Addressing Human Trafficking: Supporting Vulnerable Populations and Effectively Reintegrating Students
Throughout 2020, the U.S. Department of Education conducted a webinar series to address the growing response of America’s schools to child trafficking and to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. The series draws attention to the important efforts underway in our nation’s education community to address trafficking.
This webinar expands the series into 2021 with a focus on efforts communities have taken to (1) address the needs of particularly vulnerable populations and (2) employ strategies to reintegrate students into the educational setting after extraction from trafficking. Featured speakers describe how they provide targeted supports to students impacted by the trauma of human trafficking.
Specifically, speakers discuss details of work underway in their service areas to address vulnerable populations, including abducted children, and strategies utilized to meaningfully reintegrate students following a trafficking experience. The event is designed to provide administrators, teachers, specialized instructional support personnel, parents, caregivers, and students with trauma-informed and survivor-centered information to help schools effectively address trafficking activity.
Speakers featured in this webinar include:
- Tanya Gould, U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking (VA);
- Elizabeth Bouchard, Children’s Advocacy Center of Suffolk County; Support to End Exploitation Now [SEEN] (MA);
- Valaura Imus-Nahsonhoya, Honwungsi Consulting (AZ);
- Violeta Mora, San Diego County Office of Education and Kathleen Thomas, North County Lifeline (CA); and
- Ashli-Jade Douglas; Federal Bureau of Investigation (DC).
In addition, Ruth Ryder, Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education, briefly shares the Department’s commitment to addressing human trafficking, including upcoming activities. Dr. Shauna Knox, the Department’s lead on human trafficking, moderates the event.
