Written by Alexa Macumber – The JGJPP Spring Symposium
The Journal of Global Justice & Public Policy Presents: A Symposium on Human Trafficking
“Slavery to Bravery: Human Trafficking from A to Z“
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Center Supported
The Center for Global Justice is supporting the Journal for Global Justice and Public Policy’s (JGJPP) Spring Symposium through sponsoring lunch and providing in person volunteers.
The JGJPP is a academic legal journal dedicated to scholarly publications on all issues effecting global justice both in domestic and international law.
The Event
On Saturday, February 19, 2022, Regent University’s Journal of Global Justice and Public Policy is hosting its annual Spring Symposium.
This year, the topic is human trafficking.
During this day-long event, audience members will learn about human trafficking through the Human Trafficking 101 Seminar. The next panel will discuss what is being done and can be done to prevent human trafficking. Also, there will be a restorative panel which will discuss how organizations provide restorative efforts for survivors who have escaped the sex and labor trade. And finally, the audience will hear from a survivor who will share her personal trafficking experience.
Human Trafficking 101
Human Trafficking 101 will be led by Regent University Human Trafficking and Child Advocacy Professor, Director of Experiential Learning, Kathleen McKee. Professor McKee will define human trafficking, explain who victims are and how they become victims, and will teach participants how they can identify human trafficking.
Prevention Panel
Shared Hope’s Director of Policy Research, Sarah Roberts, and Freekind’s Prevention Education Manager, Deanna Longjohn, will lead the panel discussion on how to prevent human trafficking.
Shared Hope values preventing human trafficking through training, awareness, and collaboration. Shared Hope equips first responders and community members to identify warning signs of trafficking and to employ intervention techniques to rescue child trafficking victims. They also advance the prioritization of ending child sex slavery by initiating campaigns that raise alarm in communities and share expertise and resources to accelerate solutions to combat sexual exploitation.
Freekind prevents human trafficking and supports those who have experience exploitation on their journey to freedom. Freekind created a prevention education curriculum designed to disrupt trafficking before it ever begins. The Prevention Project program receives national recognition. It is a survivor-informed prevention education curriculum with editions for middle and high school students as well as youth service providers. Freekind addresses both ends of the anti-human trafficking spectrum. Through working with those who have been exploited to restore the freedom that was stolen from them and equipping youth to avoid exploitation of their vulnerabilities by traffickers.
Restoration Panel
A21’s Aftercare Manager, Kailey Kelley, and Samaritan House’s Outreach and Direct Service Coordinator, Courtney Pierce, will lead the panel discussion on how to bring restoration to survivors of human trafficking.
A21 is committed to help and heal survivors of human trafficking. It provides a litany of services, including aftercare services, freedom center, and relocation services to help get victims’ lives back on track. Survivors receive support with day centers that empower survivors with skills and resources to restore wellness as well as reintegrate safely back into society, and live independently. Survivors can utilize an emergency shelter in the initial months following their recovery from exploitation and have access to trauma-informed holistic support services.
Samaritan House provides emergency and permanent housing to victims of domestic violence and homelessness. They also provides trauma informed services for violence victims and their children in transitional housing. Samaritan House works with youth to establish healthy relationships, build self-confidence, increase academic performance, and ultimately break the cycles of violence and homelessness.
Keynote Speaker
Lastly, the Symposium’s Keynote Speaker, O’livia Reposa, Survivor’s Ventures Survivors to Entrepreneurs Program Director, will share her trafficking story. O’livia now works with trafficking survivors to meet their unique personal and professional goals. As founder and CEO of Surviving Change, O’livia has a decade of entrepreneurial experience in small business management and customer service positions, as well as informally during her victimization. O’livia is a human trafficking survivor who is no stranger to the systemic barriers that stand in the way of recovery. She was arrested on many occasions for crimes connected to her victimization. Both during and after her release from jail, O’livia worked with local, state and federal authorities to prosecute her traffickers. In her free time, she continues to bravely advocate for criminal record relief for Virginia-based trafficking survivors.
The members of Regent University’s Journal of Global Justice and Public Policy hope to see you attend our Annual Symposium, Slavery to Bravery: Human Trafficking from A to Z. Either in person or online. Please, register here to hear from our wonderful speakers.
This post was written by a Center for Global Justice Student Staff member. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect those of Regent University. Regent Law School, or the Center for Global Justice.