What Multifamily Can Do To Prevent Human Trafficking

Hi, everyone. Welcome to our webinar for this afternoon. What Multifamily Can Do to Prevent Human Trafficking. We're gonna take about ten seconds to let participants all join in. Thank you everyone for being here and we will get started in just a moment. I'm Tara McVoying. I am the Marketing Manager at Grace Hill and Webinar Coordinator. And I'm really grateful to see you all here and very much looking forward to sharing our topic this afternoon. So let's give it basically like another fifteen or so seconds. Welcome everyone. So glad you're coming on board. And we'll address housekeeping in just a moment. All right, thank you again everyone for being here. We are so thrilled to present what Multifamily Can Do to Prevent Human Trafficking. This is a webinar brought in conjunction with Grace Hill and Safe Cares and I Empathize, and we have a lot of really terrific content to present to you today to help you identify when human trafficking might be occurring in your community, why that's important to know, and what you can do about it. I'm thrilled that you all are here. A little bit of housekeeping. We have a lot of content to cover today. So we will be receiving questions in the chat, but also specifically in the Q and A enablement of the Zoom meeting. So if you have questions as we go along and as our presenters are speaking, please do put those questions in the Q and A. We will address as many of your questions as possible when we get to the end of presentation. Want to make sure that we are addressing all of the great stuff that we have to share with you today. So that said, thank you, welcome. And I am thrilled to introduce our moderator for today. Ellen Ellen Clark is the senior director of content at Grace Hill and she has worked very hard to put together a lot of courses for Grace Hill, but specifically around human trafficking. Ellen will be moderating the conversation today and I'll be running things behind the scenes. So thank you so much, Ellen, and thank you for our speakers today. Thank you for everyone who's being here and I will turn it over to you now, Ellen. Thanks. Thank you, Tara. So happy to be here today and I'm honored to introduce our panelists today. Both Alison and Mariana do important work every day to help prevent human trafficking and support people who've experienced human trafficking. I'm inspired by their dedication and the work they do and so happy to be partnering with them to help educate our industry. A little bit about Allison, she is a nationally recognized survivor leader and expert. She does so many things. She's an accomplished speaker, she's provided technical assistance and training to law enforcement, prosecutors, healthcare workers and court staff. And she has many years of experience advocating for survivors and she herself is a survivor of human trafficking, so we're especially grateful for her courage and insights today. She's currently the director of the CARES program at SAFE Alliance, which provides services for youths who are experiencing human trafficking. So happy to have Allison here today and we also have Mariana who has been the Director of I Empathize the Orlando Hub since early twenty nineteen. She's been a volunteer for I think about three years and she works with government agencies, educational institutions, local law enforcement, organizations to help drive legislation and educational programs to help prevent the exploitation of individuals. And Mariana has worked with a number of non profits but including the International Justice Mission and it was really her time there where she experienced and witnessed firsthand the effects of a child trafficking ring and that caused her to turn her focus and her career work to bringing an end to exploitation. She also serves on the human trafficking task forces of Orange and Seminole counties in Florida. As you can see, mean it's hard to fit it all into words and the time we have but just so excited to have Alison and Mariana here with us today. Thank for your both. We've got a lot to talk about today, you'll see our agenda there. We're going to start by taking a look at some statistics on human trafficking and we'll talk a little bit also about the current pandemic and its effect on the human trafficking industry. Then we'll take a look at how human trafficking and the Multifamily Housing Industry intersect and how can you as a Mult family housing professional help recognize the signs of human trafficking and what you can do if you suspect a human trafficking situation. We'll tell you about some of the tools that Safe Cares and IEmpathize and Grace Hill have available for you and your teams and then we'll have some time at the end for questions as Tara mentioned. So I think I'm going to pass it over to Mariana, we'll get started with a poll and this is just kind of get our brains moving, get us thinking about what we maybe already know or don't know about human trafficking. So we'll just kind of get our brains moving before we dive in. Hi, hello. So we're gonna start just by putting a scenario out there to find out, you know, what would you do? What would you do if you observe the following things? So let's say someone on your property is a resident has installed interior locks on doors and windows, and it's not to keep people out, but to keep people actually in. And what if that resident in a unit seems to need someone else to speak for them? So you see somebody coming in and out, but they never really speak for themselves, and they look to someone else to answer questions for them, even though they're an adult and capable of answering those questions themselves. And let's say they seem unusually fearful or anxious. So they've got the hairs on the back of your neck that stand up and you say something's just not right. So what would you do? Do you know what to do in that situation? And I'm gonna launch the poll now just to get the temperature of those who are in attendance. Please do answer. Do you feel equipped? Are you not sure? And do you have no idea? So polls launching now. Please do let us know where you are at right now with this kind of situation. Wow, answers are coming in really fast. Thank you so much everyone. We're seeing some equipped, some not equipped. I think this is going to be great for our session today. I'm going to give it about ten more seconds. So please do chime in, let us know how you're feeling. And I see some answers in