Emancipation Nation

Send a text Ashlie Bryant entered the prison system to learn from those who knew the most, the traffickers. She learned what they think, do, and say to manipulate youth. She and her two colleagues developed the 3Strands Global Foundation that focuses on anti-trafficking education, empowerment, and engagement. Using keen strategies and masterful principles, they serve as the force behind many posit...

Send a text Heidi Wilt, decorator by trade with a heart for those in need, was called to help survivors meet their basic needs and achieve their goals. Only a short time later, Heidi found herself actually running a Drop-In Center called Alabaster Gift, located in a secret location for survivors. Heidi knows that she is there for a season and will soon hand over the reins to someone else. However,...

Send a text For the 50th Episode, the Emancipation Nation brings you the anti-trafficking pioneer, Dr. Lois Lee. Dr. Lee began her work fighting youth sex trafficking in the early 70s on the streets of Hollywood and to date, has 41 years of experience. Her pioneering work blazed the trail that other anti-trafficking advocates follow today. From suing the LAPD for not arresting customers to her inv...

Send a text Not being culturally educated and sensitive is like telling your client that their history of oppression, experiences, traditions, and values they hold sacred, aren’t important to you or the helping process.  When that happens, one of the two parties are ignorant to the healing power of culture and how to use it as a strength and tool in the helping process. Cultural ignorance is uncon...

Send a text Ever thought of publishing an article in a journal, but didn’t know how to go about it? Ever heard of a double-blind review? Want to be an article reviewer for a journal? Meet Editor-in-Chief Dr. Rochelle Dalla, who understands both the difficulty and the richness in studying and working with hard-to-reach populations. She honors that sentiment through her own past research with Native...

Send a text This episode focuses on the numerous protests in the U.S. surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement and discusses the importance of protest, and what and why they are happening. In addition, the episode focuses on why anti-trafficking advocates don’t typically use protest as a form of intervention and why it might eventually become inevitable.

Send a text There are five common questions and associated fears that anti-trafficking advocates have about the work they do. These fears lead to significant barriers that serve to block our progress and speak to the heart of the problems in the movement. In this episode these fears are exposed, discussed, and potential solutions provided.

Send a text This week we are set to reach 10,000 Emancipation Nation Podcast downloads! I celebrate by sharing some little known facts about myself, how the podcast started, and reveal the exciting new and free Emancipation Nation Network, an online network and downloadable app developed just for you to connect with other advocates across the U.S. and around the world. On the Network you'll f...

Send a text Patrick Atkison, the founder of Godschild.org, an organization that helps thousands of children in poverty in El Salvador, Gutamala, India, and more. Started by Patrick, who while in college volunteered on a crisis line to meet college girls who also volunteered. There he did find the love of his life, which was the love of helping children. Enjoy the conclusion of Patrick Atkinson&apo...

Send a text While in college, preparing for the world of work, Patrick Atkinson volunteered to answer phones to help people in crisis. Little did he know that answering “the call” would lead him to become the world’s emergency room worker, triaging and healing some of the world’s most vulnerable children. Throughout his career, he has taken great risk to his own personal safety to locate runaways...

Send a text Child marriage is a reality for girls (and boys) around the world. It is defined as formal marriage or informal unions before the age of 18. South Asia is known to have the highest number of child marriages in the world, but it happens all over the world, including the U.S. In fact, only two U.S. states have laws against child marriage. Within the last 20 years, the youngest recorded U...

Send a text Through an unconventional lens, Dev Tandon, founder of the OBO Movement, takes us through his philosophy of business and his progressive concepts for a greater, more equitable future for all. While Dev is not directly involved in anti-trafficking work, he explains how the complete reversal of business-as-usual could impact the future of sex and labor trafficking, as well as provide adv...

Send a text It is typical for advocates to get involved in anti-trafficking work on many fronts and Marie DeLeon is no different. Marie is a survivor that is now giving back by helping survivors explore their own healing journey through workshops in New York City.  She is also a part of the New Yorkers for the Equality Model, a political group comprised of allies, service providers, and survivor l...

