News Release
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Laurie E. Bick-Jensen
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Public Relations
320 DuPont Highway
New Castle, DE
19720
(302) 295-1164
laurie.e.bick@wilmu.edu
Wilmington University Presents Human Trafficking Awareness Symposium July 19
Day-long conference targets all who want to learn more about and work against modern day slavery in Delaware and surrounding communities.
The Wilmington University College of Social and Behavioral Sciences will present the Human Trafficking Awareness Symposium from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 19, in the Doberstein Admissions Center auditorium located at 320 North DuPont Highway in New Castle. The symposium will feature national and local speakers who are experts in the field of human trafficking in addition to providing breakout learning and discussion sessions.
Click here to register for this event. Cost for the symposium is $15 for non-students; students will be admitted free of charge (ID required). Proceeds benefit Human Trafficking Awareness. Certificates of attendance for 6.5 hours of continuing training will be available at the end of the day.
“The goal for this symposium is to create greater awareness of human trafficking in Delaware and to educate as many as possible on how to recognize trafficked persons,” said Johanna Bishop, Director of Behavioral Science Programs at Wilmington University. “People often associate human trafficking, or, more effectively, modern day slavery, with something that happens to other people in places that are far away. Sadly, human trafficking happens right in front of us, every day.”
The Human Trafficking Awareness Symposium is recommended for anyone with an interest in curbing and eradicating modern day slavery, especially professionals in the fields of law enforcement, social work, mental health care, education and teaching, trauma care, academic research and psychology.
Plenary speakers for the symposium are: Courtney Walsh of the Washington D.C.-based Polaris Project, a nonprofit leader in the global leader in the fight to eradicate modern slavery; Yolanda Schlabach, executive director of Zoë Ministries, a faith-based nonprofit agency providing full rehabilitation to victims of sex trafficking in Delaware; Mary McDonough, commissioner of the Court of Common Pleas Human Trafficking Court in New Castle County, and Commissioner Loretta Young of the Family Court of Delaware. The symposium will also include table discussions led and facilitated by Wilmington University adjunct faculty members.
“The vast majority of trafficked people are ‘forced laborers,’ such as childcare and restaurant workers,domestic and migrant field laborers, sex workers and domestic servants, who have been kidnapped or otherwise coerced,” Bishop explained. “All of the scheduled symposium speakers have a passion for stopping this form of violence and rehabilitating trafficking victims, many of whom have been transported internationally and over state lines. They are often forced to do the worst kinds of work and held against their will in prison-like conditions, with most receiving only the worst kind of treatment.”
For more information about the symposium, contact Johanna Bishop at (302) 753-2618 or by email to johanna.p.bishop@wilmu.edu. For additional event information, go to wilmu.edu.
About Wilmington University
Wilmington University is a private, nonprofit institution committed to providing flexible, career-oriented, traditional and online associate, undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degree programs. Ranked as the second fastest growing doctoral institution in America 2003 – 2013 by The Almanac of The Chronicle of Higher Education, affordable tuition, academic excellence and individualized attention are hallmarks of the University that enable greater student success in their chosen careers. For more information, contact Wilmington University at 302-356-INFO (4636), via email at infocenter@wilmu.edu, or visit our website: www.wilmu.edu.
