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Human Trafficking of People with Disabilities

Friday, July 11th, 2025   10:00 AM EDT -1:00 PM EDT
Laura Cusack
$59.99

This presentation will NOT be recorded for playback review

The world's largest minority group is people with disabilities, and this populations experiences crime, including human trafficking, at far higher rates than their counterparts without disabilities. Yet people with disabilities are often left out of programming, education, and services.

Many service professionals also report not feeling comfortable or equipped to work with people with disabilities, despite the reality that they will likely interact with people with disabilities regularly. This presentation provides an overview of disabilities , an introduction to human trafficking, and guidance on how to interact and service human trafficking victims who have disabilities.

This class meets the DC Key Public Health Priorities criteria for DC licensees.

About the Presenter

Laura Cusack, MSW is a Senior Victim Advocate, consultant to her local Human Trafficking Task Force, and Chair of her county's Human Trafficking Coalition. Laura’s experience includes providing training to service providers on specific needs of crime victims with disabilities, as well as providing training on human trafficking and crimes against children. Laura's experience also includes facilitating psychoeducational groups for high-risk youth with trauma-related disabilities and leading community outreach efforts. She has educated over 15,000 individuals on crime-related topics. In 2019, Laura was a co-producer on a documentary about human trafficking. From 2018-2020, Laura developed, launched, and facilitated a human trafficking prevention program for a large non-profit specializing in foster care residential services. From 2018-20, Laura launched and led the Hope Campaign in Florida, a community outreach in Palm Beach County that worked with local hotels to identify missing children and increase public access to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.  She has also conducted street outreach with law enforcement.  She was awarded Victim Advocate of the Year in 2022. Laura earned her Master’s Degree in Social Work from Florida Atlantic University and is certified in the My Life My Choice, iEmpathize Empower Youth Program, and Men Breaking Free national curriculum. Laura’s passion is educating service providers on how to effectively identify crime victims and respond to their unique needs.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Clearly define what constitutes human trafficking.
  2. Identify key indicators of victims of human trafficking who have disabilities.
  3. Effectively engage and respond to victims of human trafficking who have disabilities.

Agenda:

Human Trafficking of People with Disabilities

 

Intro to Disabilities (30 mins)

Definition and Types of Disabilities

Disability statistics

Disability Etiquette

Communicating with People with Disabilities

 

Intro to Human Trafficking ( 45 min)

Human Trafficking legal definitions

Types of trafficking

Statistics

Industries where trafficking can occur

Traffickers

 

Vulnerabilities of people with disabilities (45 min)

Impact of COVID-19

Abusive Tactics

Online Grooming

Co-occurrence with other crimes

Case examples

 

 

Responding to HT victims with disabilities (45 min)

Indicators of HT

Building Rapport with victims

Reporting

Resources

This workshop offers 3 Live Interactive Continuing Education Credits

This presentation is open to:
  • Social Workers
  • Professional Counselors
  • Therapists
  • Psychologists
  • Licensed Mental Health Practitioners
  • Medical Doctors and Other Health Professionals
  • Other professionals interacting with populations engaged in mental health based services
Course Level: introductory
Level of Clinician: beginner
  • New practitioners who wish to gain enhanced insight surrounding the topic
  • Experienced practitioners who seek to increase and expand fundamental knowledge surrounding the subject matter
  • Advanced practitioners seeking to review concepts and reinforce practice skills and/or access additional consultation
  • Managers seeking to broaden micro and/or macro perspectives

Participants will receive their certificate electronically upon completion of the webinar and course evaluation form.

Disability Access - If you require ADA accommodations, please contact our office 30 days or more before the event. We cannot ensure accommodations without adequate prior notification. Please Note: Licensing Boards change regulations often, and while we attempt to stay abreast of their most recent changes, if you have questions or concerns about this course meeting your specific board’s approval, we recommend you contact your board directly to obtain a ruling. The grievance policy for trainings provided by NEFESH INTERNATIONAL is available here Satisfactory Completion Participants must have paid the tuition fee, logged in and out each day, attended the entire workshop, and completed an evaluation to receive a certificate (If this is a pre-recorded program, a post-test with a passing grade of 80% to receive a certificate.) Failure to log in or out will result in forfeiture of credit for the entire course. No exceptions will be made. Partial credit is not available. Certificates are available after satisfactory course completion by clicking here.
There is no conflict of interest or commercial support for this program.
  • NEFESH International, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0116.
  • CE You! is an approved sponsor of the Maryland Board of Social Work Examiners for continuing education credits for licensed social workers in Maryland.
    CE You! maintains responsibility for this program.
  • Therapist Express is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0129.
  • Therapist Express is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0325.
  • Therapist Express is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0129.
  • Therapist Express is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0325.
  • Therapist Express is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0774.
Refund Policy:
Full Refund until 48 hours before scheduled date.
48 hours before: full refund less $5.00 processing fee. After event no refund will be given.
*exclusions apply for reasonable need and cause.