Christians Against Trafficking (CAT) Summit
2021-10-15 18:00 - 2021-10-16 13:00 (America/New_York) | FL
CHRISTIANS AGAINST TRAFFICKING (CAT) is a group of Christians from all denominations and backgrounds who joined together in their shared passion to see the end of human trafficking in our community. As believers, it is our job to earnestly commit this issue to prayer. We also believe that eradicating human trafficking will take a united effort and that everyone can contribute in some way. It’s our aim and desire to engage everyone in our community and churches through strategic partnerships to join the fight against human trafficking and stop the sale of human beings.
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CAT Summit – Download the event flyer

2021 Human Trafficking Academy
2021-10-18 - 2021-11-01
In the fight against the scourge of human trafficking in the United States, healthcare professionals remain on the frontlines. Research shows that up to 88% of victims of human trafficking accessed health care during their exploitation. Not only do healthcare professionals have a unique opportunity to identify victims of human trafficking, but they also play a trusted and integral role in a survivor’s mental and physical health during their involvement with the legal system, and in their healing and reintegration in the long term.
This year’s intensive online certification aims to equip those in the field with 15 advanced courses taught by leading experts. Through a pragmatic approach that moves beyond the theoretical to actual hands-on application of skills in practice, participants will gain a solid understanding of:

Various forms of human trafficking and identification in a health care setting.
Physical and mental health impacts including best practices for diagnosis and treatment through trauma-informed care.
Laws, regulations, and ethical considerations including healthcare professionals participation in the legal process.
Intersections in health and human trafficking such as COVID-19, opioid addiction, and trafficking of persons with disabilities.
Survivor perspectives, multidisciplinary partnerships, and integral development as a path to healing.

We hope you will join us for this year’s cutting-edge insights on human trafficking though the lens of health care!
Early bird registration fee ends September 10th. Standard registration fee ends October 8th.
REGISTER TODAY

Writing it Right: Documenting Human Trafficking
2021-10-28 14:00 - 15:00
Writing it Right: Documenting Human Trafficking
Presented by: Jane Anderson, Attorney Advisor, AEquitas and Joseph Scaramucci, Detective, McLennan County Sheriff’s Office
Thursday, October 28, 2021 from 2 PM ET to 3:30 PM ET
Register Today
One specific responsibility of law enforcement and prosecutors working on human trafficking cases is to write various reports, affidavits, and briefs that effectively document incidents of sex and labor trafficking. It is crucial for these documents to accurately reflect complex trafficking dynamics and case-specific facts to establish probable cause and effectively litigate issues at trial. When law enforcement and prosecutors collaborate with others, including those with lived experience, they are better equipped to successfully articulate how traffickers use a variety of overt and subtle tactics to exploit victims—thus establishing the element(s) of force, fraud, and/or coercion necessary for cases involving adult victims.
This presentation will focus on the core competencies needed by law enforcement and prosecutors to establish the elements of human trafficking. Additionally, facilitators will discuss the necessity of protecting victim privacy and ensuring that public records and press releases accurately describe trafficking dynamics. In combination with other messaging done by Enhanced Collaborative Model (ECM) Task Forces to Combat Human Trafficking, this documentation can held educate the public—and potential jurors—about the realities of trafficking.

Perspectives: Legal Services for Sex Trafficking Survivors
2021-11-10 12:30 - 14:00
United Partners for Human Services member Voices for Florida is hosting an important discussion on legal services that are available to the survivors of sex trafficking.
Webinar Registration

Supporting Trafficking Survivors: In Collaboration
2021-11-19 13:00 - 14:30
November 19th, 1:00 – 2:30 pm EST
This free certificate webinar one of the “Third Friday” community training events hosted by BBCAHT and STAC to inform and engage the North Florida community and beyond. We are happy to extend this invitation to friends and colleagues – please join us!
The experiences of human trafficking survivors and their life stories are unique and vary greatly – simply put, everyone is different. Similarly, how sex and labor trafficking survivors are supported within their communities depends on that person’s needs – and community resources, collaborations and many other factors. This presentation will focus indepth at some of the programming that supports adult and minor survivors of both sex and labor trafficking in Florida’s Big Bend and address how can we, as communities that wish to support survivors, best meet their needs and collaborate in an uncertain world with ever-increasing needs, fewer resources, and many other challenges?
Presenters:
Vania Aguilar, Assistant Director, FSU Center for the Advancement of Human Rights;
Justin Barfield, Development Director, CCYS (Capital City Youth Services);
J’ere Clark, Child Protective Investigator/Human Trafficking Specialist, Florida Department of Children and Families and PACE Reach Therapist, PACE Center for Girls; Charlie Jackson, Regional Advocate, Whole Child Leon/Open Doors Outreach Network;
Graciela Marquina, Community Services Advocate, STAC; and
David Oliver, Deputy Dir. Florida, International Rescue Committee.
Sponsors: STAC in affiliation with Big Bend Coalition Against Human Trafficking.
Contact for questions: STAC at stac@surviveandthriveadvocacy.org or 850-597-2080

