Dear colleagues:

You are invited to join the U.S. Department of Education through livestream for its "Schools and Communities Can Help Prevent Trafficking" event. Youth experiencing homelessness are some of the young people most at-risk of being victimized by sex and labor traffickers, and yet schools are positioned to help combat this issue through prevention and intervention. Livestream event information follows. For more information on this topic overall, visit NCHE's resources by topic webpage on trafficking at https://nche.ed.gov/ibt/trafficking.php.

Best regards,

Christina Dukes, Federal Liaison

National Center for Homeless Education (NCHE)

Mark your calendars for a revealing briefing sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to promote awareness of child trafficking, learn what is being done to prevent it, and discuss the important role of educators and parents.

This event will air on the EDstream network, the Department’s system for ED video broadcasts from 10-11:30 AM on Tuesday, October 24 and will present a new educational video that is a prevention tool for children, to be used by educators, administrators, parents, and organizations working with at-risk children.

Special guests will include Mary Mazzio, an award-winning documentary film director, Olympian, and former law firm partner, who founded and directs 50 Eggs, Inc., an independent film production company dedicated to creating films with social impact, including the film being shown. Other special guests include a panel of parents and survivors of trafficking, and officials from ED and HHS.

Human trafficking—exploiting people through forced labor and commercial sex—is modern-day slavery. Statistics show that more than a quarter of victims are children, and that number is growing. This event will help bring attention to ways in which schools and communities can open up a dialogue about an issue that is too often hidden.

ED’s Office of Safe and Healthy Students (OSHS) has focused on raising awareness and preventing human trafficking in schools for more than a decade. OSHS has connected with the HHS Office on Trafficking in Persons and 50 Eggs Films, Inc. to increase youth engagement and generate youth-informed and youth-friendly prevention and intervention messages.