Collaborating to Address Trafficking in Rural Communities:  Lessons from the Field

Brought to you by Futures Without Violence's Building Collaborative Responses to Trafficked Survivors Project, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.

Date:  December 1, 2016
Time: 10:00 a.m. PT – 11:30 a.m. PT; 1:00 p.m. ET – 2:30 ET (90 minutes)

Webinar description:
Effectively addressing trafficking in rural communities requires creative solutions and cross-sector collaborations. Domestic violence and sexual assault service providers can play a critical role in these collaborations. The panelists will discuss several promising approaches to building effective collaborations to address trafficking in rural communities.

As a result of this webinar, participants will be better able to:

• Describe the unique needs of trafficked survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in rural communities.
• Highlight the benefits of collaborating with community-based organizations to address human trafficking in rural communities.
• Identify examples of existing cross-sector collaborative anti-trafficking models in rural North Dakota and Florida.

Presenters:
Ana Vallejo is a co-director and attorney at VIDA Legal Assistance, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the rights of immigrant survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence, trafficking in persons, and other violent crimes. From 2011 - 2013 Ms. Vallejo also served as the Project Coordinator for the Human Trafficking Academy of the Graduate Program in Intercultural Human Rights at St. Thomas University School of Law. For almost 15 years Ms. Vallejo has represented numerous human trafficking victims forced into commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude. She is also a member of the Florida Statewide Human Trafficking Taskforce.

Christina Sambor is the Coordinator of FUSE - the statewide anti-trafficking coalition in North Dakota, the Director of the North Dakota Human Trafficking Task Force, and co-chair of the North Dakota Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Commission. In her various roles, Christina works with non-profit partners, state agencies, law enforcement and elected officials to fund and coordinate direct services to survivors, proactive law enforcement investigations, and to facilitate cross-disciplinary cooperation, education and coordination in the fight against labor and commercial sexual exploitation.

If you have any questions, please email Mónica Arenas at [email protected].

The webinar will be recorded and available on the Futures Without Violence website after the presentation: https://www.futureswithoutviolence.org/resources-events/webinars/