STAC needs your support to sustain these important webinars. Will you donate today? Each gift helps to bring this vital information to the many people who are empowering survivors and preventing human trafficking. The only way we can maintain these programs and this work is with YOUR help.
Suggested donation: $20

2021 Stopping Technology-facilitated Abuse of Rural Kids (STARK) Symposium
2021-12-09 - 2021-12-10
Please email jjolley@fncac.org for registration details.
SYMPOSIUM AGENDA:
12.09.21 – DAY 1
9:00 a.m. – 9:15 a.m. Welcome and Introductions
Victor Vieth
Chief Program Officer, Research and Education
Zero Abuse Project
9:15 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. Trauma-informed Approaches to Victims of Technology-
Facilitated Abuse
Kathleen Nolan
Senior Attorney, Zero Abuse Project
10:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Break
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Of Eggplants & Umbrellas: The Legal and Investigative
Implications of Emojis
Robert Peters
Senior Attorney, Zero Abuse Project
12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. Lunch
1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. When a Child Abuser Carries a Bible
Robert Peters
3:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. Break
3:15 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. Ethical Considerations in Crimes Against Children Cases
Victor Vieth
a program of
12.10.21 – DAY 2
9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. The Matrix Reloaded: Predicting Trends in Technology-
Facilitated Child Abuse
Robert Peters
10:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. Break
10:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Pre-Trial Motions in Cases of Child Abuse
Victor Vieth and Deborah Cunningham (Circuit Court Chief, 20th Circuit)
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. Lunch
1:00 p.m .– 2:30 p.m. Leveraging Medical Experts and Evidence in Child
Exploitation Cases
Kathleen Nolan
2:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. Break
2:45 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. Mindhunters: Leveraging Offender Psychology in Undercover
Investigations
Robert Peters & Dr. Timothy Saar, Saar Psychological Group, PLLC
4:15 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Closing Remarks

Human Trafficking Training: Identifying and Responding to the Trafficking of Boys and Male-Identifying Youth
2021-12-13 13:00 - 15:30
Human Trafficking Training: Identifying and Responding to the Trafficking of Boys and Male-Identifying Youth
December 13, 2021
1:00 pm – 3:30 pm ET
Webinar Registration
Contact:
Sue Aboul-Hosn, Sue.Aboul-Hosn@myflfamilies.com
Marina Anderson, Marina.Anderson@myflfamilies.com
Facilitated by:
Nathan Earl, Principal & Lived Experience Educator at Giant Slayer

Survivor Leadership Series: A Survivor's Guide to Money & Developing Financial Wellness
2021-12-16 13:00 - 14:00
Trafficking survivors often face significant financial challenges. Please join us for a candid discussion with two remarkable leaders in the anti-trafficking movement who have done significant work on survivors’ financial well-being. Ashante Taylorcox, Founder and Executive Director of You Are More Than, Inc., and Megan Lundstrom, Co-Founder and Director of Research at The Avery Center, will lead a discussion on tools to make financial wellness more accessible to all trafficking survivors. The speakers will highlight the role of institutional racism and its impact on survivors who are Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC).
This session of the Survivor Leadership Series will feature Megan Lundstrom’s important new book, “A Survivor’s Guide to Money.” The Guide includes lessons for trafficking survivors on developing financial wellness while recovering from trauma associated with money.
Please join us to learn practical lessons from these two thoughtful leaders in the movement.
Webinar Registration
ABOUT YOUR PRESENTERS
Megan Lundstrom
Megan Lundstrom is the co-founder and director of The Avery Center for Research & Services (FKA “Free Our Girls”), an organization dedicated to ending commercial sexual exploitation through evidence-based practices and economic empowerment. With a combination of lived and professional experience, Lundstrom specializes in domestic pimp-controlled sex trafficking and developed a cultic theory framework for this form of exploitation to better understand prevention, intervention, and exiting. Lundstrom is an internationally published researcher and national public speaker on the issue of commercial sexual exploitation. Lundstrom holds a B.S. in Finance and an M.A. in Sociology from the University of Northern Colorado.
Ashante Taylorcox
Ashante Taylorcox is a Queer, Licensed Counselor in the state of New Jersey, an Echoing Green Fellow, and the Founder and Executive Director of You Are More Than, Inc. (YAMT). YAMT is a survivor-led, survivor-run non-profit organization in the state of New Jersey aimed at supporting marginalized survivors of commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking by empowering them within mental health, education and financial sectors of aftercare support.
Taylorcox has an extensive history of serving the survivor community as not only an advocate in the field but also as a survivor leader both through lived and professional experience. Over the last eight years, Taylorcox has worked to create safer environments within the survivor community by improving support services for adult survivors, particularly within mental health settings. Through community collaboration, Taylorcox has invested in the survivor community through direct service work, fundraising initiatives, curricula development, and training providers that provide direct services and clinical-specific support.

