held to track the progress of meeting the identified goals and will be built upon in the 2024 Regional Human Trafficking Summit. |
| Option 1: | Policy & Legislation Facilitator, Shea Rhodes, Co-Founder and Director of the Institute to Address Commercial Sexual Exploitation at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. |
| Option 2: | Survivor Engagement Facilitator, Dawn Schiller, Training Director, Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking (CAST), LA County Project, Consultant, Speaker, Lived Experience Survivor Leader |
| Option 3: | Resources Facilitator, Reed Bohn, BSW, Project Empower |
| Option 4: | The Intersection of Criminal Justice & Mental Health Facilitator, Carol Olson, Violence Prevention – Gender & IPV Initiatives & Counseling Programs |
| 4:30pm | Wrap-up, Heather LaRocca, Vice Chair, The RIC |
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2023
MC – Tanya Gould, Anti-Human Trafficking Director for the VA Commonwealth Attorney General’s Office
| 8:30am | Registration Opens |
| 8:30am | Tanya Gould – Welcome and Housekeeping |
| 9:00am | Dr. Ala Stanford, Region 3 Director, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Tanya Gould, MC
Addressing the tragedy of human trafficking has been at the forefront of efforts at the national and state levels. Dr. Stanford will provide background on the history of global human trafficking and the impact the opioid epidemic has had on the sale and transfer of persons for labor and sex. She also will provide information of the scope of work being done on the national and regional levels to disrupt human trafficking. |
| 9:30am | Presentations on short-term and long-term solutions |
| 11:30am | Wrap-up/Next Steps, Neil Mallon, Chair, The RIC |