Since late June, Julie has been busy fulfilling a consulting commitment to the National Center on Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center, which is part of the DHHS Office for Trafficking in Persons. Her work will continue through September.

Julie and Dr. Wendy Macias-Konstantopoulos are the co-lead consultants on the project. Wendy is a physician who teaches surgery at Harvard Medical School and is Chief Medical and Executive Director of the Human Trafficking Initiative and Freedom Clinic in the Emergency Department of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).

Julie and Wendy are developing a human trafficking screening toolkit to be used by professionals in the fields of behavioral health, health care, public health, and social work. The goal of the screening is to identify adults at risk for labor trafficking or sex trafficking. The co-leads are responsible for development of the overall toolkit, which has involved an extensive literature search and development the screening tool that will be used nationwide. Anti-trafficking experts and survivors of trafficking have acted as advisers on the project.

The toolkit incorporates a survivor-centered, trauma-informed and culturally responsive approach. Addressing human trafficking within a public health framework is relatively new and focuses on the victims of trafficking. Most anti-trafficking efforts have until recently been carried out within a a criminal justice framework focusing on the traffickers.

Wendy and Julie will wrap up this phase of the project at the end of September. Julie will then be traveling cross country from October until mid-December to fulfill consulting and training obligations on the West Coast.