Week of 8/30/21: Open Doors Important Updates

New Team Member Spotlight: Dr. Missy Trzeciak

Dr. Missy Trzeciak is the newest Open Doors Clinician in the Suncoast Region. To contact her, please email [email protected]. Please join us in welcoming her to the network!

Do you have any hidden talents/fun facts about you?
We recently found my 28-year-old adopted daughter’s birth mother and brother! I am very excited and hoping they will be able to visit from Korea someday. I watch primarily K-dramas and listen to K-pop, so my Korean is coming along nicely.

What is one achievement you’re proud of?
Raising a healthy, happy, and independent daughter, who is in a loving relationship and is financially secure within her career!

What drew you to serving sex trafficked children and young adults?
I was very much aware of the need for services, having been raised with the awareness of MMIW – Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. In addition to already having the knowledge of the importance of cultural and spiritual healing, I sought out clinical training very early in my career.

 

Mark Your Calendars: Cohort Trainings Just Around the Corner

We are so excited that the annual Cohort Trainings are coming up this fall! As a reminder, each team member will be required to attend their Cohort Training. Our plan is to resume the in-person trainings at our office in Tallahassee. However, this may be adjusted if the COVID-19 pandemic or other natural causes prohibit in-person meetings or travel. More information and registration links will be sent out in the coming weeks. For any immediate questions regarding the upcoming Cohort Trainings, please contact Micheala.

Mark your calendars!

  • Survivor-Mentor Cohort Training: October 7-8, 2021
  • Regional Advocate Cohort Training: October 26-27, 2021
  • Clinician Cohort Training: November 2-3, 2021

 

Thank You for Attending the Voices Housing Assistance Services Training

Thank you to all who attended the Voices Housing Assistance Services Training last week! We hope this was a helpful resource and look forward to our continued collaboration on this new service. If you have any specific questions regarding the new housing services and protocols, please contact Micheala.

 

In Case You Missed It: Check Out Our Blog on Victim Blaming

There was so much great information shared about victim blaming from our July webinar, that we wrote a blog about it! Big shout out to Vicky Basra, CEO/President of the Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center, and Lindsay Smith, Survivor-Mentor at More Too Life for their insights on this topic. In case you missed the webinar, we summarized many of the key points in a short blog. Feel free to share this with your networks!

 

Hoyt’s Tool of the Week: Shared Hope Webinar: Successful Community Engagement, Starting the Conversation About DMST Awareness

In July, panelists, Wilnisha Sutton (She/Her), Community Response Advocate, Network for Victim Recovery of DC (NVRDC), Pastor Betty Campbell, Founder, Executive Director, Xpose Hope, and Amy Ryan Rued, Ambassador of Hope Volunteer, discussed how to effectively raise awareness in your communities about domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) with an emphasis on responsible messaging.

Upcoming Webinars

The Role of Faith in the Recovery Process: A Survivor’s Perspective (Shared Hope International)
September 15, 2:00-3:30pm ET
Panelists Marjorie Saylor, Jessica Kim and Keelin Washington will be sharing their uniquely different faith journeys through their steps to recovery. They will share how faith/spirituality played a role in their lives before, during, and after exploitation. They will share about broken faiths, unanswered questions, and doubts that they never expected to be answered or restored. Finally, they will discuss how spirituality should not be overlooked in the recovery process.

Register here

Restore, Uplift, Ignite—Restoring Matriarchy, Uplifting Survivor’s Voices and Igniting Spaces of Healing (National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center)
Wednesday, Sep 15, 2021 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM EDT
Kristin Welch with the Waking Women Healing Institute Inc., will share how they are building culturally founded, sheltered places of learning to increase wellness, prevent acts of colonial violence such as: sexual assault, human trafficking, resource extraction, MMIW, and how we heal. In this presentation participants will gain an understanding of Matriarchal and Land-Based services, Eco Systems of Care, and how to utilize the power of the collective to uplift survivor voices and build future Indigenous leaders.
A Trauma-Informed Approach to Supporting Children and Adolescents (Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health)
Wednesday, September 23, 6:00-8:00pm ET
Presented by Erik Young, M.Ed, LPC, LMHC. Free to participate. To register, email [email protected]

Register here

 

Back to School Basics: Childproofing Our Communities from Human Trafficking (Anti-Trafficking International)
Wednesday, September 23, 7:30-9:00pm ET
As our children go back into physical classrooms, social dynamics have shifted. Old friends have lost touch. New friendships were forged online. Social anxieties are intensified. Our children are likely meeting different people in person for the first time. These are great opportunities for our children to expand their friendships. They also create new opportunities for traffickers to exploit our children’s weaknesses. How do we keep our kids confident and safe as they go back into schools and real-world hangouts?

Register here

 

Faith Community & Human Trafficking Workshop (Gateway to Fr33dom Human Trafficking Taskforce)
Thursday, September 30, 10:00am-12:00pm ET
Guest Speaker: Rev. Dr. P. “Doc” Nave with Bikers Against Trafficking

Register here