Crystal Bennett returns to join Dr. Sandie Morgan for part 2 of their conversation about how the Toolkit for Building Survivor Informed Organizations integrates effective strategies and builds assessment measures.

Crystal Bennett

Crystal Bennett is a seasoned professional serving as the Deputy Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility, and Special Initiatives at the Office of Trafficking in Persons’ National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center. With a rich background in social justice, advocacy, and community engagement, Crystal is dedicated to fostering inclusive environments and advancing initiatives that combat human trafficking.

Main Points

• An organization’s job postings should be intentional, explicitly stating its  commitment to SAMHSA’s 6 Guiding Principles to a Trauma-Informed Approach.


• The toolkit encourages the implementation of reflective supervision practices within an organization. This means that there should be opportunity for collaboration and building relations between supervisor and supervisee.


• Reflection supervision enhances collaboration and the choices that an employee has, creating trust and extending greater control for the person who is being supervised.


• It’s essential that a person with lived experience has control over their own story and how it is shared. The sharing of one’s story should have a purpose and shouldn’t be simply providing shock value or sensationalizing an issue.

Resources

• Toolkit: Building Survivor Informed Organizations


• SAMHSA’s 6 Guiding Principles to a Trauma-Informed Approach


• Survivor Alliance 


• National Survivor Network


• American Psychological Association 


• National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center 

Transcript

Sandra Morgan 0:14

Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast here at Vanguard University’s Global Center for Women and Justice in Orange County, California. My name is Dr. Sandie Morgan and this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. We are back with part two of our episode exploring The Toolkit For Building Survivor Informed Organizations. We’re having a wonderful conversation with Crystal Bennett, a seasoned professional, serving as the Deputy Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility, and Special Initiatives at NHTTAC. I’m not going to do her whole bio again because if you missed the last episode, you have to go back and listen to it. Crystal, thank you so much for coming back, ‘m really excited to dig in again today.

Crystal Bennet 1:23

I’m excited to be back, Sandie.

Sandra Morgan 1:26

All right. Well, we looked at the first six chapters, we looked at the framework, and we understand that this is a critical toolkit that provides opportunity for assessment along the way. So your organization should be thinking, as you look at this, to do the assessments that populate every chapter, and then in six months go back and do it again. And in a year, do it again, because we can do better when we know better, but we’re more likely to do better if we measure our progress. We’re going to jump in to chapter seven, and talk about human resource development and training. I think this was one of the most insightful chapters for me, Crystal, because I’ve been around a long time, I’ve heard a lot of the content. But this particular approach with going beyond the walls of my center, and going to our human resources, and making sure this is part of onboarding. So talk to us about how that helps with our culture shift.

Crystal Bennet 2:59

Absolutely, Sandie. I would say chapter seven is probably the longest chapter in the toolkit, which I think really emphasizes the importance when we’re thinking about our recruitment processes, our hiring practices, our onboarding protocols, and our training processes, and making sure that every single component of each of those has those guiding principles integrated throughout. Just to remind us about those guiding principles, based on SAMHSA’s six principles of a trauma informed approach, safety, trustworthiness, transparency, peer support, collaboration and mutuality, empowerment, voice and choice, and cultural, historical, and gender considerations. What that looks like is, when we’re thinking about our job postings, our salaries the way that we interview, the questions that we ask, our background screening processes, our training, our supervision, is that those should be integrated throughout each of those, and be very intentional. We first look at our hiring practices and the way that we recruit. This is where you want to assess your job postings, and are your job postings intentional around explicitly stating your organization’s commitment to those guiding principles? Because there should be no surprises when an employee or a potential employee applies for a position and then learns that there are these expectations to be trauma informed, to be person centered, to be equity focused. When we’re looking at creating those job postings, do we find that salary transparency is practiced? So somebody who’s applying can look at the salary range and determine for themselves if they would then want to apply. Having salary transparency also helps to mitigate any inequities in salaries when we’re thinking about individuals from minoritized and marginalized communities that when there is not a salary range listed, and a potential employer ask somebody how much money they would like to make, is that oftentimes we find that individuals from marginalized communities will potentially lowball themselves because there have been situations throughout our history in which we find that marginalized folks just have not experienced being valued and compensated accordingly. We also want to look at what are the requirements to support the potential employment of people, particularly people with lived experience, in looking at the possibility of creating exemptions for those with criminal history or removing drug testing requirements? Do our job descriptions demonstrate that we value not only learned experience, but lived experience? Then that creates some opportunity to replace a particular amount of lived or professional experience. So an example that’s provided in the toolkit is perhaps you have a job posting, where you would like someone with a master’s degree in social work. However, that requirement might be met by having someone who has a bachelor’s degree in a related area, and maybe experience in the field, or has lived experience, as we think about that as well. Looking at where are we recruiting? So where are we advertising positions? Do we have relationships with culturally specific schools? Historically, black colleges and universities? Colleges and universities that serve tribal communities? Making sure that we’re really expansive and thinking about where are we recruiting? What organizations might we be able to partner with, organizations that work specifically with individuals with lived experience of trafficking, such as the Survivor Alliance, National Survivor Network, also using non traditional methods of approaching. Again, just aligning with all of our guiding principles as we’re thinking about our recruitment, as we’re looking at how our job postings are written, as we’re creating opportunities for training, where we’re thinking about what is the baseline that we would want someone to come in, in terms of their knowledge or expertise around these trauma informed principles? And then where can we really enhance knowledge and expertise through our training, and through our support in ensuring that people have adequate understanding of safety and crisis protocols, that they receive training and support on trauma, trauma reactions, and creating a trauma informed culture within an organization? Lastly, when we’re thinking about professional development, is creating opportunities where continuing education, and perhaps certification is available, where an agency may be able to provide some sort of financial assistance for team members to pursue additional training opportunities, and certifications to ultimately support what their broader career goals might be.

Sandra Morgan 8:35

So one of the questions that has kind of nagged at me since I read this a few months ago, is the concept of supervision, trauma-informed supervision. I’ve been hiring survivors for a very long time, as when it has been part of different work study programs, all of that, and the trauma informed piece has been a learn as you go process. How do you advise an HR department to do trauma informed supervision training?

Crystal Bennet 9:21

Absolutely. I know this also kind of falls into both the HR chapter as well as the wellness chapter. I would certainly encourage organizations to implement reflective supervision practice