Franca Zadra, PhD

Affiliation: Verona University

Coming from migration studies, Dr. Franca Zadra has been increasingly involved in research regarding anti-trafficking programs for the identification, protection, and assistance to exploited persons, particularly in the context of labor exploitation in Northern Italy. Dr. Zadra finds social innovation research strategic to mobilize and connect the efforts of multiple social actors in the public and private sectors to prevent this issue. Her studies underline the importance of low-threshold social work assistance programs connected to multiagency efforts for preventing and countering the issue, to prioritize the wellbeing of exploited persons, and gain a more grounded understanding of the problem and its facilitating conditions. The research on outreach social work and digital social work methodologies aims to contribute to the upskilling and quality of social assistance programs.

Research Interests:

• Multiagency connections between institutional actors in efforts to prevent and contrast human trafficking and exploitation, and to identify, protect, and assist its victims.

• Social innovation as a potential pathway to implement that purpose.

• Reflexive outreach and digital methodologies in social work, to lower thresholds of victim assistance.

• Development of minimum standards and common guiding principles in victim support responses, which should otherwise be locally contextualized and customized around the person’s needs.