Youth who have experienced trafficking often have significant histories of trauma before, during, and after trafficking. Efforts by professionals across a wide array of disciplines and roles are essential to achieve youth safety and wellbeing. Yet, because youth who have experienced trafficking have high rates of prior and ongoing trauma, as well as ongoing safety threats and systemic challenges, the stressors facing the anti-trafficking workforce are significant. Secondary traumatic stress (STS) and related impacts (moral distress, vicarious traumatization, “burnout”) are high among those who work with survivors of trafficking. The Trafficking Workforce Well-Being Toolkit was developed to support communities, organizations, supervisors, and individuals by curating and adapting the best available resources for STS prevention and workforce wellbeing.
Professional wellbeing is often viewed as the responsibility of the individual and, indeed, there are a range of strategies that individuals can employ to enhance resilience and protect against harms, some of which are included in the Toolkit. However, it is a point of emphasis in this Toolkit that the individual is embedded in work environments (supervisory and peer relationships), organizations, and communities that all contribute to well-being. It is essential that strategies to address wellbeing are in place at all levels to support and sustain the workforce.
This webinar will provide an introduction to secondary traumatic stress and related concepts associated with workforce wellbeing and an overview of the newly developed Trafficking Workforce Well-Being Toolkit. Whether you are an individual seeking resources for yourself, a supervisor hoping to improve your support of others, a leader interested in driving change throughout your organization, or an advocate looking to make legislative and policy change, this toolkit provides information and resources to guide your efforts.