the chat coming in like not feeling equipped, Latoya says. And I think that that will maybe be an indicator. I'm gonna end the poll now and share the results. So it looks like pretty overwhelming. I'm unsure what to do in this kind of a situation. Although we do have a good group of people also representing that they do feel equipped in handling this situation. So hopefully today, whether you do or do not know what you might do, we're gonna give you some more tools to help you add to any tools you might already have, and definitely give you some if you feel that you don't have any. And most people don't know what to do, just so you know, If you don't know what to do, then most people don't, so don't feel bad. Right, exactly. Brianna, let's look now at what some of the general statistics are. We can, so we're looking, this information, it was put together by Polaris Group, which runs the Human Trafficking Hotline, the National Human Trafficking hotline. And they take calls twenty four hours a day, seven days a week in many languages, calls from people who think they may have witnessed experience a human trafficking situation themselves. And I'm going have to put on my glasses. But you'll see that in twenty nineteen, they reported that eleven thousand five hundred situations were identified, which means that there was actually a human trafficking situation going on or something that was going to law enforcement because there was enough information that it was trafficking. And you'll see from twenty fifteen to twenty nineteen, those numbers have gone up each year. We don't know why they went up, but in most cases, we're learning more about what human trafficking looks like and we're educating more people and more calls are going into Polaris. So I don't know that it's happening more often, but people are definitely able to identify and make those calls. And I think the raising awareness campaigns definitely contributes to that. And that's just a small picture of trafficking in the US. That's actually just reported calls, aren't estimated numbers. It's a hidden population. And we know that many, many people never call. Or self identify. Exactly. So, a lot of times, *** trafficking is the thing that most people think about when they think about human trafficking. But labor trafficking is also a large, large problem for people. And it's basically described as slavery, modern day slavery. So people who are brought here from other countries, sometimes people who are US nationals, who are working incredibly long hours doing tedious work, heavy work, and someone else is benefiting from that work. They're not making any money. And in most cases, have no freedom to move around. This happens in garment factories. It happens in home situations with nannies and housekeepers. So that's another large area of trafficking that sometimes we don't think about, but it's, as you can see, quite a problem. There's also intersections of both labor and *** trafficking. And one of those, including myself, I'm a survivor, have both elements, and that is forced criminality. So they can be forced to purchase drugs, survival crimes, a number of criminal activity that is usually under their oppression on their trafficker. Okay, and we have another slide in a minute for the overlap of those for sure, yep. These *** trafficking numbers that we're seeing now, any commentary there, Mariana, on those? I mean, they're self explanatory, right? And these numbers, they're just numbers. But if you see the top three identified trafficking types are ****** services, massage parlors, beauty salons, nail salons, and of course, the **** industry, but it's the illegal part of the **** industry, even though a lot of people say ***********, it's legal. And much of it is not. Thank you. And then here's that overlap that Alison was mentioning that there is like *** and labor trafficking at the same time. And there you're looking at again massage parlors, bars, strip clubs. Perfect. Thank you both so much. Yeah. I know. And I think it's so I mean, that those those statistics that we were just looking startling. Right? And I think as as Allison pointed out, like, it's it's amazing because those are likely an underestimation of the of the extent of the problem, right, which makes me you know, it's it's just again, those numbers themselves are just staggering and to know that that's likely the sort of tip of the iceberg I think is even more troubling. And, you know, I think about the you know, before I started working with Mariana and Alison, know I personally had trouble kind of getting my head around the fact that human trafficking happens. I mean, not to mention the frequency that it does and but it does happen and it happens around us all the time and you may have seen the news just in the last week, maybe even a couple of days that there were thirty three missing children recovered this month in an anti human trafficking operation that I think the FBI led in Los Angeles and it's tragic and it highlights the importance of January, I think as Human Trafficking Awareness Month and also I think the importance of us bringing our experiences and our tools and our talents together. Mean, we really all have a part to play here and when I started working with Mariana earlier this year on training for the industry, you know, we got together when we realized wow, know, Grace Hill has something like four hundred thousand active, you know, in training and vision at any given time. So we have this huge reach and IEmpathize has this on the ground experience and expertise and these wonderful engaging educational materials and bringing those things together, the hope is they can be really powerful and then we were lucky enough that our CEO connected us with Safe Cares and now we have Alison's amazing insights and all of you on the webinar and I think it's just a great time that this being the awareness month to realize that we're better together in kind of helping bring awareness to the situation and understanding some of the signs we can recognize. So I'm wondering Mariana and Alison before we'll get in a moment to kind of some signs that folks who are on the ground in apartment communities can be looking for that could maybe signal a human trafficking situation. But before we do that, do you have any thoughts or experiences to share about human king and apartment communities? Are apartment communities a place where human traffic activity happens? Does it happen on