Child marriage is a reality for girls (and boys) around the world. It is defined as formal marriage or informal unions before the age of 18. South Asia is known to have the highest number of child marriages in the world, but it happens all over the world, including the U.S. In fact, only two U.S. states have laws against child marriage. Within the last 20 years, the youngest recorded U.S. marriage was with a 10 year old child. Genevieve Meyer, founder and Director of the Resiliency Foundation, is a survivor of child marriage. She knows that when female children are married off, they are more likely to experience domestic violence, have more children, be less educated, and be trapped in marriages. She fights against child marriage and is one of the advocates that supported the passage of a law against child marriages in the State of Indiana. Genevieve discusses her experience, her work against child marriage, and ways to research what your state allows.

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Through an unconventional lens, Dev Tandon, founder of the OBO Movement, takes us through his philosophy of business and his progressive concepts for a greater, more equitable future for all. While Dev is not directly involved in anti-trafficking work, he explains how the complete reversal of business-as-usual could impact the future of sex and labor trafficking, as well as provide advocates with an equitable and livable income. This visionary and his OBO Movement says seek to make a difference first, and be paid a great salary to do meaningful work. 

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It is typical for advocates to get involved in anti-trafficking work on many fronts and Marie DeLeon is no different. Marie is a survivor that is now giving back by helping survivors explore their own healing journey through workshops in New York City.  She is also a part of the New Yorkers for the Equality Model, a political group comprised of allies, service providers, and survivor leaders in the New York area who advocate and support the Equality Model of law. She explains the model and presents her reasons why the Equality Model aka Nordic Model is the way to go. Finally, Marie explains an interesting one-stop shop program that she is involved with that provides comprehensive care to survivors.

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Stable and safe housing is the foundation upon which all effective anti-trafficking programming and successful recovery is built. Yet housing is the number one barrier to providing effective recovery services to victims. The Samaritan Women’s Institute for Shelter Care studies the issue of housing and human trafficking victims. Their findings? There are serious gaps between the number of victims and the available beds for those that need them. They estimate there are approximately 136 programs and agencies across the U.S. whose sole mission is to provide shelter to victims of trafficking. Thirteen states have no shelter programs at all, and 10 states have an average of one program for the entire state. The Institute for Shelter Care also identifies two main barriers to effective shelter care: (1) staffing problems, and (2) financial issues. The Institute for Shelter Care was developed to remove the barriers and provide intensive and comprehensive training to anyone that is interested in opening a shelter, or who has a shelter and wants to offer stable and effective services to survivors of trafficking. This episode is packed with critical information on housing from the foremost authority on effective housing for victims of trafficking.

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Taryn Hughes, founder of Forest, Hughes, and Associates, continues her conversation with us on compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress. She shares with us the step-by-step process of introducing training to an organization and reveals that at some workplaces, secondary traumatic stress is being categorized as an occupational hazard. Taryn shares some suggestions on self-care as well as some upcoming conferences and presentations for listeners to attend.

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Taryn Hughes is the founder of Forest, Hughes, and Associates in New York, a company that assesses vicarious trauma and secondary traumatic stress in the workplace and brings organizations the healing they need. Beginning with a thorough assessment, these trained healers prescribe interventions that focus on traumatized and stressed agencies and compassion fatigued executives and front line workers. While we try and continue to help victims in these precarious times of coronavirus, many of us are no doubt currently experiencing trauma and compassion fatigue ourselves. Taryn speaks about what to look for, the importance of debriefing traumatized professionals, and the critical role leadership and executives play in being healthy and creating a healthy workplace environment.

