Child sex trafficking involves the use of a child in a sexual act in exchange for something of value, such as money or drugs. Exposure to sex trafficking has detrimental effects on child safety and health. Victims and survivors interact with pediatric health care providers at all stages of exploitation and recovery. It is critical that pediatric health care programs respond effectively to child sex trafficking to promote optimal outcomes. Engagement with survivor leaders should be a fundamental component of pediatric health care program development, implementation, and evaluation. Recognizing and leveraging the insight that comes from lived experience can help to inform more responsive interventions. Despite growing recognition of their valuable role, survivors are commonly overlooked or engaged in superficial, tokenistic, and sensationalistic ways. Centering and honoring the voices of survivors is therefore a vital act of social justice. In this survivor-led presentation, the presenters advocate for meaningful and ethical engagement with survivor leaders across all levels of practice, policy, and research. They propose a trauma-informed, anti-oppressive, empowerment-based model of survivor inclusion and survivor-informed practice grounded in 11 guiding principles and 14 practice strategies derived from lived experience. Their framework strives to minimize risk of re-victimization, re-exploitation, and re-traumatization of survivors. This work emerged from an innovative collaboration between a diverse group of lived experience experts and pediatric health care program specializing in child sex trafficking in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Sharing this model of care will offer guidance to service providers as they move toward intentional and authentic survivor engagement.
Trigger Warning: This presentation contains information (written, spoken, or visual) that may be triggering or (re)traumatizing to attendees.
Dr. Corry Azzopardi is a Health Systems Research Scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children, Division of Pediatric Medicine, and Assistant Professor Status-Only at University of Toronto, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Azzopardi’s program of clinical research concentrates in child maltreatment and pediatric healthcare.
“A” is a peer support worker with lived experience of adolescent sex trafficking. Previously an anti-trafficking service user, “A” uses their lived experience expertise to support youth under 18 affected by sexual exploitation/trafficking. “A” also collaborates with various anti-trafficking community organizations in an advisory capacity.