certain types of properties? Do you have stories or experiences you could share about kind of that intersection between human trafficking and apartment communities? Yeah, I certainly can. So as I mentioned before, I am a survivor and I was traffic, gang traffic for nearly a decade. And prior to that, I was also on the other side of that, and what we call the life from street culture language, without a trafficker. So there's individuals engaging in commercial *** work, just to meet their most basic needs. And in both situations, we, or I have experienced multiple interactions with people that are purchasing ***. So those are the buyers. They really are the ones that are fueling our illicit *** market. And the more high frequent buyers, have the more expensive apartments. So those are the people with power, privilege, and money. And it happens everywhere. So wherever there are men, for the most part, there will be, those elements of exploitation or the potential for it. And apartments are no different. I've I've been trafficked in apartments. I've engaged in commercial *** work. And I've also been brutally hurt right in those apartment complexes by potential buyers that were there just to harm me. And I've had, I've lived in apartments with my trafficker as well. Thanks, Allison. Yeah, that certainly is what my experience is, is that I've done many, many just trainings for apartment property managers and vendors to the apartment industry. And going into those meetings, the first question I get is, is this really a problem? We've got great security and we some cases, we have only seniors, only adults, very responsible, very nice property. So I don't think this is a problem for us. And I'll tell you that out of five meetings that I've done for the apartment industry, I've had two that have called me after, maybe a month or two after and said, you know, I think we have something going on. I've been able to check some of these boxes and maybe there is something going on. And out of those two, one was a case that actually did go to law enforcement. And it was a very nice property, a beach property. So it's going to be in your Section eight housing, it's going to be in your middle class apartments, it's going to be in your high end apartments and your very high end apartments. If you think about recent news, we know that it was happening in some really, really expensive properties. So no one's immune. Absolutely. Thank you both for sharing that. I think that's just such an important message for those of us in the industry to hear. Because as we think about this and you know sort of what can those of us who are in this industry do and I think you know that's the big question for multifamily professionals you know especially those who are on-site working with residents, walking the community every day, I think you know the question is how can I help? Think we go to the next slide that you know a good place to start and it may sound simple but I feel like a good place to start is what we're doing now, it's knowing human trafficking happens, that it exists and that it happens in the places where we as multifamily professionals work. And then from there it's be observant and notice things that could be signs that you have a human trafficking situation happening on your property. And I think there's probably lots of ways to talk about these signs that again, this sort Mariana and Alison can really help me out here, but I think one thing to mention before we, dive into a few of these is that, this isn't an exact science, right? Like not one of these signs alone means human trafficking is definitely happening, though it could. But I think the thing to think about is let's be aware of some of these indicators and know that if you see them, more than one of them, you may have a situation that you should bring to someone's attention. And I think we'll talk a little bit later about the appropriate channels for doing that. But I think it's just, yeah, it's not an exact science but I think the more we know about the kinds of things that could be indicators, the better we'll be. So I don't know, Mariana, Alison, if you want to highlight any of these that we've got here, have this, we tried to group these because there's lots of things you could look for. And we said, we've got some signs that may be around the conditions of apartments or too many people living in an apartment. Next, we'll talk about maybe some of the signs that someone a victim of human trafficking could be exhibiting but are there any sort of particular things you'd want to highlight here about some of these signs or just kind of looking for signs in general, some advice? So just like you said, Ellen, sorry. Oh, go ahead. Yeah, this is, I mean, these are just some of the signs that we have over time that law enforcement has gone through and said, well, here, in this case, this is what was happening when we've collected, but certainly, these are not the only things to look for. But I think that what we need to remember is to just open our eyes that something is not right. And I would say that if you see that there is a person who has rented a unit and it's for two people and there is constantly lots of traffic going in and out on a regular basis, in and out of that apartment, more people than the people that are on the lease, that might be something to look at. Lots definitely something to look at. Somebody who's very security conscious, who wants to know where your security cameras are and when your security guards are on duty. Sometimes that's not because they're afraid for their own security, but they want to know who's watching them. So that's always maybe a possible thing that might make you think. People that are dropped off and picked up in the parking lot, in front and back, who are moved every day in a vehicle, a van, an SUV, and dropped off again in the evening, that might be something to think about. And anyone who is very anxious when law enforcement is brought up or any type of security, that might be something to think about. And Allison, I'm sure you have great perspective on this. Yeah. And I I I do wanna throw out a disclaimer around these, indicators. Right? These red flags are great tools to have in your toolbox, but you can't rely on them alone. It's not a nice and neat, pretty picture or pretty box that you put these things in. And you might be looking for these things, and that individual is being traffic might not have any indicators. So