ChildRight: New York

Curious about IOFA's work in New York? 

The following infographic highlights the Phase I goals and accomplishments of ChildRight: New York, a special project aimed at developing a coordinated response to child sex and labor trafficking across New York State.  

IOFA Welcomes Loyola Legal Intern, Agnes Zielinksi!

Hello everyone,

My name is Agnieszka (Agnes) Zielinski and I am IOFA’s new legal intern. At IOFA, I will be assisting IOFA’s Program Specialist and Attorney, Sehla Ashai, representing victims of trafficking as well as researching a variety of issues in human trafficking in order to contribute to IOFA’s Building Child Welfare Response to Child Trafficking Project. I am very excited about this opportunity as it my chance to learn about the work IOFA has done to combat human trafficking as well as advocate for vulnerable youth.

Currently, I am a second year law student and Civitas ChildLaw fellow at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. My particular focus in law school is child advocacy. My passion for working with children has been a life-long one. I especially became interested child welfare and juvenile justice when I took a class entitled “Sexual Exploitation of Children” during undergrad. This class encouraged me to intern at the Public Defender’s office, teach youth at the juvenile detention center about their legal rights, and pursue a path in child advocacy.

I have only been at IOFA for a couple of weeks, but this position has reinforced my belief that child advocacy is the right path for me. As a child of Polish immigrants, this position truly unites my passion for working with vulnerable youth and my passion for working with immigrants. I hope to use my Polish language skills to reach out to the Polish and Eastern European community. This is an exciting time for me and I look forward to the next few months!

Best,

Agnes

The Building Child Welfare Response to Child Trafficking Handbook is here!

IOFA is thrilled to announce the release of its ground-breaking publication, the Building Child Welfare Response to Child Trafficking Handbook! Special thanks go out to the Chicago Community Trust for its generous support and to the Loyola University Center for the Human Rights of Children (CHRC).

The handbook is a critical tool that forms part of IOFA and CHRC's joint initiative to train and prepare child protection and child welfare organizations to identify and receive child trafficking victims. While the criminal justice system has been targeted nationwide for intensive training and capacity building in human trafficking investigations, child protection and child welfare agencies have been unprepared to receive these victims, resulting in a critical gap in the identification of victims and provision of services.

This comprehensive guide seeks to fill that gap by providing invaluable information and resources to child protection and child welfare workers who seek to serve child trafficking victims within their governmental or non-governmental agencies. IOFA and CHRC also builds agencies' capacity to serve child trafficking victims through the provision of training, technical assistance, and detailed review of existing training programs, policies and procedures within existing child protection frameworks.

We welcome any and all feedback on the handbook, and if you would like to learn more about how IOFA can assist you agency in the development of effective responses to child trafficking, please contact us!