This series examines human trafficking from the perspective of equity. Trafficking is viewed as one indicator of community vulnerabilities such as housing shortages, lack of mental health resources, lack of consistent, viable employment and career opportunities; insufficient or absent transportation opportunities, lack of language support and resources, communities in which neighbors and residents have precarious or no documentation.
Human Trafficking, and the Impact on School Communities is the first of three sessions. The program aims to provide foundations of identifying human trafficking, exploring trauma informed and trauma responsive interventions with victims and survivors, as well as techniques used when providing healing centered care. Co-learners in these sessions will have the chance to reflect on and then apply presented concepts into action through engaged pre and post learning activities in the second and third sessions of the series.
Registration for Session 1: Click Here
Note: Registrations will be processed in numerical order as seats for the session are limited. Sessions 2 and 3 participants must attend and complete Session 1, Human Trafficking and the Impact on School Communities.
This course seeks to operationalize the concepts explored in the prior course and develop a deeper knowledge of what trauma-responsive care looks like. Co-learners will discuss case studies from responders to HT survivors and begin conceptualizing how to develop and implement their own trauma-responsive strategies. This is a two-fold approach to trauma-responsive care, which considers how secondary trauma manifests for HT responders. They explore methods of self-care and work with their colleagues to put this into action through engaged learning activities.
This course builds on prior short courses, following the path from trauma-informed to trauma-responsive and arriving at healing-centered approaches for those working with survivors of human trafficking. We explore the foundations of healing-centered responses with the understanding that healing-centered is the objective. If trauma informed aims for awareness, and trauma responsive aims toward the care it takes to respond, healing centered will focus on the deep relational elements of collective healing. We develop strategies and methods for responders that engage the responders as part of a care partnership with survivors. We focus on healing as a process that is always unfolding and possible between people.
Dr. Heather Curry, PhD
Dr. Heather Curry has over a decade of experience through her scholarship, practice, and professional commitments with many of the most impactful systems of care for victims of human trafficking. She has served as Director for the Hillsborough County Commission on Human Trafficking, during which time she and the Commission, at the behest of the NFL, developed and executed the County's plan to address Human Trafficking, before, during, and over the Super Bowl. However, her approach to the phenomenon of human trafficking is always focused on what happens before, during, and after big events. She was also the Chief Liaison for Hillsborough County's Juvenile Justice and Equity work. She holds her Doctorate in Communication Theory from the University of South Florida.