most identifying, you know, these identic identicators can be physical, they can be, like, mental, and even oftentimes, just trusting your gut, just as you said, that's the most important thing that you can do is be present, be now, because that gut is definitely telling you something's wrong. Something just doesn't look right. It doesn't feel right, and pay attention to this, but also pay attention to be an active bystander, what are they wearing? What color was their hair? What body build, right? What car were they driving? What was the color of that car? Those types of type of information that you can share with law enforcement are incredibly helpful. And, and a lot of people forget to do that they watch, but they're so entrapped by what they're watching that they forget all the details is needed to actually find those in those persons. All these are great, I think to, just unusual activity like someone like they just they just only come out at two or three in the morning, right? Or they only come out when there's people at work, you only see them when everyone's gone in the complex. Those are important. And maybe even vehicles that are frequent vehicles at the parking lot, that you know, they don't live there, but they're just, they're in that same spot every time, you don't ever see them, you don't ever, and they're at odd hours as well. So I think those are important too. Thank you. Very, very, very helpful. Yeah and then just to talk a little bit about, I mean, again, in these things I think as you're saying Alison are so interconnected and it's not always cut and dry but you know there's things I think people can look for too and maybe how you know a person or people are acting or interacting with others that could be signs of human trafficking And you know, I know as I was kind of going through these things prior, I think it struck me you know that there seems to be a theme of you know maybe someone who you know seems to defer to someone else or doesn't have access maybe to their documents and I know in the apartment industry you may be asking for identification at certain times and maybe they don't have access but I think this is a really again sort of important collection of things to be aware of and looking forward to again knowing that yeah, it's not always a nice neat pretty picture but any if you see some kind of some of these things it could be an indicator. So again, I know Mariana, Allison, you probably have some more insights into like, sort of more of maybe the behavioral, mental, physical signs on with people that could be concerning. And just remember that a trafficking victim can be a child, can be an adult, can be male, can be female, can be LGBT. We have this picture of what a trafficker looks like and what a victim looks like, and that's not always the case. And I'm sure, Alison, you probably can speak to this, but traffickers now are recruiting younger and younger people to bring in victims. So you might see someone who looks like a high school teenager. And that's not typically what you would think of a trafficker. So just remember that it can be anyone and they can look any way and they can be male or female. Right. Yeah, and I mean, it's also like our roles, right? Our professional roles, a trafficker can be a police officer, it can be an EMS person, it can be a karate teacher. It can be a grandma, right? It can be like we mentioned a kid, right? I know that a lot of victims are trained and groomed to bring home victims. So they're called And they literally go out and try to find additional victims for their traffickers. There's also bottoms. Those are the individuals that take on the role of controlling the entire enterprise for the trafficker. They're probably the most victimized of usually the first victim. And those are the individuals that are that are put on the outward facing, so that they insulate their trafficker from all criminal justice involvement. So they might be the ones trafficking the women or the men. And they might be the ones that you see instead of the trafficker. Trafficker. And oftentimes, they're the ones that take the criminal charge as well. A lot of times too, most of the clients that I work with, including myself, I had zero ability to make eye contact. We're trained and groomed not to make eye contact. And so that's that's another important one to point out. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. And so I think, you know, again, there's so much to learn here for all of us and I think another good theme is just continued sort of education and vigilance. And so, I know as I said, feels really good and powerful to me for our organizations to be kind of coming together and jointly bringing continued information to our industry because I just think that's a really key thing, right? Whether it's for our own continued education or as we bring new people onto to work on our properties, making sure that they're up to speed. So I think we just wanted to go through IEmpathize has great resources and Alison can tell us a little bit about safe cares and then I can you know just talk a little bit about some things that Grace Hill has to offer but I'll let Mariana tell us a bit about iEmpathize and some great tools they have for our industry. Thank you. Yeah, so iEmpathize really is prevention based. So we wanna make sure that we can do whatever we can to keep someone from becoming a victim of human trafficking. And we have programs that are for youth for twelve to seventeen, eighteen that talks about how human trafficking starts and what vulnerability is and what exploitation is. And it starts from bullying and it talks about how bullying can evolve into trafficking and how there are gonna be positive and negative pulls in your life and how to gravitate towards those positive pulls. Our program, it's five lesson program with activities and questions that can be done online. It can be taught in any youth serving space. And what we do, what we call our intersect response platform is that every industry kind of intersects with the issue somewhere. So you're in the apartment industry, but you have your vendors, you have the people who do the sanitation, who do the maintenance in your apartments, the people who do the security, the people who service different aspects of your business. And each one of those industries also becomes kind of an intersection of your industry. And if we can kind of fill in those gaps, if we can take all of those