Follow the Money: Find the Traffickers Human Trafficking and Financial Exploitation – PART 2
2021-12-17 13:00 - 14:30
The Big Bend Coalition Against Human Trafficking (BBCAHT), The Survive and Thrive Advocacy Center (STAC) and Florida’s Department of Children and Families invite you to participate in BBCAHT’s Monthly 3rd Friday Community Training Program:
Date: December 17, 2021
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM Eastern / Noon – 1:30 PM Central
This free webinar one of the “Third Friday” community training events hosted by BBCAHT and STAC to inform and engage the North Florida community and beyond. We are happy to extend this invitation to friends and colleagues – please join us!
Webinar Registration
“Follow the money, find the traffickers” is a maxim in the world of human trafficking. It is vital for everyone in the community, not just financial institutions and law enforcement, to understand how human traffickers financially exploit their victims as a form of control and abuse. Traffickers launder proceeds from exploited youth and adults, force victims to open accounts, force youth with clean credit histories to apply for credit cards, entwine victims their money laundering schemes, and evade financial system safeguards. This program will cover: how human trafficking relates to financial exploitation, who is most at risk and their vulnerabilities, how traffickers recruit victims, how to report human trafficking and financial exploitation, and long-term impacts. Social services, child welfare professionals, anti-human trafficking advocates, law enforcement, and all those who are contact points for vulnerable populations and people who are trafficked need to know how this abuse and exploitation occur so they can protect them. Presenters: Marina Anderson, Regional Human Trafficking Coordinator for Northeast and Northwest Regions and Christy Gillis, Circuit 7, Community Development Administrator, FL Department of Children and Families
NOTE: this is Part 2 of a two-part training series. See Part 1 which focused on the financial sector.
Sponsors: STAC in affiliation with Big Bend Coalition Against Human Trafficking and the International Rescue Committee. Contact: STAC at stac@surviveandthriveadvocacy.org or 850-597-2080
AUDIO will be provided through your computer.
Attendance will be limited to the first 1,000 people who join this event. Please join early.
Click here to register with us for this meeting or copy and paste this link into your browser: https://tinyurl.com/yckmrrp7
If you have technical questions or concerns, please contact Center Support staff at centersupport@usf.edu

First, Do No Harm: Facilitating a Trauma-Informed Response
2021-12-17 14:00 - 15:30
December 17, 2021 from 2 PM ET to 3:30 PM ET
Presented by Jane Anderson, AEquitas Attorney Advisor, and Vicki Ybanez, Executive Director of Red Wind Consulting, Inc.
Webinar Registration
Trauma is a direct result of the abuse and exploitation that offenders inflict on victims of intimate partner violence and sexual assault. This acute trauma, often compounded with historical trauma, impacts survivor’s ability to fully participate in the criminal justice process. As a result, a collaborative, trauma-informed response that takes historical context into consideration is essential to ensuring survivor access to justice while improving community safety.
This presentation will describe various forms of trauma that victims may experience throughout their lives and as a result of an offender’s victimization. Presenters will define cultural humility as a key element of a successful trauma-informed response that improves our individual, collective, and systematic responses to survivors. Additionally, the presenters will provide strategies to identify, document, and introduce evidence of trauma to improve case outcomes and community safety by holding offenders accountable.

