Mayor’s Task Force on Anti-Human Trafficking Meeting

April 26, 2017                   1:30 pm - 3:30 pm           City Hall, Room 305

1 Dr. Carlton B Goodlett Place, San Francisco, CA 94102

 

Attendees:

Mollie Brown, Huckleberry Youth Services; Jessica Brunner, Stanford University;  Gena Castro Rodriguez, District Attorney’s Office; Victoria Chan, Asian Law Caucus;  Saerom Choi, API Legal Outreach; Carly Devlin, Huckleberry Youth Services; Cristy Dieterich, Dept. of Public Health; Nathaniel Erb, Freedom Collaborative; Antoniette Flores, San Francisco Department of Public Health; Pratima Gupta, St. James Infirmary; Christine H., Tahirih Justice Center; Elise Hansell, Dept. on the Status of Women; Emily Hinsey, Love Never Fails; Minouche Kandel, Dept. on the Status of Women; Kelly Kensic, SFPD; Sojeatta Khim,  San Francisco Department of Public Health; Susan Kim, SFO Airport; Antonia Lavine, SFCAHT; Christina Lee, Department of Public Health; Carol Lee, Bayswan;  Christina Lee, San Francisco Department of Public Health; Randy Lee, San Francisco Police Department; Soknay Lim, Department of Public Health; Rosalie Lopez, SFUSD;  Paul Lesson, UCSF;  Alix Lutnick, RTI; Maggie McHale, Dept. on the Status of Women; Elisabet Medina, San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center; Angie Miot- Nudel, Larkin Street; Emily Murase, Dept. on the Status of Women; Sheela Ramesh, Bay Area Legal Aid; Carrie Schwab, Commission on the Status of Women; Dongmei Tan, Department of Public Health; Ehb Teng, The Wren Initiative, Christine Ticas, District Attorney Victim Services; Paul Wesson, UCSF; Alia Whitney- Johnson, Freedom Fwd; Penny Venetis, Legal Momentum (by phone); Karina Zhang, Family and Children’s Services;  

 

I.Introductions/ Check- In                                                                                

II.Minutes from February 22, 2017 meeting were approved. [Alia Whitney Johnson/Christine Ticas]

III.Presentation on Freedom Collaborative – Nathaniel Erb

The Freedom Collaborative is an international, online platform where organizations working to end human trafficking can collaborate.  Organizations can use filters on the website to search for information on grants and other vital stakeholders that provide services and programs to match specific needs.  The platform was created for practitioners, and background checks are done by on new members to try to weed out possible exploiters.  Four hundred fifty organizations and over 2,000 professionals are a part of the Freedom Collaborative.  The Global Modern Slavery Directory and Freedom Collaborative were merged.  The community page allows users to scroll an interactive map of other organizations for collaboration. Currently this platform is used largely by non-governmental organizations, but the Freedom Collaborative would like to expand to government participants. Over the past months, the private messaging tool has been used to establish international partnerships and case collaboration.  Users regularly come together to put on webinars, develop resources, etc. The goals for the Freedom Collaborative in 2017 are to translate the platform to more languages, develop new tools for users, and to highlight more the work of users through the global and regional newsletters.  For more information please visit the www.freedomcollaborative.org.

 

 

 

IV.Presentation on Lawsuit against Backpage.com

Penny Venetis of Legal Momentum presented via phone to the Task Force on a lawsuit filed by Legal Momentum to sue Backpage.com for facilitating and profiting from sex trafficking.  Legal Momentum has filed two separate law suits against Backpage.com, and is looking for other jurisdictions that could file parallel suits.  She requested that the Task Force support the City of San Francisco’s filing of a parallel lawsuit. Carol Leigh spoke on behalf of the Sex Work and Policy Impact Committee of the Task Force in opposition of the Legal Momentum suit.  Since the Task Force is still developing its rules for membership and voting, it is premature to take a position on an issue in which there is not consensus, so the group will need to revisit after rules are put in place.

V.Discussion of Consumer Response to Businesses Identified with Labor/ Trafficking Violations

Legal Aid at Work is filing a class action lawsuit against local restaurant Gordo’s Taqueria, for not paying wages and tips.  While this case did not involve trafficking, Cristy Dieterich posed a question to the Task Force on whether the Task Force should develop a protocol or guidance for consumers on responding to businesses that have identified trafficking violations, and how to call out businesses that are have violations without harming people who might still be working there.  The group discussed and agreed that if the Task Force were to comment on cases it should be general and it should be in regards to the connections of trafficking to labor exploitations.  The Adult Trafficking committee will look at this case and create recommendations for protocols for future cases.

VI.Committee Reports

A. Adult Trafficking (Victoria Chan): Within the Adult Trafficking committee there is a sub group for the Healthy Nail Salon program. The existing training for Healthy Nail Salon participants, which is conducted by San Francisco Environment, is being expanded to include information on labor rights and trafficking.   The sub group is currently working on translation and trying to connect with Yelp and Google on how to better publicize businesses participating in the program.  

B. Data Workgroup (Alia Whitney-Johnson) The Data Workgroup has met and is updating the data collection tool for 2017.  The group has also consulted with Paul Wesson at UCSF and Jessie Brunner at Stanford on designing a prevalence study and/or solutions to the duplicated cases issue.

C. Announcements

• May 24^th Sex Workers and the Prison Industrial Complex movie screening at 1:00 pm in City Hall, Room 305.
• There will be trainings for advocates and attorneys working with human trafficking populations. Email Saerom Choi if interested in attending.
• Stanford Human Trafficking Training is live, online and free.

VII.Next Meeting: June 28, 2017    1:30 pm – 3:00 pm, City Hall, room 305, San Francisco

Agenda Items:

• Update from the Executive Committee.
• Presentation on the updated data tool.