industries and make sure that everybody is equipped to recognize and respond to exploitation, one statistic that I like to throw out there a lot for people who are, we're thinking about dollars and cents. One victim of human trafficking over their lifetime will go through about two million dollars worth of services, and that's mental health, assistance with housing, expunging their record, getting driver's licenses back, job placement and training, all of those are services that a person will need. So if you can just reach one person, just think about that. Not only that, but you save a life from a lot of suffering. But anyway, this is just a short video that kind of explains our intersect response platform much better than I can. All right, I'm gonna hit play. My name is Elena, and I'm a mom. I wanna tell you about youth exploitation. Every day, vulnerable youth are being exploited and trafficked. And every day, you intersect with these youth at your workplace, in your social space, and even in your home and neighborhood. Human trafficking, an extreme form of exploitation, is the second largest criminal industry in the world with more than forty million victims. It can be hard to know how to scratch the surface of this issue, but you can make a difference, a powerful difference right where you are. Introducing the Intersect Response Platform, equipping adults to recognize and respond to exploitation and human trafficking. By signing up on Edricite, you will be shown how to fight youth exploitation within your unique context. For example, police officers will be given tools specifically designed for law enforcement. Teachers will be given educational tools designed for middle and high school students. Social workers will be given tools and strategies that they can share with their clients. Parents, first responders, medical workers, hotel workers, faith leaders, all spaces that intersect with youth exploitation. The curriculum includes top notch short documentaries, training videos, expert interviews, survivor stories, illustrated scenarios, interactive questions, activities, application response plans. Intersect emphasizes a victim centered, empathetic approach that identifies possible indicators of exploitation, external factors that can make youth more vulnerable, solutions for how to prevent, report, and end exploitation. Top companies and agencies routinely use IEmpathize programs to train their staff on youth exploitation. Join intersect at IEmpathize dot org and be equipped So, so you can kind of see in that video all the different areas that might intersect with the issue. Just one example is we developed the training for truckers against trafficking. In partnership with that organization today, close to one million truck drivers are trained on how to recognize and respond. And I don't know what the exact numbers are, but I believe they're up to about eleven thousand identified traffickers. So we know it works. And one of the things that I think that we need to understand is that, for example, with law enforcement, we teach about the empathetic approach. So we talk to law enforcement personnel and we ask them, are you approaching a potential victim in an empathetic way? Are you speaking to them at eye level or are you standing above them while they're sitting at the curb? Are you looking at them and not judging them? You being empathetic? And I think that most of them will say, you know, I hadn't thought of it that way. We found that, and Allison, I'm sure again, you have a lot to contribute, but sometimes victims are suffering from trauma, and they're not going to open up, they're not going to trust easily, they're not going to ask for your help, they're not going to be out there saying, please help me because of the trauma. So if you don't approach them in an empathetic way, then you're probably not going to be able to have them help you help them. Yeah, that's great. Thank you. I totally agree. And the majority of them, as I mentioned before, self identify. If you'd asked me if that was my pimp or my trafficker, I would have had no idea what you were talking about. And to me, that was my husband, and I loved him. And so oftentimes we misidentify a lot of domestic violence cases, right? We, when they're trafficking. And I think you've made a really good point too, that you can't rescue anyone, you can't save anyone. Those individuals that are in that experience at that moment, they're trauma trafficker. And for us, when we go into recover or extract individuals from that situation, they're not happy. They want to be there because they're groomed and they're brainwashed to be attached to the trafficker. Law enforcement, I don't know why she's cussing at me because she wants to stay there. And that's why it's so critical to make that intervention so powerful in that first seventy two hours, because they're gonna do anything and everything they can to get back there. And they're not gonna be compliant. They're not gonna be happy. And that's great, thank you. Thank you, Allison. That's an interesting, so many interesting points that I think I read when I was reading the recent article about the Los Angeles, sort of event of the past few days. I think it's not gonna be exactly right, but some number maybe ten or so of the thirty three individuals who were sort of identified as being trafficked, they had already identified earlier in that whole operation. So they had already in that time gone back to being trafficked and I think that's just a, again, it's just a really powerful thing to think about. I think like you're saying, Allison, sort of the complexity of the situations emotionally and mentally. Years and years and years of, yeah. And some of them even have children together. I've had clients that were going to custody court with their trafficker. They're fighting over their kids, but she was trafficked by them. Wow. I can't remember, Alison or Morianna, one of you said, I know we have some more things to get there and we're getting close on our time here, but one of you mentioned the sort of intersection of domestic violence and that made me think about the fact that I know during COVID-nineteen, one of the really sad things that we saw happen in our country and I think in other countries too was sort of a rise in domestic violence incidents and that made me think you know I said earlier we were going to touch on sort of COVID-nineteen and the effect on the human trafficking industry. Is