Adult Trafficking Committee - August 11, 2017 - Minutes

Meeting Date: 
August 11, 2017 - 2:30pm
Location: 
25 Van Ness Avenue, 5th Floor Conference Room
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102

August Adult Trafficking Committee Meeting

 

Mayor’s Task Force Anti-Human Trafficking

Adult Trafficking Committee Meeting

Friday, August 11th, 2017 2:30pm – 4pm

DPH (25 Van Ness Avenue, 5th Floor Conference Room, SF, 94102)

 

  1. Welcome/Introductions/Check-In, Agenda Review
    1. Attendees: Dongmei Tan (DPH), Victoria Chan (Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus), Claudia Abasto (Latinan), Jessica Scadron (Social Harmony), Saerom Choi (APILO), Tony Siacotos (American Massage Therapy Association), Cristy Dietrich (DPH)
  2. Update on Stanford On-Line Human Trafficking Training
    1. Minouche (point-person for project) is currently on vacation
    2. But from last meetings, recall that the Training is now available online here (https://lagunita.stanford.edu/courses/coursev1:HumanitiesSciences+HumTrfkgAwrns+SelfPaced/about) and in process of getting it translated?
  3. Update on Healthy Nail Salon program
    1. Victoria (point-person for project) shared that recently, ALC reviewed the Chinese and Vietnamese nail salon PPTs, and sent it back to Department of Environment
    2. Megan from the Department of Environment wasn’t able to attend meeting today but shared with Victoria the following update:
      1. Healthy Nail Salon consumer awareness summer campaign has wrapped up. Provided 20 bus shelter ads near recognized Healthy Nail Salons, Facebook sponsored post, and posed about the campaign on SF Environment social media accounts
  4. Update on Good Food Purchasing Program Efforts
    1. Minouche (point-person for project) is currently on vacation, but she sent email In July regarding the Sheriff’s Department desire to explore the Good Food Purchasing Program
      1. Link to Sheriff’s Department desire to explore the Program: http://www.sfexaminer.com/meal-upgrade-may-menu-sf-county-jail/
      2. “As a reminder, after we had a presentation on the Good Food Purchasing Program at our Task Force meeting last December, the Task Force was supportive of exploring with City Departments the possibility of adopting this program.  In collaboration with the Center for Good Food Purchasing and SPUR, we have reached out to the Department of Public Health (for food at General Hospital and Laguna Honda) and the Sheriff’s Department (for food at the jails).  The Department of Public Health has entered into a contract with the Center for Good Food Purchasing to conduct a baseline assessment of their food purchasing, and this article shows progress with the Sheriff’s Department as well.”
  5. Update on Outreach to Labor Groups
    1. Minouche (point-person for project) is currently on vacation
  6. Update on Record Expungment Efforts
    1. Saerom (point-person for project) 
    2. In May, APILO partnered with Rose Mukhar from Justice at Last and the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence Survivor Entry Project and did a training for legal providers about record expungement
      1. Rose is from the South Bay and has a lot of experience doing record expungement work
    3. Difference between having records vacated vs. expunged
      1. Vacated: re-open case, individual considered not guiltily, and record is removed completely. Record should not come up in any future background checks
      2. Expunged: the record is still there, but name is removed/blocked out?
    4. California is unique compared to other states because of Penal Code Section 236.14 (Vacating Arrests & Convictions for Victims of Human Trafficking). Most states limit vacate and expungement to sex trafficking, but it is not specified in California. Folks are advocating that vacate and expungement extend to labor trafficking as well
      1. Bay Area Legal Aid put together a factsheet regarding Penal Code Section 236.14, and are also doing record-sealing work.
    5. Crimes can happen in anywhere in California, and can advocate for the crime to be under 1 court/region
    6. For any questions regarding the efforts, can contact APILO or Rose. If client doesn’t live in Bay Area, can also contact ABA for a referral. APILO can do an initial assessment.
  7. Update on Vocational Services
    1. Claudia (point-person for project) shared that she doesn’t have much updates – haven’t been able to meet with her full sub Committee yet
      1. However, she did contact the Committee folks that are part of the project and also Tony Flores (sp?), former (?) San Francisco Police Department Chief Investigator of Human Trafficking. Need meeting space in SF to meet with folks and Flores and APILO is happy to host
    2. Claudia’s organization, Latinan, helps survivors of Human Trafficking find jobs, helps with facilitating the donation of formal wear for survivors to wear during interview
  8. Discussion about Jessica Scadron’s work
    1. Jessica is the Strategic Communications staff at Social Harmony. She’s trying to figure out and hear from folks on how to get involved more deeply in anti-Human Trafficking work in the Bay Area. She has 10+ years’ experience in working on women’s issues and poverty, and worked a bit with the Department of Environment. Her previous work in relation to anti-trafficking was that she helped develop a framework to eradicate trafficking in the corporate supply chain. She feels that in the media, a lot of the times the stories are misrepresented, that a survivor’s story isn’t heard. She wants to help people recognize trafficking when they see it and empower them to do something about (educating and activating the community).
      1. Jessica is currently in listening/information collecting mode
    2. We then discussed about DPH’s massage worker outreach work, and some of their tentative findings. They found that workers face a lot of stigma from the community regarding massage work. How to change the public’s perception of massage work?
    3. We decided that this potential story-telling of changing the stigma around massage work is still building up
  9. Next meetings:
    1. Mayor’s Task Force General Meeting: next Wednesday, Aug 23rd from 1:30pm – 3:30pm at City Hall
    2. Adult Trafficking Committee Meeting: Friday, November 3rd from 2:30pm – 4:00pm at Legal Aid at Work