STAC engages in ongoing community education, training, and advocacy to inform the community about human trafficking
2021-12-19 19:00 - 20:00
STAC engages in ongoing community education, training, and advocacy to inform the community about human trafficking, how to identify signs of human trafficking, and how sexism, racism, poverty, violence, and other systems of oppression perpetuate modern day slavery.
Facebook LIVE link

Intimate Partner Human Trafficking: The Intersection of Domestic Violence and Sexual Exploitation
2022-01-05 14:00 - 15:30
January 5, 2022 from 2 PM ET to 3:30 PM ET
Presented by Jennifer Dolle, AEquitas Attorney Advisor, and Wendy Barnes, Just Exits Advisory Councilmember
Webinar Registration
This presentation will describe how, in addition to violence and threats, traffickers exploit feelings of love and loyalty to maintain power over their victims and perpetrate sex trafficking and related crimes. The presenters will discuss the importance of identifying victims of intimate partner human trafficking to ensure victim safety and provide access to services and support, while at the same time articulating offender conduct to ensure they are held accountable for their actions.

Perspectives Call In Radio Show on WFSU (88.9 FM)
2022-01-06 11:00 - 12:00
Date: Thursday, January 6, 2022, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Location: Tune in on the radio: 88.9FM
(Listen to the playback of this episode.)
Description: A panel of representatives from the community and beyond, including Sheriff Walt McNeil, Marsha Crowell from Capital City Bank, the Survive and Thrive Advocacy Center and a survivor of human trafficking, will discuss the role of the business sector and local governments in recognizing and safely responding to human trafficking issues and the many local events during the month.
Contact: Robin Hassler Thompson, robin@surviveandthriveadvocacy.org or 850-597-2080 (call and text)

NHTTAC: New SOAR Training Pilot – Working with Foreign National Minors
2022-01-12 13:00 - 14:30
The National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center (NHTTAC) is excited to deliver a virtual pilot of our new SOAR training designed for providers who work with foreign national minors younger than age 25. Participants will learn about common tactics that traffickers use to exploit foreign national minors, how to ask about potential trafficking, and the available resources to support foreign national minors who have experienced trafficking during their journey to the United States or while in the United States.
This 1.5-hour pilot leverages the SOAR framework—Stop, Observe, Ask, and Respond, to help providers identify and respond to foreign national minors who have experienced trafficking.
Learning Objectives

Explain common reasons why minors migrate to the United States.​
Identify tactics that individuals use to exploit foreign national minors.​
Differentiate potential red flags of trafficking between foreign national minors and U.S. citizens. ​
Summarize how children and youth who have experienced trafficking can qualify for federal services and resources.​
Share the importance of trafficking awareness and responsiveness with others in your work environment. ​

Date: Wednesday, January 12, 2022, 1–2:30 p.m. (Eastern)
Webinar Registration

Trafficking In America Task Force
2022-01-18 12:30 - 13:30
Date: Tuesday, January 18, 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Location: FSU College of Law
Description: This conversation will focus on Presenters include: Assistant State Attorney Lorena Bueno, 2nd Judicial Circuit, FSU Center for the Advancement of Human Rights Professor Terry Coonan, and Senator Ellyn S. Bogdanoff, Chair of the Direct Service Organization for the Statewide Council on Human Trafficking.
Join here: (coming soon)
Contact: Irene Coritsidis, icc20f@myfsu.edu

"Circle of Hope" Speaker Series Featuring Survivor Advocate Julia Hubbard
2022-01-20 12:30 - 14:00
The 2021-2022 “Circle of Hope” awareness campaign represents Amara’s diverse community, our holistic and culturally-sensitive approach to helping survivors fight for justice, and our training and advocacy efforts to increase awareness and push for equity.
As part of this effort, Amara kicks-off its monthly 2022 Speaker Series with Survivor Advocate Julia Hubbard. Please join the Amara Legal Center for this discussion to hear about Julia’s lived experience and her journey towards empowerment.
Webinar Registration

Gadsden County Community Human Trafficking Forum
2022-01-20 19:00 - 20:30
Date: Thursday, January 20, 2022, 7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Location: Online via Zoom
Facebook Live event: https://www.facebook.com/MidwayUnityFellowship/posts/5493911650623972
Description: This is the second of a series of open forum “Table Talks” on human trafficking and its connections to social justice issues in Gadsden County. STAC Board Member and Pastor Douglas Harris of Midway Unity Fellowship Church of Midway, FL will lead a program that will feature a short informational introduction to the topic of human trafficking and a community member-led discussion. This program will continue a dedicated and long-term focus on social justice and human trafficking in Gadsden County and a call to action by and for the community and survivors. All members of the public are welcome and encouraged to attend, including the faith community, businesses, schools, healthcare providers, educators and students, civic groups and leaders, law enforcement and justice system representatives, elected leaders, attorneys, retirees, public employees, artists, youth, agricultural workers, and anyone who is interested.
Sponsors: STAC and the International Rescue Committee, in affiliation with the Big Bend Coalition Against Human Trafficking (BBCAHT)
Contact: STAC, stac@surviveandthriveadvocacy.org or 850-597-2080 (call and text)