there anything you all could kind of say about that? Have you seen a similar effect that you know has been seen in domestic violence incidents, which have gone up? We know it's created a demand. And the reason for that, we can only kind of guess on what the reason would be, but many people who had a job that they would go to and were during the day had to do that job and they now had a lot of time on their hands and nothing to do. There were a lot of people who were feeling shut in, who were feeling lonely, who were feeling excluded from the world. And all of that could be potentially the reasons why the reports of trafficking grew during the time of COVID. And the fact that there isn't as much policing going on right now because law enforcement, like anyone else, has to be careful about themselves and their own health. So I think all of those kind of contributed to the fact that human trafficking reports went up exponentially. I think too, for me with the knowledge that I have is that that's what traffickers do, they prey on the weak. And so they exploit people on their vulnerabilities and definitely COVID impacted so many people and there's much more vulnerable than they were prior to COVID. And there will be more right, that may lose their job, potentially some businesses are not sustainable after a couple of years in a situation like this. And so I think that will rise. But also individuals that might be on that cusp, before their traffic, they're at high risk, And they're pretty close to being traffic potentially, might already be there that might have been increased it. And then there's those that reenter after they've been traffic, they've recovered, but now they're in another vulnerable situation, that's their go to. And so they, like she mentioned, people are at home, they have nothing to do, they get lonely. Those are triggers for a lot of victims, loneliness and this survival mode, you can't meet your bills. That's a trigger for those type of persons often. And they start engaging in risky behaviors. And so that can definitely lead to trafficking or dangerous situations. And any of my clients have been having horrible experiences in their apartment, because they're lonely. They're reaching out to the wrong people, and for the right things with the wrong people. And sometimes those are traffickers as well. Okay. I wonder too quickly, sorry, this is Tara, but because everyone is cooped up indoors, does that mean that there's a danger of this kind of situation being less visible just because people aren't out and about? Or does it mean that it's more, if you see traffic happening or, you know, people going back and forth, does that mean that you make it more aware of? I'm just wondering if COVID make us more clear that this is happening or less clear that it's happening. Well, I think a lot of people that work all day aren't at home. So when they're at home, they're, oh, wow. That's a lot of traffic going out in and out during the day. They're sitting in their windows, they're working, they're looking outside, they're actually paying attention. Or normally, they're just going to the next thing that they need to do on their to do list, you know. Great. Well, so, what can we share with our attendees today? I wanna make sure that we get a chance to talk to, Alison about safe cares. But just to address some things, we have a couple slides, Mariana, that you provided. We have two that are these the basic best things for us to do? These are just screenshots of our video, our media for training. If you can just take home two things from this session, is how to report human trafficking case. And of course, the first thing is if you observe somebody who's in physical, who's currently being threatened physically, and you observe something, it's a dangerous situation, first thing is call nine eleven. And that's common sense, but get help from law enforcement. So that's number one. But this is going to be your best resource. So, the National Human Trafficking Hotline is, again, I think I mentioned this before, it's twenty fourseven. They have many languages. They have someone who can speak Creole, Spanish, English. You can report through texting the word B3 to two hundred thirty three thousand seven hundred thirty three. You can call the hotline at eight eight eight three seven three seven eight eight eight. You can be absolutely one hundred percent, it can be confidential. You don't have to share your name and your information. A lot of people say that's a reason that's kept them from calling the hotline. Understand that you don't have to share your information if you don't want to. They'll ask you a few questions about what you've seen, whether you want your name and your information to be reported to law enforcement, but you don't have to. And the one big thing is that if you're wrong, if you saw something that didn't look right and you're wrong, it's okay. And most people say, don't call the hotline because I'm not sure if anything's going on, I don't know. If you see something, say something. If you report something and there's nothing there to report, great. But what if there was? So, this is just a great resource to have at your desk, somewhere in your wallet, somewhere on your person where you can have it handy, maybe saved on your phone. You never know, you're gonna be in an airport, you're in a public restroom somewhere, it can be anywhere that you observe it. So it's not necessarily only gonna be at your job. But if there's just one piece of information, I say just to have this hotline number somewhere where you can access it. And the reason why you wouldn't call law enforcement first is because sometimes things move from county to county, and not every town has a task force that is experienced in human trafficking. So, the information that goes to the hotline can go pretty wide and far, and it can go to the right people who can act quickly and acting quickly is the most important thing. Thank you so much. I think we have a video about SafeCare so we can share that and then Alison, maybe you can let us know a bit about what SafeCare does, all the great work they do. Trafficking exploitations isn't what we think it is. It's not necessarily what is portrayed in the media and the movies that we have been exposed to through our residential services with SAFE. A large portion of the youth that we work with are in care because there was trafficking that was happening at home. We see it through peer