181 – Strengths-Based and Survivor-Informed Aftercare

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. ---Joining Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak to discuss holistic care is Stephanie Taylor. Stephanie is the Program Coordinator for The Salvation Army’s Anti-Trafficking Services Program in Orange County, is part of the core leadership team for the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force, and is an Adjunct Professor at Vanguard University teaching the importance of holistic after-care services to human trafficking victim-survivors. Key Points Holistic care addresses the needs of a person, both biopsychosocial and spiritually, by bringing value to the whole person, seeing them as more than their trafficking victimization. Strengths-based aftercare is approaching a survivor with the knowledge that they have survived their difficult circumstances and can now use the strengths they have adapted to heal from the trauma they’ve experienced and thrive as an individual beyond their trauma. Survivor-informed is a constant learning experience for everyone in the field to learn from the survivors themselves. This includes using surveys, feedback, and their opinions so that we can shift programs based off of someone that’s experienced the program. Resources The Salvation Army Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force 23 – Victim Needs Served by the Salvation Army 138 – The Role of Victim Advocates 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 181, Strengths-based and Survivor-informed Aftercare. Production Credits: [00:00:09] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential. Dave: [00:00:30] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak. Sandie: [00:00:35] 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, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. And Sandie today we have a friend with us. Sandie: [00:00:47] That’s right. I’ll let you introduce her. Dave: [00:00:50] I am glad to welcome to the show today Stephanie Taylor. She is the program coordinator for the Salvation Army’s Anti-trafficking services program in Orange County. She serves as part of the core leadership team for the Orange County human trafficking task force and works with the United States Department of State International Visitors Delegation providing training on best practices in Orange County addressing human trafficking to delegates from countries around the world. Through a grant awarded by the California Office of Emergency Management Services, Stephanie travels throughout the state providing training to law enforcement and victim advocates on identifying victims of human trafficking, along with best practices, and serving victims of human trafficking after they have left their trafficking situation. She also, works as an adjunct professor at Vanguard University teaching the importance of holistic aftercare services to human trafficking victims survivors. Stephanie, we’re so, glad to welcome you to the show. Stephanie: [00:01:51] Thank you so, much. Thank you so, much for the invite. Sandie: [00:01:53] Well you have such a broad experience base, you lived in a Phnom Penh for a while as well working with international human trafficking issues, correct? Stephanie: [00:02:05] Yes. That’s kind of what launched me into going back to grad school and being able to get an education, so, I could serve the population. Sandie: [00:02:12] Well when we think about providing aftercare for human trafficking the idea of holistic care comes up over and over again, comes up in your bio, comes up in your syllabi because you teach at Vanguard, I see those things. Can you kind of give us a little context for what that means? Its way out there and people have different ideas about what holistic means. Stephanie: [00:02:35] Holistic from the way that we approach it as a framework is Maslow’s hierarchy, the framework that we’re all very familiar with. And it’s just addressing the needs of a person, both bio-psychosocial and spiritually and that looks different for every survivor. So, it’s just bringing value to the whole person, seeing them as more than their trafficking victimization, seeing them as a person that has goals and dreams that are you know mothers, daughters, partners, and grandparents even to others. And so, we see that when we bring them into our program and that’s kind of how we approach them. We know that their trauma is a piece of who they are, but it’s not all of who they are. Sandie: [00:03:15] So, when the Salvation Army here in Orange County started years ago being our partner with the law enforcement to serve victims, they really took the lead especially with international victims. Can you give us a couple examples of the diversity of survivors that Salvation Army serves? Stephanie: [00:03:39] Well currently to date we have served survivors from up to 38 countries. We worked with survivors from about 18 or 19 different dialects of language. You can see that is a broad range of survivors we worked with. Each culture is different, each approach to life is different. And so, it’s really important that we do enroll a survivor into our program. That cultural competency is a big piece, that’s a big piece of the holistic services and that we just get to know them for who they are, what their needs are, what their dreams are. And we also, understand that in some cultures collectivism is the primary piece of their culture. So, we know that that’s a big piece of the healing process in getting them connected with a community, whether it’s a community of their own from their own culture or getting them connected to a new community depending on the level of safety. And so, that’s part of the holistic services where there are times when some programs are unable to kind of address all of the needs. We kind of see where thee needs are and we have a great collaborative team through the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force that helps us meet those needs so, that we’re not just providing basic needs or just the psychological needs, but we’re also, working towar...