Safety Planning for Trafficking Clients and Staff

1. Safety Planning for Trafficking Clients and Staff Amy Siniscalchi My Sisters’ Place & Kathleen Morris International Rescue Committee

2. What IS Safety Anyway? • SAFETY is… • SAFETY means… • SAFETY looks like… • I know/feel SAFE when… All of these have elements of the universal while being primarily individual experiences

3. A Safety Plan Is… “an individualized plan…developed to reduce the risks [victims] and their children [or other family members] face. These plans include strategies to reduce the risk of physical violence and other harm…and also include strategies to maintain basic human needs such as income, housing, health care, food, child care, and education... The particulars of each plan vary depending on whether a [victim] has separated from [their trafficker/s], plans to leave, or decides to stay, as well as what resources are available…” ~ Jill Davies, “Safety Planning” (Greater Hartford Legal Aid, 2009).

4. Victims/Survivors are “Natural” Safety Planners… • An organized and thought-through safety plan may be novel in form for victims/survivors, but NOT in substance. • If a victim/survivor is sitting, talking, or communicating with you, they have safety planned. • Some very effective safety planning measures taken by victims/survivors appear to be the opposite. This is because safety planning is about survival!

5. Safety Plans Are… • Individualized • Client-centered, client-determined, and client-driven • Strengths-based • Constantly changing • Highly specific • **Not necessarily focused on a client leaving the trafficking situation** “Safety plan” is a verb, not a noun

6. Safety Planning Starts With Learning… • What safety looks and feels like to the client. • What the client’s approach to safety has been, is, and what client wants it to be. • Past approaches client has used and their efficacy (according to the client). • How a client’s culture may impact safety planning and decision making. • Resources, skills, and abilities the client can identify and has access to.

7. Safety Planning… • Relies on the acknowledged expertise of the client. They know their trafficker(s), their trafficker’s patterns, and their own resources. • Focuses on strategies for anticipating, responding to, and coping with possible risks: • Trafficker-generated (to client or client’s family/social network) • Life/situation-generated • May have short-term and long-term goals • MUST BE CREATIVE!

8. Keys For Effectively Assessing Safety During Screening/Assessments • Make it routine! • Ask every client during initial intake processes. • Revisit physical and emotional safety in every interaction with the client, and especially when hearing “red flags” or when new relationships are formed. • Normalize your questions. • The client may become familiar or comfortable with you asking routinely and may begin to integrate additional or more frequent thoughts about their own safety into your interactions with them or into their every day lives. • Make sure you are practiced and comfortable asking the questions and communicating genuine concern.

9. Keys For Effectively Assessing Safety During Screening/Assessments (Cont.) • Ask information-gathering questions about: • Safety (of client, family and social network) • Connections to support networks and isolation • Decision-making interference • Interactions with outside agencies (e.g., law enforcement, prosecutors, CPS, etc.) • Work, school, financial decision-making/choices • Medical, psychiatric, substance abuse symptom increases or treatment interference

10. Keys For Effectively Assessing Safety During Screening/Assessments (Cont.) • Listen For: • Elements of fear • Descriptions of ways that client’s life has “shrunk” • “Excuses” for hurtful, coercive, and/or manipulative behavior • Manipulations or encouragements of medical, psychiatric, substance abuse symptoms and triggers • Changes in client’s connections to themselves and their self esteem • Changes in client’s positive valuing of their identities

11. Observe/Listen For Other Indicators of Harm or Abuse • Does the client frequently miss appointments? • Does the client watch the time and seem nervous about leaving the appointment on time or schedule changes? • Does the client not return messages you have left, and the reasons given do not make sense? • Does the client seem desperate to pick up phone calls, texts, emails, social networking messages? • Does the client seem anxious about bringing materials home with him or her?

12. Safety Planning May Consider… • What to do if: • Client is threatened by trafficker or trafficker’s associates • Client’s family/social network are threatened • Client encounters trafficker or trafficker’s associates (expectedly or unexpectedly) • Documents and important papers • Financial considerations • Food, clothing, medical or shelter needs • Transportation concerns or needs • Child- or family-focused needs • Employment-related safety concerns • Technology usage • Communication considerations • Organizing support networks • Psychiatric considerations

13. Common Safety Plan Misconceptions • There is NO one-size-fits-all safety plan! This idea can increase danger, not safety. • Safety planning is never finished! A client’s safety can change within days, or even hours. Safety planning must be constantly revisited. • Service-provider and/or LE demands in safety plans can increase danger, returns to trafficker, and disengagement from essential services. • Especially true if victims/survivors do not have the resources, skills, and supports they need.

14. Common Safety Plan Misconceptions (cont.) • Criminal justice and/or civil legal options and remedies (e.g., calling the police, criminal charges, OPs, custody orders) may increase danger, not enhance safety. • Many shelter options (e.g., DV shelters) are often full and can NOT be relied upon as a sole safety option. Other types of shelter (e.g., homeless shelters) may not be confidentially located. • Safety plans CANNOT guarantee safety for anyone.

15. Helpful Resources • Greater Hartford Legal Aid. (2009). Safety Planning. • Polaris Project. (2011). Safety Planning and Prevention. • Safe Horizon. (2004). Safety Planning Standards for Trafficked and Enslaved Persons. • Victim Rights Law Center. (2013). Safety Planning with Adult Sexual Assault Survivors: A Guide for Advocates and Attorneys. (can be accessed on their website at www.victimrights.org under the Resources for Legal Advocates/Lawyers tab)

16. SAFETY PLANNING CHALLENGES AND EFFECTIVE PRACTICES: Open discussion and brainstorming with advocates/experts in the room

17. Particularly Challenging Safety Scenarios • Threats to victim’s/survivor’s family in another country • Different perceptions of what “safety” looks like (e.g., between client, advocate, law enforcement, CPS, etc.) • Managing staff/volunteer safety • OTHERS?