Send a text Stable and safe housing is the foundation upon which all effective anti-trafficking programming and successful recovery is built. Yet housing is the number one barrier to providing effective recovery services to victims. The Samaritan Women's Institute for Shelter Care studies the issue of housing and human trafficking victims. Their findings? There are serious gaps between the nu...

Send a text Taryn Hughes, founder of Forest, Hughes, and Associates, continues her conversation with us on compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress. She shares with us the step-by-step process of introducing training to an organization and reveals that at some workplaces, secondary traumatic stress is being categorized as an occupational hazard. Taryn shares some suggestions on self-care...

Send a text Taryn Hughes is the founder of Forest, Hughes, and Associates in New York, a company that assesses vicarious trauma and secondary traumatic stress in the workplace and brings organizations the healing they need. Beginning with a thorough assessment, these trained healers prescribe interventions that focus on traumatized and stressed agencies and compassion fatigued executives and front...

Send a text On today’s episode, we are hosting David Corliss, who holds a Ph. D. in statistical astrophysics and is the founder and director of Peace-Work. Peace-Work, as David will explain, is a volunteer cooperative organization of statisticians across the U.S. These statisticians are full-time professionals in various fields, who volunteer at Peace-Work spending their time partnering with organ...

Send a text Kerry Brodie, founder and executive director of Emma’s Torch, joins us at the mic. Emma’s Torch is a nonprofit restaurant, café, and catering business in Brooklyn, New York that provides culinary training and job placement services to refugees and survivors of human trafficking. Kerry and her restaurant have been featured in world renown media such as the New Yorker, Rachel Ray, the Ne...

Send a text Dr. Jill McCracken and Alex Andrews are co-founders of Sex Worker Outreach Project Behind Bars (SWOP-Behind Bars). Jill has over 15 years of experience researching the sex trade and Alex has experience being incarcerated for consensual sex work. These two come together to create an informative and, for some, eye-opening conversation about setting aside judgement of those in the sex ind...

Send a text In this week’s episode, we welcome Jonathan Turbin to the mic. Jonathan earned his PhD in cultural anthropology at the University of Oregon. Currently, he is the coordinator of Initiatives Against Modern Day Slavery at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Much of their work is geared toward raising awareness while also being actively involved in educati...

Send a text Today’s episode hosts Christine Stark, whose story began in Part 1. In this episode, Chris talks about how she developed her voice that has helped so many indigenous survivors of trafficking and abuse. She speaks on her own personal account of the trauma she endured, but also on how that propelled her through her life and her work. Chris touches on the traumas indigenous children encou...

Send a text Today’s guest on the Emancipation Nation Podcast is Christine Stark. Chris is a proud indigenous woman whose passion and need for exposing the truth has elevated her work as well as earned her a master’s degree in fine arts and in social work. Chris is an author, has conducted research, and demonstrated her creativity through art. In Part 1 of her interview, Chris speaks passionately a...

Send a text In today’s episode, we are hosting Erin McLoughlin. She works in the Detroit area with the Wayne County SAFE program helping victims of sexual assault and sex trafficking. Erin has been involved in advocacy efforts for about 10 years. She discusses the work of a forensic nurse examiner and the benefits it provides for survivors of sexual assault. She then flips-the-script to wear anoth...

Send a text While sex traffickers more commonly manipulate youth into the commercial sex trade, more and more sensationalized accounts of child abduction into the sex trade have cropped up on Facebook and in news reports. How do we educate parents so that they are aware of all of the ways sex trafficking occurs, particularly those most common ways. And how do we help parents resolve the ever prese...

Send a text In this episode of the Emancipation Nation, Sarah Symons, a self-educated, non-profit developer shares her anti-trafficking journey. Sarah shares her insights on what it has been like going from a songwriter for soap operas to owning and operating a non-profit organization that serves 750 girls a year. She was inspired in 2003 by a documentary, The Day My God Died , she watched by chan...