Local Workplaces Taking Action to End Human Trafficking
2022-01-21 13:00 - 14:30
Date: Friday, January 21, 2022, 1 – 2:30 p.m.
Location: Online webinar
Download the Presentation_Workplace
Description: Everyone in the community should be able to recognize and respond to human trafficking. In particular, the business community has a unique and important role in preventing trafficking and safely and effectively responding. Whether open to the public or not, employees, managers and others in the workplace can be the eyes and ears of the community when it comes to both supporting the children and adults who are sex and labor trafficked and helping the justice system to hold traffickers accountable. The Survive and Thrive Advocacy Center (STAC) with funding from Leon County, Florida has developed a training initiative to give the thousands of businesses and others in our area information about what to look for, how to recognize signs and patterns of sex or labor trafficking and what to do if they suspect human trafficking is occurring. Presenters: Robin Hassler Thompson, Executive Director, STAC; and Marina Anderson, Florida Department of Children and Families Regional Human Trafficking Coordinator for Northeast and Northwest Regions. This is the first monthly “3rd Friday” human trafficking training program for 2022.
Sponsors: STAC and the International Rescue Committee, in affiliation with the Big Bend Coalition Against Human Trafficking (BBCAHT)
Contact: STAC, stac@surviveandthriveadvocacy.org or 850-597-2080

STAC needs your support to sustain these important webinars. Will you donate today? Each gift helps to bring this vital information to the many people who are empowering survivors and preventing human trafficking. The only way we can maintain these programs and this work is with YOUR help.
Suggested donation: $20

Whole Child Leon Professional Network Community Conversation - Human Trafficking: Prevention, Intervention and Victim Services
2022-01-24 12:00 - 13:00
Whole Child Leon Professional Network Community Conversation
Join us at the first Professional Network of 2022! In observance of National Slavery and Human Trafficking Awareness Month we have invited Shavontana “Starr” Davis, Esq. of The Starr Institute and the Open Doors Outreach Network Team to share information and provide resources to help us stay informed and make a difference.
The Starr Institute
We will also hear from survivor Shavontana “Starr” Davis, Esq.; founder of The Starr Institute, published author, one of 2021’s L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth Honorees.
Open Doors Outreach
The Open Doors Outreach Network team works directly with children and youth victims of sex trafficking ages 10 to 24 using a trauma-competent, survive-centered model.
Webinar Registration

U.S. Chamber of Commerce - Deterring Human Trafficking
2022-01-24 13:00 - 15:00
Ashleigh Chapman, CEO and president of the Alliance for Freedom, Restoration, and Justice, will moderate a conversation with Dr. Hanni Stoklosa, CEO of HEAL Trafficking (Health, Education, Advocacy, Linkage), and health care industry stakeholders to discuss human trafficking victim identification and response.
A21, kNot Today, and It’s a Penalty, which are members of the Alliance Against Human Trafficking & Exploitation, and the American Hotel & Lodging Association will highlight their partnerships with professional sports leagues to inform spectators on how to prevent sexual exploitation.
Click here to view the Program
Webinar Registration

The Impact of Human Trafficking on Campus
2022-01-25 12:30 - 14:00
Date: Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Location: Online
Description: This panel discussion will focus on how human trafficking can occur on our state’s higher education campuses and how institutions of higher learning can and should respond. Presenters from Florida State University, Tallahassee Community College, Florida A&M University, Florida International University, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), and the Survive and Thrive Advocacy Center (STAC).
Webinar Registration
Sponsors: The International Rescue Committee (IRC) and the Survive and Thrive Advocacy Center (STAC)
Contact: Florencia Dominguez, Safety and Protection Program Manager, IRC, Florencia.Dominguez@rescue.org

City of Tallahassee Anti-Human Trafficking Proclamation
2022-01-26 15:00 - 16:00
Come and show your support for human trafficker survivors and local community efforts at the next City of Tallahassee Commission meeting, January 26, 2022 at 3pm. This is why: local governments can play a vital role in preventing sex and labor trafficking and supporting trafficked persons by educating many like inspectors, emergency responders, utility workers and supporting community centers with information and support for vulnerable populations and local funding for programs supporting survivors is vital.
View the details for the City Commission Meeting

