EP24: Human Trafficking

NASW Social Work Talks Podcast

Posted Feb. 19, 2019

Our guest Susan Munsey, LCSW, founded GenerateHope, which provides long-term housing, trauma-informed therapy, education, and vocational support for young women and teens who have survived the trauma of sex trafficking. 

A survivor of trafficking herself, Munsey is passionate about rescuing and rehabilitating women and educating people on this issue.

Read a transcript of Episode 24

About Susan Munsey's work

Susan Munsey is founder and Director of Programs at GenerateHope. She sits on the San Diego Regional Human Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Advisory Council and co-chairs the HT/CSEC Service Provider Committee. She earned her MSW from Smith College and has 25 years of clinical experience in the community, in hospital settings, and in private practice.

GenerateHope is a faith-based organization that provides long-term, comprehensive safe-housing and complex trauma recovery programs to survivors of sex trafficking so that each woman can develop healthy wellness, social, psychological, educational, and vocational strengths, and reintegrate into community.

• Sex trafficking derailed their lives, but a survivor puts women back on track - CNN
• Learn more at GenerateHope.org

About Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery. This crime occurs when a person uses force, fraud or coercion to control another person for the purpose of engaging in commercial sex acts or soliciting labor or services against their will.

• Statistics on forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking - International Labour Organization
• Trauma bonding / traumatic bonding
• Stockholm syndrome

Further Reading

• Runaway Girl: Escaping Life on the Streets, One Helping Hand at a Time by Carissa Phelps
• Walking Prey: How America’s Youth Are Vulnerable to Sex Slavery by Holly Austin Smith
• The Relationship of Trauma to Mental Disorders Among Trafficked and Sexually Exploited Girls and Women - National Institutes of Health

Organizations

• Global Modern Slavery Directory
• Polaris Project
• Truckers Against Trafficking
• Saving Innocence

Tools

National Human Trafficking Hotline
888-373-7888

Ending the Game
Ending The Game© is a “coercion resiliency” curriculum created by trafficking survivors that reduces feelings of attachment to traffickers and/or a lifestyle characterized by commercial sexual exploitation, with the goal of reducing recidivism among sex trafficking survivors.

In the News

• Rep. Karen Bass Leads Passage of "Put Trafficking Victims First Act" - C-Span
• Victim advocates, NFL players, FBI, police working to break up sex trafficking at Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta - USA Today
• Pro Football Players Join the Team to End Sexual Exploitation - YouTube