On January 29 and 30, the UCLA School of Law presents the Law Review symposium, Examining the Roots of Human Trafficking and Exploitation. Featured speakers include California Attorney General Kamala Harris and Anderson alumna Carissa Phelps (MBA/J.D. ’07), author of Runaway Girl: Escaping Life on the Streets, One Helping Hand at a Time.
Phelps established the organization Runaway Girl in 2012. A California FPC, or for-profit entity with a “special” or social purpose, it creates employment opportunities for former runaways and survivors of human trafficking. The company hires survivors to work as trainers, consultants and advisers with local and community-based organizations that help victims of trafficking. Trainers also work with legal, medical and law enforcement groups to teach them to see the girls and boys they meet not as prostitutes committing a crime, but as victims. “We get them to treat survivors as experts instead of criminals,” Phelps says.
Symposium discussions will span multiple topics, from the historical causes and legal dynamics of exploitation, to the state and federal responses to human trafficking. Concurrent workshops will focus on pressing community needs.
Phelps is the subject of the award-winning documentary Carissa, directed by Anderson classmate David Sauvage (’07). The film will be screened at the symposium on Thursday, January 29, at 12:45 p.m.
Read “A Slave No More,” the story about Carissa Phelps published by UCLA Magazine
Examining the Roots of Human Trafficking and Exploitation FULL SCHEDULE
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