Human Trafficking: Effective Engagement of Individuals with Lived Experience
2022-01-26 15:00 - 16:00
Since 2020, the U.S. Department of Education has conducted a webinar series to address the growing response of America’s schools to child trafficking. The series draws attention to the important efforts underway in our nation’s education community to address both sex and labor trafficking.
On behalf of the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Office of Safe and Supportive Schools, the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE) invites you to join the next webinar in this series, Effective Engagement of Individuals with Lived Experience.
This webinar expands the scope of the series by addressing how school communities can enhance existing trafficking prevention efforts by effectively engaging survivors of trafficking, referred to often as those with lived experience. Such efforts are central to a well-informed, trauma-sensitive, and wholistic approach to preventing trafficking. Specific strategies of meaningful outreach, engagement, and sustained partnership with survivors of trafficking will be shared.
Ruth Ryder, Assistant Deputy Secretary, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, U.S. Department of Education (DC)

Kimberly Casey, Prevention and Communication Specialist, Office on Trafficking in Persons (DC)
Bella Hounakey, Former Member, U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking (VA);
Judge Robert Lung, Former Council Chair, U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking (CO)
Suleman Masood, Council Chair, U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking (MD)
Suamhirs Piraino-Guzman, Former Member, U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking (WA)

Webinar Registration

Human Trafficking and the Law: Labor Trafficking
2022-01-27 14:00 - 15:30
Date: Thursday, January 27, 2022, 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Description: Labor trafficking – also called “forced labor” is far more common that people think, here in North Florida and around the nation. Both the civil and criminal sides of the justice system – and our entire community – are vitally important to recognizing this reality, preventing forced labor, and fully supporting survivors. This includes active civil litigation against traffickers and taking action in the courts to ban goods coming into the U.S. from “supply chains” of forced labor. Each of us, as consumers, can also help by buying and supporting trafficking free goods and services.
Featured Speakers:
Martina Vandenberg, JD – founder and president of the Human Trafficking Legal Center
Martina E. Vandenberg is founder and president of the Human Trafficking Legal Center. Vandenberg established the Human Trafficking Legal Center (formerly HT Pro Bono) in 2012 with generous support from the Open Society Foundations (OSF) Fellowship Program.
Prior to becoming an OSF Fellow, Vandenberg served as a partner at Jenner & Block LLP, where she focused on complex commercial litigation and internal investigations under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. She served as a senior member of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee.
Vandenberg has spent two decades fighting human trafficking, forced labor, rape as a war crime, and violence against women. She has represented victims of human trafficking pro bono in immigration, criminal, and civil cases, and has testified before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, the Helsinki Commission, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the House Armed Services Committee on an array of human rights issues. Through the Human Trafficking Legal Center, she has trained more than 3,600 pro bono attorneys nationwide to handle human trafficking matters.
A former Human Rights Watch researcher, Vandenberg spearheaded investigations into human rights violations in the Russian Federation, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Uzbekistan, Kosovo, Israel, and Ukraine. She is the author of two Human Rights Watch reports, “Hopes Betrayed: Trafficking of Women and Girls to Post-Conflict Bosnia & Herzegovina for Forced Prostitution,” and “Kosovo: Rape as a Weapon of ‘Ethnic Cleansing.’”
As a researcher for the Israel Women’s Network, she investigated and published the first report documenting human trafficking into Israel. While living in the Russian Federation in the 1990s, she co-founded Syostri, one of Russia’s first rape crisis centers for women.
Vandenberg has received multiple awards for her leadership against human trafficking. In 2012, the Freedom Network USA presented her with the Paul and Sheila Wellstone Award for her “outstanding leadership and dedication in working to combat human trafficking and slavery in the United States.” In 2013, she received the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation’s Stevens Award for outstanding service in public interest law. T’ruah presented her with the Raphael Lemkin Human Rights Award in 2014. She received the Katharine & George Alexander Law Prize the following year. Vandenberg also served as a co-chair of the International Bar Association’s Human Trafficking Task Force.
A Rhodes Scholar and Truman Scholar, Vandenberg has taught as an adjunct faculty member at the American University Washington College of Law and the Oxford University Human Rights Summer Program. She is admitted to practice in New York and the District of Columbia.
Fainess Lipenga – Training Advisor, the Human Trafficking Legal Center
