Webinars

Did you know that labor trafficking is one of the prevalent forms of human trafficking in the world? Child labor trafficking is one of the most underreported types of trafficking in the United States. This presentation is the first part in a series on how to better identify and respond to child labor trafficking. Part one will include an overview of laws, policies, current research, and promising practices. This training is for any professional who works with vulnerable children — including child survivors of sex trafficking — in social services, law enforcement, child protection, child/youth shelters, and other fields.

Who buys sex from children, and why? Tens of thousands of children are sexually exploited every year in the United States. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), there were 21.4 million electronic reports of suspected child sexual exploitation in 2020, nearly double 2019 reports. The market for child sex trafficking is driven by demand for the sexual exploitation of children by people in our communities. Through this 90-minute webinar and Q&A session you will learn: 

• Who buys sex from children, 
• The harms caused by sex buyers; and
• Strategies to reduce demand for child sex trafficking in your area. 

Judge John Romero (Ret.) and Toni McKinley, M.A., L.P.C., discuss steps that can be taken to mitigate trauma in the courtroom for youth who have survived sex trafficking trauma. Building a healing-centered and trauma-informed courtroom can mitigate some of the harmful effects of trauma. Toni McKinley shares that we do not need to wait to prove that a young person has experienced trauma, “if they are there, they are more than likely to have experienced some form of trauma… Parents are hurt, foster parents are hurt, the kids are hurt, heck even the PO is hurt and the lawyer is hurt, you know everyone’s hurt that’s why it is so important to really understand how to have compassion. All the way around we are all dealing with stuff and how do we help each other and help someone come out with a better outcome instead of being re-traumatized, re-exploited, victimized, incarcerated as an adult, and so on and so on that trauma has an impact on.”

Q&A Session with Toni McKinley, MA, LPC and Hon. John Romero (Ret.) on Understanding and Communicating with Youth Survivors of Sex Trafficking.

Judge John Romero and Toni McKinley discuss why it is important that youth who have been trafficked have a choice and a voice in the decisions made about their lives and how to ensure they have a choice and voice in the courtroom. Judge John Romero says, “being on the bench is 80% community time and 20% bench time, you have to get out in the community to know what is going on there, what’s available, and what the clientele that appear before you are facing.”

Judge John Romero and Toni McKinley discuss how to compassionately communicate with survivors of sex trafficking in the courtroom. Children who have survived sex trafficking have experienced trauma. Communicating compassionately with children who have survived sex trafficking allows court staff to build trust with survivors. “There is so much trust that has been lost in a child’s life who has been trafficked and they need to have that rapport with people in the courtroom so that they are able to communicate and hear what you are saying and how you are trying to help them,” shares Toni McKinley.

Judge John Romero and Toni McKinley discuss the behavior of youth who have survived sex trafficking or other forms of trauma. They discuss how understanding youth behavior in the context of their experiences allows judges to better address the needs of children who have been sexually exploited. Judge Romero shares that, “for a survivor of trafficking or someone who is highly traumatized, whether they are being trafficked or not, there probably is no unacceptable behavior in the courtroom.”

Guilt, shame, and stigma are the results of trauma and exploitation. Young people who have survived child sex trafficking will present in court carrying the weight of the guilt, shame, and stigma associated with their sexual exploitation. Guilt, shame, and stigma are harmful, may be easily triggered, and present in a number of ways. 

In this webinar the Honorable Barbara Mack (Ret.), Board Director, NCJFJ, and Leslie Briner, MSW discuss guilt, shame, and stigma: 

• Triggers, 
• How they present in behaviors and actions, 
• Prevention in the courtroom, social service settings, or elsewhere; and 
• Trauma-Informed Responses.

NCJFCJ and Toni McKinley, MA, LPC present this 90-minute webinar and Q&A session. Youth who have experienced trafficking have endured intense and prolonged traumatization. This trauma fundamentally rewrites the central nervous system of people who have survived trafficking. In this webinar, we discuss the neuropsychology of the trauma response to trafficking. Court staff who watch this video will walk away able to describe children’s biological response to sex trafficking and explain how using a trauma-informed lens will help youth who have survived trafficking.