Monday, September 9, 2013 3:00-4:30 PM EST / 2:00-3:30 PM CST / 12:00-1:30 PM PST
This free peer-to-peer webinar on child welfare system responses to the trafficking of children and youth was organized by the National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections for the National Association of State Foster Care Managers. The webinar opened with an introduction to the topic by Taffy Compain, National Foster Care Specialist at the Capacity Building Division of the Children’s Bureau. Next, the webinar featured presentations from New York and Tennessee, which addressed child welfare system responses to trafficking in those States. New York’s presentation provided information regarding the State of New York’s definition of trafficking, relevant State law, and the intersection between child welfare and trafficking. Presenters from New York discussed child welfare system protocol for responding to trafficking, Office of Children and Family Services efforts to address trafficking, and the Safe Harbor Project. Tennessee’s presentation focused on the collaborative process employed to develop the Tennessee Department of Human Services Comprehensive Plan for the Delivery of Services to Human Sex Trafficking Victims. The presentation also shared the Department of Children’s Services (DCS) and Department of Human Services (DHS) approaches for ensuring comprehensive services are provided to children, youth, individuals and families. Presenters from each State discussed lessons learned, challenges, possible solutions, and recommendations.
Listening Time: 88 minutes
Presenters Bios
Taffy Compain
Taffy Compain is the National Foster Care Specialist at the Capacity Building Division of the Children’s Bureau. She has over 18 years of experience in child welfare practice and administration. As the National Foster Care Specialist, Ms. Compain provides leadership on national foster care initiatives and serves as Federal Project Officer for the National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections, liaison to the National Association of State Foster Care Managers, and Federal Project Officer for fifteen diligent recruitment grants.
New York
Lynn Baniak
Lynn Baniak is a Policy Analyst in Strategic Planning and Policy Development at the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) where she provides guidance to Local Departments of Social Services (LDSS) and voluntary agencies regarding a wide range of topics that include Human Trafficking, Immigration, Domestic Violence, Adoption, Kinship Care/KinGAP, Prevention Programs, and other children’s services issues. Lynn has been at OCFS for 11 years, and prior to her current position, she worked in Adoption Photolisting and Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children at the state. Prior to her employment at OCFS, she has a wide range of experience working at a LDSS, voluntary adoption/foster care agencies, a residential program for youth, and a child advocacy center. Lynn has been working on the issue of human trafficking, with a focus on the intersection with child welfare, over the past 6 years. She has attended many trainings and conferences on the topic, and has delivered human trafficking trainings and presentations to a widely varied audience. Lynn is the lead on human trafficking at OCFS and represents the agency at statewide and local taskforces. Lynn currently serves on the NASFCM Board of Directors.
Madeline Hannan
An Albany, New York native, Madeline earned a B.S.W. Summa Cum Laude from SUNY Albany and went on to volunteer with AmeriCorps in NYC, where she worked at a group home for teenage girls in foster care. She then earned her M.S.W. from McGill University in Montréal. As a graduate student, Madeline designed and completed an analytical study of child protection training materials on behalf of the United Nations' Department of Peacekeeping Operations. Recommendations from this study will be reflected in the new standardized training modules used by UN peacekeeping troops. Concurrently, she completed a master's thesis evaluating New York State’s Safe Harbour for Exploited Children Act that aims to support and protect children exploited by sex trafficking. Upon graduation, Madeline completed a fellowship at Polaris Project where she worked against human trafficking by researching and analyzing current issues in the field and offering policy-level solutions to eliminate slavery from the United States as a member of the Training Team. She went on to complete a fellowship at the New York State Council on Children and Families where she gained insight into the practical functioning of the New York State government in areas related to child welfare. Madeline is currently the Project Director of ChildRight: Building Child Welfare Response to Child Trafficking in New York at the International Organization for Adolescents (IOFA). In partnership with OCFS, she is leading the project's implementation to ensure that a baseline for preventing, identifying, and responding to child victims of sex trafficking is established in New York State.
