Human Trafficking stories, statistics, facts, helpful articles for how to engage victims as well resources for how to recovery from human trafficking and more...

This eLearning project was in part made possible by the generosity of the SW Michigan Human Trafficking Task Force.

Our eLearning Tools:

Here are the tools you will need when participating in our eLearning programs.

HT Awareness 4-fold Pocket Guide This printable pdf (legal size, double-sided) is designed to assist people in remembering the key points and action strategies of our eLearning programs. Please email Patti for a pricing guide for inexpensive options to print in bulk.

1) Healthcare Pocket Guide

2) First Responder & Safety Officer Pocket Guide

3) HT Hotline Resource Card is a wallet sized card pdf that you can print and give to HT victims who may want to seek help later.

4) How to Evaluate Online Training Programs provides 10 questions you may want to ask in order to determine which online training program best meets your needs.

Our Recent Media:

Recent Media

Patti Hathaway was recently interviewed by Mitzi Perdue, owner of WinThisFight.org, an organizer who does some excellent work in fundraising and raising awareness for human trafficking. Here’s the blog she wrote on our story of HTe:

https://www.winthisfight.org/human-trafficking-be-a-thermostat-not-a-thermometer/

Because of Michigan legislation that was passed in January 2015 which allows human trafficking victims to have prostitution convictions erased, Ruth’s records were expunged on April 24, 2018. Here’s a story from TV8 WOOD TV with investigative reporter, Susan Samples.

Part 1 : Trafficked In Grand Rapids: “I knew I was a victim.”

Part 2: Trafficked In Grand Rapids: Training to spot victims

Ruth’s Sex Trafficking Story. An interview that sheds light on how Ruth fell prey to traffickers as a teen, why she stayed trapped for so long and what it took to escape and find freedom.
1. All I Knew Was Abuse
2. Become Trafficked
3. Escaping the Life
4. Prevention vs. Intervention
5. Releasing the Shame
6. The Voice that was Never Heard
7. You Can’t Hear If You Don’t Listen

Other Helpful Tools:

Release Shame: Guide to Comforting Victims provides a list of words and phrases that you can use with trafficking victims to release their shame and encourage them to move forward in their lives.

Build Rapport: Guide to Gaining Trust provides a list of words and phrases you can use with trafficking victims to help them feel at ease with you and open up.

Empower: Guide to Encouraging Victims provides a list of words and phrases you can use with trafficking victims to enable them to represent their own interests and act on their own authority.

Trafficking Terms provides you with the typical words used by trafficking victims and their pimps. Using these words will show your patients that you understand their world.

Tips for Mandated Reporters
Darkness to Light/Stewards of Children has compiled a list of valuable tips to help you understand the reporting process, what your responsibilities are in reporting child abuse and any possible follow ups you can make, along with a link to learn the reporting laws in your own state.

HT Protocol for Pediatrics
Ascension’s HT protocol for Pediatrics is an excellent resource for Step 1 and 2 questions specifically for children.

Intervention in Human Trafficking through Healthcare TedMed Talk with Susie Baldwin

FBI Victim’s Pamphlet (English) | FBI Victim’s Pamphlet (Spanish): This brochure helps victims decipher if they are actually victims or not. It has a list of services they can receive and what to expect from the FBI.

Be Selective with Words: We need to get in the habit of using the correct terminology when talking about human trafficking to avoid misleading others, show support for victims, and to help victims realize their own victimization. Here is an article that explains why.

Places We Find Reliable Research

While doing the research for this eLearning program, we came across some excellent resources that you might find helpful. We will continue to add links and book recommendations as we find more resources. Please contact Patti if you have a terrific resource that you’d like for us to consider adding to this page.

National Human Trafficking Resource Center
Host to the national anti-trafficking hotline and resource center serving victims and survivors of human trafficking and the anti-trafficking community in the United States. The toll-free hotline is available to answer calls and your questions from anywhere in the country, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year in more than 200 languages. You can remain anonymous and it is confidential.

Polaris Project
Polaris is a leader in the global fight to eradicate modern slavery. They systemically disrupt the human trafficking networks that rob human beings of their lives and their freedom. Their comprehensive model puts victims at the center of what they do – helping survivors restore their freedom, preventing more victims, and leveraging data and technology to pursue traffickers wherever they operate.

https://polarisproject.org/typology

This is a link to a printable booklet called Typology of Modern Slavery created by the Polaris Project. This book depicts the 25 different types of human trafficking. Victims’ stories can sometimes seem too bizarre or too dark to be true. Once you know the 25 different types of trafficking, their stories sound familiar and therefore, more believable.

The Office of Victims of Crimes
has compiled a list of resources for victim service providers, including a services-and-resource map, an online database to victim services in the U.S and other countries, as well as federal benefits broken down by agency, along with a list of services victims may be eligible to receive.

Heal Trafficking
Their mission is to unify and mobilize interdisciplinary professionals combating human trafficking through a health care lens, and to serve as a centralized resource on health for the broader anti-trafficking community.

Links: Places That Do Great Work for Victims

Darkness to LightTheir programs raise awareness of the prevalence and consequences of child sexual abuse by educating adults about the steps they can take to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to the reality of child sexual abuse. They have a child protection training class for parents/guardians/families.

Thistle Farms
Thistle Farms is a powerful community of women who have survived prostitution, trafficking and addiction. They employ more than 50 survivors through our social enterprises which include a natural body care company, Thistle Stop Cafe, artisan studio, and global marketplace called Shared Trade.

Shared Hope InternationalShared Hope International is dedicated to bringing an end to sex trafficking through our three-pronged approach – prevent, restore, and bring justice. They give each state a yearly report card on their HT efforts.

Ho‘ōla Nā Pua’smission is the renewal of trafficked girls through health, education, advocacy, and reintegration. HNP is committed to meeting the unique needs of underage female sex trafficked victims. Patti connected with HNP’s President/Founder Jessica Munoz, MSN, APRN-RX, FNP-BC, through her article in Emergency Physicians. Jessica gave Patti permission to adapt her case studies and they became the basis for the victim stories in Lessons 6 and 18.

Freedom A La Cart
offers supportive services, practical life skills, dignified jobs and workforce training. It’s a place where survivors can heal, learn and grow as they prepare for full-time employment opportunities in the community. They work primarily with participants of CATCH Court — a specialized docket in Columbus, Ohio founded by Judge Paul M. Herbert. Patti serves alongside the survivors as a volunteer at the Community Homeless Shelter Board where Freedom A La Cart has their kitchen.