Fainess Lipenga has been an active member of the National Survivor Network since 2013. As a survivor of labor trafficking, she uses her voice and experience to educate the community and raise awareness.
Her mission is to prevent other survivors from being re-victimized and give them hope and courage to heal, become leaders, and achieve their dreams. Prior to her role as training advisor, Lipenga served as a consultant to the Human Trafficking Legal Center for more than five years.
Lipenga has testified before Congress regarding the challenges that survivors face, and has presented to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She has provided training for pro bono lawyers, law students, physicians, law enforcement officials, and federal prosecutors. She has spoken at national conferences and developed expert training materials. In 2019, Lipenga testified before the Maryland General Assembly to advocate for passage of the Anti-Exploitation Act. With the help of her testimony, Maryland passed the bill, making labor trafficking an illegal act for the first time in Maryland.
Lipenga is a recipient of the Justice for Victims of Crime Award from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Washington, DC. She believes survivor voices and leadership are essential to advocacy on human trafficking.
Daynica Harley – Clinical Professor, FSU College of Law
Daynica Harley is a clinical professor in the Florida State University College of Law Public Interest Law Center. Co-teaching the Children’s Advocacy Clinic and Human Trafficking and Exploitation Law Project, Ms. Harley supervises student advocacy and direct representation of clients across a variety of legal issues. Ms. Harley is a 2021 graduate of the Florida State University College of Law. She is admitted to practice law in Florida.
Melody Andrews – Student, FSU College of Law
Melody Andrews is a third-year law student at the Florida State University College of Law. She also attended undergrad at Florida State and earned her Bachelor’s in Theater and Creative Writing. She is dedicated to Public Interest and has been involved in the Children’s Advocacy Clinic, the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Law Clinic, and the International Human Rights Clinic. She is currently a legal intern at Disability Rights Florida and the Public Defender’s Office in the 2nd Judicial Circuit. She has previously been an intern at the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence.
Peyton Smith – Student, FSU College of Law
Peyton Smith is a third-year student at the Florida State University College of Law. She went to Taylor University, a small Christian college in Indiana, and studied Political Science, Philosophy, and Economics. She is passionate about immigration and international human rights issues. In the Fall of 2021, Ms. Smith participated in the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Law Project. Prior to law school, Ms. Smith spent six months doing anti-human trafficking work in Nepal.
Robin Hassler Thompson, JD – Executive Director of the Survive and Thrive Advocacy Center (STAC)
Robin Hassler Thompson, M.A., J.D., is the Executive Director of the Survive and Thrive Advocacy Center (STAC), an anti-trafficking non-profit she co-founded in 2015. She co-chairs the Big Bend Coalition Against Human Trafficking and is a member of its Social Services Committee. In 2001 she traveled to Bangladesh on a U.S. State Department mission, which included a visit to a trafficking rescue shelter in Dhaka. This so inspired her that since, she has directed and collaborates in many anti-trafficking projects, trains extensively, and has authored publications and curricula, including a course for the Florida Medical Association.
Hosted by the FSU College of Law and Co-sponsored by Legal Services of North Florida
CLE credit: This program has been approved for 2 hours of general CLE credit.
Contact: Robin Hassler Thompson, STAC, 850-597-2080 robin@surviveandthriveadvocacy.org
Big Bend Coalition Against Human Trafficking (BBCAHT) Contact Information:
***Note: All BBCAHT members who wish to attend events Must register. ***
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/bbcaht/
Kellianne “Kelli” Dougherty
Victim Witness Specialist
United States Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Florida
850-216-3909 desk
850-528-8595 cell
kellianne.dougherty@usdoj.gov

STAC needs your support to sustain these important webinars. Will you donate today? Each gift helps to bring this vital information to the many people who are empowering survivors and preventing human trafficking. The only way we can maintain these programs and this work is with YOUR help.
Suggested donation: $20

Anti-Human Trafficking & Social Justice Panel Discussion
2022-02-03 12:30 - 13:30
Attend this program as part of TCC’s observance and celebration of Black History Month, to learn and explore the intersections of social justice with sex and labor trafficking. This interactive panel will delve into topical and important issues including the disproportionate impact of human trafficking on communities of color, how to identify and respond to sex and labor trafficking on the TCC campus and in the community, and how to take action to end human trafficking.
Join Zoom Meeting: tccfl.zoom.us/j/99883537411
Meeting ID: 998 8353 7411
Panelists:
Sheriff Walt McNeil, Leon County Sheriff’s Office
Michelle Tibbits-McClellan,TCC Victim Advocate
Donmetrie E. Clark, TCC, Dean and Professor of English, Communications and Humanities
Pastor Douglas Harris, STAC Board Member
Dr. Cicely Brantley, STAC Board Member