Tennessee
Lloyd Bullard
Lloyd Bullard is the CEO of LB International Consulting, LLC (LBIC). LBIC has a diverse network of consultants who collaborate to meet unique consultation and training needs of organizations and communities. Mr. Bullard has almost 30 years of experience working withinmultiple child serving systems. He has a tremendous amount of experience in the areas of human trafficking, cultural and linguistic competence/proficiency, racial and ethnic disproportionality/disparities, residential care, restraints and seclusion reduction and supervisory/management training. He spent over ten years working for the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) where he held the positions of Director of Residential Care; Director of Cultural Competence and Racial Disproportionality; Director of Best Practices to Reduce the Use of Restraint and Seclusions, as well as serving as a Senior Consultant. Additionally, he has served as an Independent Consultant for the Child Welfare League of America, Cornell University, and the University of Oklahoma and Adjunct Professor for Concordia University, St. Paul, MN. Mr. Bullard has published over fifty books, chapters, position papers, guidelines, and articles on numerous child/youth related topics. Mr. Bullard holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from South Carolina State University and a Masters of Education from Concordia University.
John L. Johnson
John L. Johnsonhas 18 years of experience with Child Welfare practice in Tennessee, starting as a part-time Social Counselor at Indian Mound Boys Home for Delinquent Youth, before beginning his career with State of Tennessee Department of Children’s Services. His experience with the Tennessee Child Welfare Agency includes service as a direct care case manager to children and families, front-line supervision of staff, as well as roles in the Training Division and implementation of the State’s Family Engagement Model. Prior to taking on his current role as the Director of Foster Care and Adoptions, he served in the roles of Assistant Director of Permanency Planning and Director of Child Welfare Reform. In his current role, John has been able to support reformative work in the agency related to resource parent recruitment/retention, improving placements with kin/relatives, improving adoption as a permanency outcome, and implementing the Fostering Connections extension for families receiving adoption assistance and guardianship subsidies. John is married and the father of two children. He received his Bachelor Degree of Arts and Science from Tennessee Technological University and completed his Masters Degree in Public Service Management at Cumberland University. He serves as Vice-President of the National Association of State Adoption Program Managers and has membership in the National Association of State Foster Care Program Managers, Pi Gamma Mu Honor Society for Social Sciences, National Foster Parent Association, and Upper-Cumberland Alumni Association of Kappa Alpha Order.
NRCPFC Hot Topic Webpage on Trafficked and Exploited Children and Youth
This NRCPFC webpage lists a variety of resources from the US DHHS/Administration for Children & Families, collaborating organizations, and the States to support child welfare work with trafficked and exploited children and youth. Links to relevant websites are also provided.
Building Bridges Initiative – Cultural and Linguistic Competence: Guidelines for Residential Programs
This document was created to provide advice to residential agencies, community agency executives, board members, practitioners, young people and their families, policy makers, and advocates about the elements and processes necessary to create culturally and linguistically competent residential programs. The Guidelines address the organizational structure, practices, and service delivery approaches that improve cultural and linguistic competence and are informed by implementation research and emerging promising practices. (December 2011)
New York:
New York State Office of Children and Family Services Human Trafficking Website Section
This webpage offers a number facts and resources on the following topics: What Child Welfare Staff Should Know, Types of Human Trafficking, Common Myths, Average Trafficking Victim, New York State Laws, Why do Child Welfare Staff Need to Know About Sex Trafficking?, and Resources.
Polaris Project Website: Safe Harbor
This page of the Polaris Project website addresses Sex Trafficking of Minors and “Safe Harbor” laws. It provides information on the two elements that are required for a complete safe harbor law, New York’s current policy on the sex trafficking of minors, and the landmark decision by the Texas Supreme Court ruling that children in prostitution are victims, not criminals.
Youth in Progress Need to Know Series Brochure: Human Trafficking
This brochure is designed to help youth learn more about the topic of human trafficking and to protect them from this crime. It provides information about sex trafficking and labor trafficking, what to do if you think someone is a victim, how to avoid becoming a victim, and how to get help.
Tennessee:
The Tennessee Department of Human Services Comprehensive Plan for the Delivery of Services to Human Sex Trafficking Victims
This plan was developed in accordance with Public Chapter 963, which tasked the Tennessee Department of Human Services with developing a comprehensive plan for the delivery of services to victims of human trafficking, in partnership with the Department of Children’s Services (DCS), Department of Health (DoH), Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (DIDD), Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (DMHSAS), and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI). Appendices contain an array of resources that should be accessed for providing services to human sex trafficking victims and for increasing public awareness of this horrible crime. (2013)