to peer, so through friendships. We see it through boyfriends at the same age. From the outside, it might look okay, but then very quickly through the grooming process, through being, you know, reeled in and and praised, adored, and spoiled, and all these things that they think is happening really below the surface. They're just starting to set them up to begin to sell them to other individuals, to exploit them. Cares is very comprehensive in that we have our advocate program, and then we have our drop in. We have case management. We have therapy. And it's all specifically designed for trafficking exploitation. But having a specifically designed program, we're really able to be survivor focused and centered and allow them to speak into what they want, what they need. So many of our have reached out themselves through our safe line and they're self identifying and they're calling and they're getting connected with carers advocate right away. We're able to provide shelter at our Grove campus and from there just kind of begin the next steps of what's next? Like, what do you want? Like, what are your goals? The average age we're working with is around eighteen. That transition age youth, eighteen to twenty four, is, a challenging age, especially if they've aged out of foster care. Just having that physical space where they know that they can come in, get a meal, meet with a case manager, meet with their therapist, and meet other peers. So many of survivors have told us that this is what I need, this is what I've been looking for. I didn't realize it was that's what was missing for me is connection with other people who are currently walking through what I'm trying to figure out. Awesome. Great. So go ahead and go into the updates. Like just, I mean, so that's sort of a general overview of what SafeCare is doing, but is there anything additional that you've been taking on for twenty twenty one or since you are now the director that you're trying implement beyond what you've already shared, you know, with us today. Right. Yeah, actually, when I took this program over, was really kind of the bare bones of a program, right? The foundational building blocks of that. So it's been really fun to be able to create something that out of nothing, just based on my own personal lived experiences and the diversity of the people that I've served over the last decade. It's fun to have an organization that, not fun, but meaningful to have an organization that is led by survivors or survivors. So we will be, working on creating our own curriculum here, in this next grant session. We, our advocacy, we're very mobile, units. So it's interesting to be able to recreate these services, amidst COVID, and be very innovative around those processes. Our advocacy is twenty fourseven, three sixty five days a year, credits to support for law enforcement and healthcare professionals. So we do have our own hotline through our agency. But we also share that responsibility with another hotline for the local work of our governor's office and their child *** trafficking team. So really targeting those those individuals that are highly impacted with the greatest consequences and collateral damage as quickly as possible and in creating a continuum of care for those clients and in a rapid response manner. We also do that ongoing relational support as was mentioned, we do walk with our survivors until they feel like they don't need us that might be just building on those relationships, creating that felt and real safety, and efforts to offer that engagement rather than them returning to their trafficker. We work with a lens of a continuum, a trafficking continuum. So we work from prevention all the way to recovery or discovery, recovery, and then beyond that, hopefully. So we'll be building out a leadership program for our survivors, that they can start to identify with their future rather than their past. Are we have a drop in center, as was mentioned, where individuals can come in and shower, get a meal. Really, it's more about building community so that these individuals have a safe place where they can meet safe and healthy people. A lot of our clients are transient, and they're comfortable out there and it's meeting them right where they're at. I think that's the hardest part about our program is being survivor centered, and allowing them make the choices because it's their choice. I know for me, I was stripped of my agency and choice as a little kid with ****** abuse, and then again with my trafficker, and then by systems too, right? So system involvement stripped of my choice and agency by that. And so we create a space where they are able to practice these skills in a safe manner and be able use their voice and take their power back. We also have therapies as well too. I think the most exciting part though is just seeing our survivors thrive, right? So there's a difference between living and existing and we get to be a part of that. That's so great. And it's making me realize, Alison, I know that Safe Cares is in Austin and Mariana, I know that your branch of I Empathize is in Orlando. So I wanna ask both of you, not everyone on this call is from that area, should people be able to expect that there are resources like yours available in other states and other cities? Think for oh, go ahead. No, I was just gonna say, well, we have an office in Colorado, we have an office in LA, and right now we are actually developing with Task Force and LA City Attorney's Office to do a wide training program for both *** and labor trafficking. But if you don't have, the first thing to seek out is to see if in your area there is a human trafficking task force. And that's kind of the place where all the agencies come together to collaborate services, education. And if not, why not find those professionals in mental health and law enforcement and start one if you don't have one? But no, not every police or sheriff's department has a human trafficking department or section. So it depends on where you live pretty much. That's a good segue into what does Grace Hill provide? Yeah, and this I think answers one of the we have a couple of questions coming in in the Q and A so we'll get to those in our last few minutes but this was one is about sort of required training in states. So Grace Hill again so fortunate to partner with IEmpathize and NAA to create a training, an online training for specific to the multifamily housing industry and that's available in vision and for those who you know don't aren't vision customers you can also take the course on Vista. But an important thing to note is that you know Florida has started this year to require training for people in the multifamily housing industry. Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation has training requirements for personnel in public lodging establishments, tongue twister, and that does include apartment communities so there are certain personnel that are required to train and so we have developed a training that was approved by DBPR so the training to meet the requirements must be approved by DBPR have made that available. So that's been great to be able to help the industry out in that way. So we have a Florida specific course that's been approved by DBPR and then we have a course that is is not Florida specific, it's appropriate for no matter what state you happen to be in. So I think it wouldn't be surprising if other states followed suit and required some training for employees of the multifamily housing industry right now Florida is the state that has that requirement. Mean, other states may require training for people in other industries. But if we're just talking about our industry, multifamily housing, apartment industry, Florida is the state right now that does have a requirement. And because it's a pilot program, other states will be, I'm pretty sure within the next two years, other states will be joining in as well. I think Florida is being used the model on how to put it together. But along with the hotel motel industry, it will be a requirement in many states. In those states where it's not a requirement, it will help with liability. If there is ever an incident on your property, you can at least say you kind of took the lead and went through, did what you could to get ahead of the issue. Yeah, yeah. That's perfect. And I think that that does address what we're seeing in the Q and A and the chat from Latoya and KC about the legal requirements for employers to provide human trafficking training. And then it's so so can we clarify that at all? Is it, like, across the board? Is it or just per state? Just in Florida. Yeah. Just in Florida. Yeah. So yes. Right now. And it's within forty five days you have to do the program for all existing employees, and then it's within forty five days of hire of new employees. Great. Perfect. And I do want to say just add to the previous discussion on that, that as a survivor leader that works nationally, we work with philanthropists and other individual stakeholders to find innovative and replicable solutions that we take to the state level, right? And that those work that we replicate in other areas as well. So we're always looking for new ways to address it. I know we have one minute left, we have one outstanding question in our Q and A. Kelly was looking for a clarification in our last minute here about is trafficking and prostitution the same? Know Kelly's saying she had a certain idea about trafficking involving selling to someone out of the area and keeping them hidden those kinds of things and prostitution. Just maybe a little note on like are they the Yeah, moving people is smuggling. So it's different than trafficking. Trafficking is defined as the selling of another human being through force, fraud or coercion, *** trafficking or labor trafficking, that person has been forced or some fraud has been committed or some type of coercion. And those people are actually not making any money from the enterprise themselves. So somebody else is selling that individual and making money off of that individual. So that's the difference between trafficking and prostitution. A prostitute could potentially sell herself to someone and make that money. A trafficking victim ends up not benefiting from that. And if you think about, it's an asset for a trafficker that can be used over and over again. You can do drug trafficking and you buy something, you sell it, and when it's gone, you have to go buy more. With a human being, a human being can be sold over and over and over again. So it's an asset that they can use for an extended period of time. But I think that's a difference. I don't know if I explained it correctly. And the other thing that over the last year, there is no child prostitute that doesn't exist because a child does not have the ability to know what they're doing or to say yes prostitution. That whole child prostitute or youth prostitute is a misnomer as well. Can I add to that? Absolutely. And I don't want to go into the discussion of consent because I mean, these are these are marginalized, vulnerable population trafficker without that third party, as well as the the those that are being trafficked. And when we put that in light of power, privilege, and money in the light of those vulnerabilities, I feel like consent really goes out the window and it's not really an active vocational choice. It's just my personal opinion. But they have the same vulnerabilities and the same risk factors. And those are the ones that are excluded from services because they're not fitting into that nice box that we put trafficking victims into. And so that's all I have. Thanks, sounds. Thank you. Thank you so much. You for your life experience, Alison, because that is so critical to making you're gonna dent in this issue and really understanding. So thank you. Yeah, I really second that Alison, thank you so much for sharing and being so candid. I just think there's no better way to really help our industry understand human trafficking and how we can begin to help. So thank you Mariana so much also. Mean the amazing work you do is so valuable and again I feel so lucky that we've been able to come together and get this information out and look forward to working together more. And thank you for everyone for joining us today, really appreciate your time and certainly you know contact any of us, you can always you know come to our site and kind of get contact and we can you know kind of get you in touch with the right people if you have further questions or want you know, pursue anything further that you've seen today. So thank you all so much for joining and have a great rest of the week. Thank you again, and Mariana and Allison, and we will be sending out this recording to everybody who registered today. So we appreciate you being here. Thank you so much, and we look forward to sharing more webinars from Grace Hill with all of you. Thank you. Bye bye.