National Human Trafficking Training and Assistance Center - Live SOAR Training
2022-02-10 08:00 - 17:00
Join us for a free 2-hour live SOAR to Health and Wellness training on Wednesday, February 16 that teaches providers how to identify and respond to human trafficking. This training will offer the following continuing education/continuing medical education (CE/CME) credits:

Physicians – maximum of 2.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™
Pharmacists/Pharmacy Technicians – 2.0 contact hours (0.2 CEUs)
Psychologists – 2.0 CE credits
Nurses – 2.0 contact hours
Dentists – 2.0 CE credits
Social Workers – 2.0 cultural competency CE credits
Public Health Professionals – 2.0 CPH credits
Health Education Specialists – 2.0 entry-level CECH
Healthcare Team – 2.0 Interprofessional Continuing Education credits

If the credits above do not match your needs, after the training you can access a generic CE/CME certificate for non-physicians or submit your certificate of completion to your local board to request that the board accept the training as credit for your profession.
Webinar Registration

Child Labor Trafficking: What We Need to Know
2022-02-18 13:00 - 14:30
Download the Presentation_Child Labor Trafficking
Child Labor Trafficking: What We Need to Know
This free webinar one of the “Third Friday” community training events hosted by BBCAHT and STAC to inform and engage the North Florida community and beyond.
Children and youth are trafficked globally and in the United States at alarming rates. However, rarely are labor trafficked children recognized if systems and individuals zero in only on the victimization of children by sex traffickers. Labor trafficking, or forced labor of children, is often overlooked by many people and systems. The children who are vulnerable to labor trafficking may have factors that can heighten the risk for them, including separation from families and supports, poverty, lack of educational opportunities and undocumented status. Child labor traffickers can be like any other traffickers: from family members to organized crime networks and forced labor of children can coincide with sex trafficking. This presentation is for anyone who has contact with children in our community: neighbors, school personnel, child welfare, law enforcement, justice system, attorneys, parents and grandparents – everyone! Experts will provide a survivor perspective and give attendees information about this current reality that is too often overlooked.
Presenters: Martina Vandenberg, JD, Founder and President and Evelyn Chumbow, Operations Manager and Survivor Advocate, both of the Human Trafficking Legal Center.
Sponsors: STAC in affiliation with Big Bend Coalition Against Human Trafficking and the International Rescue Committee.
Contact: STAC at stac@surviveandthriveadvocacy.org or 850-597-2080

STAC needs your support to sustain these important webinars. Will you donate today? Each gift helps to bring this vital information to the many people who are empowering survivors and preventing human trafficking. The only way we can maintain these programs and this work is with YOUR help.
Suggested donation: $20

The Case Against Othering: A Call for Intersectionality in the Anti-Trafficking Movement
2022-02-23 12:00 - 13:30
Speakers:
Chanel Dionne, Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center
Cristian Eduardo, Human Trafficking Consultant
Erik Gray, Queers Uniting to End Exploitation
Crystal Hamilton, CrisLee Consulting Firm
Kristin Murray, Authentic Witness
Description: This month’s webinar will focus on the topic of intersectionality in the anti-trafficking movement. By centering on the voices of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), the panel will address system failures, what a more inclusive movement could look like, and a call to action for individuals to find new ways to collaborate. Free to participate!
Webinar Registration

Honoring Black Voices in the Anti-Trafficking Movement
2022-02-23 14:00 - 15:30
Each year, February is celebrated as “Black History Month” to reflect on and appreciate the contributions that African Americans and those of the African diaspora have made in all aspects of our nation’s history, especially in fighting for the human rights of all. In this event, service providers will hear from survivors of labor trafficking as they engage in a meaningful conversation to discuss disparities in the movement regarding race, share their views on the term “modern-day slavery,” and describe how they define “justice.”
Webinar Registration

The Intersection of Teen Dating Violence, Human Trafficking, and Vulnerable Youth
2022-02-23 14:00 - 15:30
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in one year, nearly 1 in 11 female and approximately 1 in 14 male high school students report having experienced physical dating violence; and about 1 in 8 female and 1 in 26 male high school students report having experienced sexual dating violence. While teen dating violence impacts youth nationwide, youth from racial/ethnic and sexual minority groups are disproportionally affected by all forms of violence, including dating violence. Violence in an adolescent relationship sets the stage for future violence and victimization, including youth becoming victims of human trafficking.
This virtual panel will discuss the impact of teen dating violence among youth from underserved populations and its intersection with human trafficking. Panelists will also share their collective expertise, lessons from the field, and practical recommendations to build awareness and prevent these incidents in our communities.
Webinar Registration
