158 – Health and Human Services: TAG – Think Act Grow

This episode is brought to you by Vanguard University and the Global Center for Women and Justice, who offer an incredible anti-human trafficking certificate. Whether you're a frontline responder, a social worker, in the ministry, a healthcare provider, or simply a community member who wants to help, this program is built for you. Head over to gcwj.org/ahtc to take the next step and apply today. ---Dr. Sandra Morgan and Dave Stachowiak talk about TAG, which stands for “Think, Act, Grow.” TAG is a “multi-sector approach that challenges organizations and professionals to improve adolescent health through a strengths-based, positive youth development approach that emphasizes youth engagement.” Key Points The TAG initiative acknowledges the limitations of the adolescent brain but it also focuses on the unique strengths that adolescents bring. Adolescents are very quick to learn. How do you use the ability to learn quickly as a point of resilience for adolescents? There is now a rush to create a curriculum to support adolescents, but many of the creators don’t understand the whole picture. Prevention usually has the least amount of resources devoted to it. Adolescents can easily find information, but they need help processing it. Risk can be a positive thing because it leads to growth. Youth leading youth is much better than adults telling them what to do. Resources 109: Prevention – Saving up for a Rainy Day The Adolescent Brain videos TAG Toolkit Teen drug abuse facts The Power of the Adolescent Brain The Power of the Adolescent Brain – Discussion Guide The Power of the Adolescent Brain – Additional Resources National Institute on Drug Abuse for Teens 2018 Ensure Justice Conference Click here to register! Are you enjoying the show? If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to subscribe or rate the podcast on iTunes by clicking here. Click here for FAQs about podcasts and how to subscribe. Haven’t been receiving our newsletter? Visit our homepage to join today. Contact us with questions, comments, or suggestions at [email protected]. Transcript Dave: [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 158, Health and Human Services: TAG Think Act Grow. Production Credits: [00:00:10] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential. Dave: [00:00:30] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak. Sandie: [00:00:36] And my name is Sandie Morgan. Dave: [00:00:38] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, make a difference in ending human trafficking, and not duplicate the things other people are doing right, Sandie. Sandie: [00:00:50] That’s right. Dave: [00:00:52] We talk a lot on this show about the desire that all of us have to help and to serve. And in particular around the challenges of this issue the willingness that so many people have Sandie who hears about the dangers and horrors and awful stories around human trafficking to jump in right away and help. And one of the messages we’ve had is a consistent story over the last few years, story is maybe not the right word, but is to educate all of us on the fact that before we jump in with both feet and work to help one of the best ways we can help is often aligning with the resources, agencies, organizations that are already doing things. That rather than us reinventing the wheel, we can support in a very strategic way and I believe that today’s conversation Sandie we’re going to really jump into that again as a reminder for us through a different lens. Sandie: [00:01:53] Absolutely. And I have to tell you that when I discovered TAG, I really looked at myself first. Why did I not go to the Health and Human services adolescent page? They have so many resources. And here we are thinking that we’re out here on our own fighting human trafficking and trying to build kids who are able to have the kind of developmental assets that make them more resilient. And how do we empower kids to say no to some of the lures that we’ve talked about on this show that lead to the commercial sexual exploitation of our children and even labor trafficking like we mentioned in the latest episode on homeless youth? And eight percent are lured into labor trafficking. So, when I discovered their TAG initiative, I just dove in with both feet and I recognized some of the markers for what we’ve already identified our best practices in doing prevention with young people. Dave: [00:03:08] And just to take the 35,000-foot level view here for a moment Sandie so there are a number of government agencies that support awareness and prevention on human trafficking. The State Department probably is the most apparent one that we’ve talked about on the show. For those who aren’t aware, how does Health and Human Services interact with and coordinate with some of those other government agencies? Sandie: [00:03:33] Health and Human Services at a national level, they have different offices. They actually have an office on human trafficking and one of our Orange County friends that we’ve interviewed here when she was the Nets director for Salvation Army in Orange County, Sherry Harris, actually works there and is developing technical assistance tools to train communities on human trafficking. But Health and Human Services does so much more than that. And they’re of course as their name says health they are looking at health and wellness from a physical, psychological, emotional issue and they want to be able to prepare the community and the responsible leaders to address those issues. So, providing tools and resources, they are a funding agency and people apply for grants that are best practice evidence-based efforts to extend those. And the adolescent office has a lot of work that they’ve done on resilience. They’ve done work on drug abuse and teens, other addictions, the brain, and addiction. They have toolkits. And one of the things that’s pretty interesting from my perspective is they haven’t labeled anything with human trafficking or any of the very sensational stories of what happens to marginalize kids sometimes. So, their tools are very accessible for everyday people and in fact in this particular initiative they talk about the call to action to improve adolescent health because you know if you’re stronger you’re going to have more resilience and resistance to illness and disease and other environmental aspects of your life. So, the Think Act Grow, TAG, is described on their webpage as “a multi-sector approach, challenging or...