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On today’s episode, we are hosting David Corliss, who holds a Ph.D. in statistical astrophysics and is the founder and director of Peace-Work. Peace-Work, as David will explain, is a volunteer cooperative organization of statisticians across the U.S. These statisticians are full-time professionals in various fields, who volunteer at Peace-Work spending their time partnering with organizations to fight human trafficking as well as other social justice issues. Coming from a long line of advocates and social reformers himself, David walks us through the various ways that his organization helps grass roots and struggling organizations and state and local governments to gather data, conduct evaluations, and complete the research needed to document and validate meaningful and effective work. A partnership with his organization can help attract grant and contract dollars. Using science, his organization can also help provide the guidance or next steps needed for social justice movements to be successful. 

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Kerry Brodie, founder and executive director of Emma’s Torch, joins us at the mic. Emma’s Torch is a nonprofit restaurant, café, and catering business in Brooklyn, New York that provides culinary training and job placement services to refugees and survivors of human trafficking. Kerry and her restaurant have been featured in world renown media such as the New Yorker, Rachel Ray, the New York Times, and Vogue Magazine, to name a few. Kerry walks us through the process of how students can enter the program, what happens, and where they can go after they graduate the program. Kerry, having had no business background or knowledge, was able to pursue a dream of empowering individuals over the one thing that brings us all together: food. Gordon Ramsey or Kerry Brodie? I vote Kerry!

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Dr. Jill McCracken and Alex Andrews are co-founders of Sex Worker Outreach Project Behind Bars (SWOP-Behind Bars). Jill has over 15 years of experience researching the sex trade and Alex has experience being incarcerated for consensual sex work. These two come together to create an informative and, for some, eye-opening conversation about setting aside judgement of those in the sex industry that are there by choice and welcome the opportunity to dialogue. SWOP Behind Bars provides services for those incarcerated as a result of being involved in the commercial sex industry, including a letter writing campaign. Once the person is released, they help them find the resources and services they need to re-integrate back into society. The choice to resume involvement in the sex trade or not, they say, is each person's individual choice. SWOP honors that choice without judgement. 

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In this week’s episode, we welcome Jonathan Turbin to the mic. Jonathan earned his PhD in cultural anthropology at the University of Oregon. Currently, he is the coordinator of Initiatives Against Modern Day Slavery at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Much of their work is geared toward raising awareness while also being actively involved in educating and inspiring individuals to get involved in the anti-trafficking fight. Jonathan organizes art installations, gallery talks, and "activation station's" to promote awareness of human trafficking. The Freedom Center's latest work? Motel X. Learn about Motel X and be thinking of ways you could be creative in promoting human trafficking awareness.

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Today’s episode hosts Christine Stark, whose story began in Part 1. In this episode, Chris talks about how she developed her voice that has helped so many indigenous survivors of trafficking and abuse. She speaks on her own personal account of the trauma she endured, but also on how that propelled her through her life and her work. Chris touches on the traumas indigenous children encountered in boarding school and attempted assimilation, civil litigation for indigenous individuals, and how she continues to keep herself healthy and stable so that she can continue to do the work she does. 

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Today’s guest on the Emancipation Nation Podcast is Christine Stark. Chris is a proud indigenous woman whose passion and need for exposing the truth has elevated her work as well as earned her a master’s degree in fine arts and in social work. Chris is an author, has conducted research, and demonstrated her creativity through art. In Part 1 of her interview, Chris speaks passionately and with some detail on the importance of anti-trafficking advocates to understand the history of enslavement and dehumanization that has taken place and has really never ended. 

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In today’s episode, we are hosting Erin McLoughlin. She works in the Detroit area with the Wayne County SAFE program helping victims of sexual assault and sex trafficking. Erin has been involved in advocacy efforts for about 10 years. She discusses the work of a forensic nurse examiner and the benefits it provides for survivors of sexual assault. She then flips-the-script to wear another hat facilitating a class with “johns” or purchasers of sexual services who have been arrested for soliciting and provides an education about how john schools operate and the men involved. Erin is a warrior, attacking both sides of the issue often in the same day. 

