The session explores labor trafficking through the lens of domestic servitude, using Patty Bennett’s lived experience to equip participants with concrete tools for identification and response. Drawing from her journey as a survivor and her professional work training law enforcement and service providers, Patty will connect personal narrative, law, and practice in a way that is accessible to a multidisciplinary audience. The session will briefly introduce Patty’s story to illustrate how hopes for education and opportunity were weaponized into control, and how multiple systems failed to identify her as a victim. Building from this case, the presentation will unpack key concepts such as force, fraud, and coercion; common indicators of labor trafficking in homes and workplaces; and who is most at risk. Special attention will be given to domestic work, caregiving, agriculture, hospitality, and other sectors where exploitation often hides in plain sight. Participants will learn practical, trauma-informed questions to ask when “something feels off,” with an emphasis on safety, separation, and role-appropriate inquiry for law enforcement, therapists, advocates, and community partners. A brief interactive activity will invite attendees to practice recognizing survivors’ everyday language as evidence of force, fraud, and coercion. The session will also highlight evolving recruitment trends, including online and relational recruitment, and demonstrate how data and labor-market awareness can strengthen investigations. Patty will close by offering concrete steps for strengthening collaboration, documentation, and workplace responses so that the next survivor in plain sight is recognized, not missed.
Trigger Warning: This presentation contains information (written, spoken, or visual) that may be triggering or (re)traumatizing to attendees.
Patty Bennett is a labor trafficking survivor, trainer, and consultant specializing in domestic servitude and trauma-resilient leadership. She directs programs at Elevate Academy, an online school for human trafficking survivors, and trains law enforcement, service providers, and agencies nationally and internationally on labor trafficking identification, survivor-informed investigations, and workplace response.