Engaging Survivors In Your Work
Partnership with those with lived experience remains a central tenant of CFPIC’s PACT Project. Survivor leaders have advised on PACT project development since 2014 and CFPIC established the “PACT Thriver Advisory Team,” in 2018, a diverse team of individuals representing a varied geographic cohort of California counties. PACT Consultants provide customized technical assistance, offer training on various topics to support county-level development of programming and inform statewide policy recommendations. The team has participated in critical research by facilitating focus groups and engaging youth voice in the evaluation and improvement of statewide efforts to early-identify and prevent child trafficking.
View our recommended resources as you consider engaging survivors to inform and support county’s local efforts!
Recommended Resources
The Human Trafficking Leadership Academy (HTLA) funded by the Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP) and the Office on Women’s Health (OWH) is committed to developing and expanding survivor-informed services. In 2017, the first academy of survivor leaders and service providers developed the Survivor Informed Practice – Definitions, Best Practice and Recommendations. Visit Human Trafficking Leadership Academy (HTLA) online to learn more about survivor informed resources and apply for an upcoming class.
In response to HTLA’s recommendations, the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center created the Toolkit for Building Survivor-Informed Organizations. This toolkit is a collection of new and existing resources that build organizational capacity to collaborate with and support staff, volunteers, and consultants who identify as survivor leaders.
View the HTLA developed Self-Guided Assessment Tool to assess and consider ways to improve your agency collaboration with survivors of trafficking.
PACT Developed Resources
View a slide deck of a 2019 PACT Coordinators Convening Presentation Engaging Survivor-Thrivers in Your Work. Recorded Webinar coming soon.
Does your agency have an established policy on ethical collaboration with survivor leaders, to minimize unintended consequences? View our PACT Consultant Eligibility Policy as an example to get you started.
Survivors in the anti-trafficking movement are in a unique position. Professional and personal lives come together in an exceptional way. The decision to share one’s background is a personal decision that should be one’s own. View PACT Thriver Advisory Team's Pro’s and Con’s Guidance (developed to inform survivor choice).
Request Customized Training Or Technical Assistance
Participating PACT Counties can access customized TA from the PACT Project Director and the PACT Thriver Advisory Team.
*To maximize funding, counties with capacity may match PACT funds supporting compensation for PACT Consultants.
PACT has adopted guiding values to support our work:
We are survivor-informed.
We engage meaningful input from a diverse community of survivors at all stages of our program or project, including development, implementation and evaluation.
We are trauma-informed.
We aim to create organizational safety, trustworthiness, transparency, cultural sensitivity, collaboration and empowerment, recognizing the role that trauma plays in the lives of our staff and clients.
We are victim-centered.
We believe that a victim’s wishes, safety, and well-being must take priority in all matters and procedures, and will apply this principle as it relates to the formation of guidance and recommendations.
We are strengths-based.
We utilize a strengths-based approach to determine appropriate places and levels of engagement for survivors within an organization or project: considering expertise and skills, length of time out of the trafficking situation, training on trauma-informed, victim-centered, and survivor-informed practices, and effective management of triggers.
We champion survivor leadership.
We are committed to providing ongoing professional development opportunities to support survivors in growing their leadership capacity.
We employ survivors.
We believe in the value of survivor expertise and maintain high standards of fair and equitable compensation.
We value diversity.
We engage diverse survivors across genders, sexual orientation, and nationality; ranging from a wide variety of geographic locations and unique perspectives.
We foster peer support.
We create avenues for peer or survivor-led support systems, increasing well-being through shared experience.