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While sex traffickers more commonly manipulate youth into the commercial sex trade, more and more sensationalized accounts of child abduction into the sex trade have cropped up on Facebook and in news reports. How do we educate parents so that they are aware of all of the ways sex trafficking occurs, particularly those most common ways. And how do we help parents resolve the ever present conflict between being your child's "friend" vs being your child's "parent"? Youth tell trusted others about what is truly happening in their lives. How does a parent become one of those trusted others?

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In this episode of the Emancipation Nation, Sarah Symons, a self-educated, non-profit developer shares her anti-trafficking journey. Sarah shares her insights on what it has been like going from a songwriter for soap operas to owning and operating a non-profit organization that serves 750 girls a year. She was inspired in 2003 by a documentary, The Day My God Died, she watched by chance. Since then, she developed her own non-profit organization based in Nepal and India—Her Future Coalition—that has been built for women in trafficking situations to become empowered, free, and strong. Also, information on an exciting new Emancipation Nation Network coming soon to provide you with ways to connect daily and weekly with anti-trafficking advocates across the U.S. and around the world, along with the ability to take a variety of anti-trafficking focused courses and workshops! 

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With previous law enforcement experience, an undergraduate degree in philosophy, and an MBA, Chris Lim is putting forth his education and experience to focus on macro level anti-trafficking work. In his current endeavor, he has been tasked with creating a statewide human-trafficking protocol for the state of Alabama, and he knows that collaboration between different disciplines is essential to the mission of saving lives. Chris explains to us that acknowledging and understanding the responsibilities and priorities of varying disciplines for the work they do is fundamental to get the job done, so it is of utmost importance to check your ego at the door and to continue to put energy into the why. 

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Dr. Kirby Reutter is a clinical psychologist who works closely with Mexican immigrants at the U.S boarder seeking political asylum who have been exposed to extreme and complex trauma, which often includes human trafficking. Dr. Reutter shares the tragic realties of his clients, and the experiences that spurred these individuals and families to seek asylum in the U.S., and his work with them. The journey to the border itself has been horrifyingly for many, as Dr. Reutter explains through his encounters with his clients. This is a must listen to episode for anyone wanting to better understand why someone would risk their life to seek out a new life in the U.S. 

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In 2020, let's use our voice and our choice to make a difference. Let's recognize those that have helped us along the way and circle back to those that needed us. In 2020, let's commit to be in full flavor and end the new lash of the whip in all of its many forms. 

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In this episode three gifts are offered in preparation for 2020: (1) to speak up in places where others have the power, and to listen more in places where you have the power (2) share the gift of truth with all you know and stop the continued and destructive myths about human trafficking and (3) pick up your FREE youth-focused human trafficking risk tool. This tool will help you assess which youth are most at risk for being trafficked. It is most appropriate for youth ages 12-17 and may be used in schools, juvenile courts, child welfare organizations,weekly youth groups, after school programs and more! Also, feel free to share it!

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Do the laws we pass against prostitution really help vulnerable populations engaged in sex work? Our guest says these laws do not, and they particularly don’t protect the most vulnerable in society.

The narrative we have all been taught to believe is that prostitution is wrong and people shouldn’t willingly engage in it. But this moral stance isn’t based in the reality of our times. Today, women (and men) sell sex because they are trafficked, or because they need to survive, or because they consent to be sex workers. We would agree that at least two of the three reasons someone is involved in prostitution makes them vulnerable. Put yourself in their shoes. If the last 25 encounters you had with police resulted in your arrest, at the 26th encounter, how wiling are you to share that you had been raped, robbed, or trafficked by someone? Would you still believe police are there to protect you? What happens when you experience a violent crime, but fear the police? What are the psychological effects and the real life consequences? What happens when the rapists, felony abusers, and traffickers aren't taken off the streets because victims are too afraid to make a report? Expert Kristen Diangelo provides listeners with the eye-opening realties of sex workers and the law that will take effect in California ito protect them in January 2020. 

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