Fourth Annual Stop Human Trafficking Conference
Saturday, February 17, 9:00am-12:30pm
Familial Human Trafficking
Victims trafficked by family members or trusted individuals is more common than you think.
The St. Paul United Women in Faith are hosting their 4th annual conference on human trafficking to provide a forum to educate the community, to have an exchange of information and open discussion on what is occurring in our community, and to identify potential opportunities for community members to provide support and assistance to survivors of human trafficking.
The focus of the 2024 conference will be familial trafficking. The age that human trafficking victims are first victimized is 12-14 years old. Over half of these victims are trafficked by family members or familiar people. We will have presentations from several experts, along with a panel discussion and time for questions and answers.
Guest agencies working to combat human trafficking in our community will be present with information about the work they do and provide opportunities to support their missions.
Free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
Join us in McAdams Hall (room 120) to learn more about this important topic. Enter through the glass doors at the back of the main church building, just off the small parking lot between the buildings. More parking is available down the alley.
Questions? Contact Debbie Chambers at kbc12@yahoo.com.
Speakers
Jeanette Westbrook, MSSW
Survivor Leader Jeanette Westbrook MSSW, is a Social Worker and Human Rights Defender. As a Social Worker she has over 27 years of front line experience in working with traumatized clients including traumatized refugees from around the world, many who have experienced torture, the horrors of war, exploitation in prostitution, incest survivors, rape victims. In addition, she has spent more than 20 years interfacing with court ordered individuals in Louisville, KY who have been convicted of drug and alcohol offenses, assault, robbery, trafficking, and pimping.
Ms. Westbrook is a member of Women Graduates USA -an affiliate of GWI (Graduate Women International) where she convenes the Human Trafficking Committee and co-wrote the official WG-USA Human Trafficking Policy. Jeanette is a staunch supporter and advocate for US ratification for CEDAW and lobbied for the first legally binding resolution on CEDAW in the Kentucky House – the first in the United States. She is the first co-chair of The Louisville KY Human Trafficking Task Force., and pervious President of The United Nations Association of the USA.- Kentucky Division. Ms. Westbrook is also a member of SPACE International – an international organization endorsed by President Jimmy Carter, advocating world wide for adoption of The Nordic Model – a model legislation adopted in several countries that addresses the exploitation of women and children in prostitution and trafficking. Ms Westbrook has used her lived experience as a survivor of Non-State Torture and Trafficking to advocate and forward international treaties and policies that facilitate the empowerment of exploited women and girls.
Ms. Westbrook prosecuted one of her perpetrators in 1992 for rape and incest. She was able to accomplish this due to Kentucky having no statutes of Limitations on felony crimes.
Further, her case was accepted by a UN Special Reporter on Violence Against Women as an example of extreme violence and is archived at The UN in Vienna.
Ms. Westbrook has been guest lecturer at Indiana University Bloomington at The Dept. of Criminal Justice at the request of Professor Hal Pepinski for over 14 years. She has been a presenter in over 30 United Nations panels and has convened 4 panels over the past 12 years in the area of Non State Actor Torture, Human Trafficking and Prostitution. She is the recipient of numerous awards for her work for Human Rights.
Cindy Crawford, Founder of Sycamore Farm
Cindy has worked in the field of sexual exploitation and sex trafficking by mentoring women for 12 years. She created a human trafficking and predator training and has educated thousands of individuals, including students in 6th grade and up. She is a member of the Kentucky Statewide Human Trafficking Task Force, where she spent two years as the Chairperson for the Prevent and Awareness Group. She is the Financial Coordinator for the Christian Women’s Connection and is the Founder and Executive Director of a Louisville nonprofit Ministry called Sycamore Farm that works to fill the gaps for trafficking victims in the community, mentor incarcerated women, and teach them the tactics traffickers use and give them tools to end the abuse. In May of 2023, they opened the first and only Emergency home for women wanting to escape their trafficking situation. Sycamore Farm is on a mission to provide sexually exploited women a safe opportunity to heal through holistic trauma-informed residential care and lifelong discipleship.
Dr. Azurdee Garland, Co-Founder Phoenix Rising, Inc.
Dr. Azurdee Garland is the Co-Founder and Executive Director Programming for Phoenix Rising, Inc., a nonprofit foundation serving youth impacted by commercial exploitation and domestic sex trafficking. Garland is a graduate of the University of Missouri Rolla, Western Kentucky University, and Argosy University Nashville. She has published trauma recovery workbooks, research on the motivation for helping those who have experienced extreme trauma, and resource material on trauma informed care. Garland leads Phoenix Rising’s various programs and activities educating the community on human trafficking, mentoring youth, and demonstrating the process of healing from childhood trauma. Additionally, as a survivor leader, Garland consults with agencies and individual practitioners on serving victims of trafficking and exploitation.