Protection is the main component of the survivor-centered approach the international community takes to combat modern slavery, and encompasses identifying victims of human trafficking, and providing services and support to help them rebuild their lives.  

Anti-Trafficking Conference 2023 presenters in the protection cohort will discuss needs of pregnant and parenting survivors, physical and mental health challenges faced by survivors, challenges identifying trafficking victims, helping survivors to find their voice through storytelling, and how to scale a safe house to expand community impact. 

Her research areas include the intersection of child welfare and sex trafficking, especially for special populations such as LGBT and deaf youth and those in foster care. She is the founder and executive director of the Restoring Ivy Collective in Washington, D.C., a survivor-led organization that provides referrals, outreach, group therapy, and support to survivors of sex trafficking.  In this presentation, Dr. Bowman will discuss challenges faced by survivors who are parents and/or pregnant, resiliency factors of survivors, and how to best support them as service providers.  For survivors of sex trafficking, pregnancy and parenting come with additional challenges of trauma, economic hardships, support deficits, and social stigma. Pregnancy is often a catalyst for leaving the life or finding means of escaping exploitation, but social support is necessary for success in finding a life outside of sex work.  

She has served as a member of the International Organization for Migration/UNGIFT expert panel on health, which produced Caring for Trafficked Persons, Guidance for Health Providers.  She is a member of the European Freedom Network, World Freedom Network, and Medical Director for Global Health Promise.  In this presentation, Dr. Welch will discuss some of the natural processes that function to protect us in times of adversity but that can become maladaptive, producing some of the mental and physical signs and symptoms seen in survivors of abuse and trafficking. She will also discuss ways that our brains are pliable and how they can adapt to new environments - and how we can help survivors thrive.  

The failure of several safety-net systems resulted in her death in February 2022. A timeline provides insight into Courtney’s victimization that led to countless encounters with providers and various law enforcement agencies. Ms. Kinkoph shares her story of being a mother and advocate for her daughter, Courtney, and reinforces the need to break silos, coordinate efforts within and across systems, and build a multidisciplinary team to support victims and their families with trauma-informed comprehensive care. 

In this presentation, Ms. Ley discusses how stories are a powerful force that create meaning and help shape our perspective of the world around us. Victim organizations across various disciplines utilize stories to inspire, educate, and share their impact.  Ethical storytelling recognizes that it not only matters that stories are shared, it matters how they are shared. The ability to tell stories with an empowered survivor voice can impact both victim and organizational resiliency. Ms. Ley will explore what Ethical Storytelling is and why it matters, provide practical tips for moving beyond sensationalism, and discuss how to empower survivor voices while steering clear of the pitfalls of re-victimization.    

Ms. Colman is the Co-Chair of the Orlando Human Trafficking Faith Alliance, a member of the Central Florida Human Trafficking Task Force, and Advisory Council member of S.A.F.E. in Central Florida.  She is a recipient of the 2019 Florida Department of Health in Orange County Public Health Heroes Award, a 2019 recipient of the Central Florida Victims Services Network Award and a graduate of Lifework Leadership.  

In this presentation, Ms. Coleman and Ms. Fanfan will share their experiences managing Samaritan Village and in particular how to scale programming to maximize impact within their community, and finally how to establish metrics to measure long-term survivor success. 

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