CoSHI Symposium on Trafficking Prevention: Featuring El DeRomano
Elesondra “El” DeRomano is a survivor of child sex trafficking, El is from the streets, was victimized on the streets, and now goes back out onto the streets to conduct outreach and provide services to girls and women stuck in the same cycles of violence and exploitation that she experienced growing up. El is the founder of Standing Together Against Real Slavery, (S.T.A.R.S.), a nonprofit that provides case management and mentorship for survivors and victims of sexual exploitation. El “keeps it real” on the topics of human trafficking, sex work, and exploitation. By sharing her story, El provides valuable insight into trafficking, exploitation and how to create opportunities for connection, growth, and long-term healing. El will be joined by her colleague Beth Dhillon at this event.
Beth Dhillon has worked to end human trafficking since 2009, and manages their own nonprofit (Project Restoration), providing 24/7 support to survivors of trafficking, and created the first Trafficking Prevention Education program for youth in Fresno: Elevate. Beth has worked as a consultant with organizations across the United States and joins El to facilitate a one-hour session around trafficking and LGBTQ+ survivors. Beth will share their experience, growing up in a farming community in central California, and will discuss how they came to understand their own identity, dealt with the stigma, and endured the trauma that being forced to be silent inevitably creates. Beth’s story is not unique, but it is one we don’t always hear, and one we need to be more aware of in our communities.
El and Beth will support the work of the Colorado Sexual Health Initiative (CoSHI) and CDHS through the facilitation of a one-day event. This Symposium was designed specifically for CoSHI Grantees and other community partners interested in learning more about this topic.
Lunch will be provided, and this free full-day, interactive and engaging event will take place at a location to be determined in Colorado Springs.
Please register online by April 15, so that the team can adequately plan for the appropriate number of attendees. Travel and mileage costs are reimbursable via CoSHI grantee’s existing budgets.
Please contact zoa.schescke@state.co.us if you have any questions or concerns about this event.
Date: April 25th
Times: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Location: Colorado Springs Area
Questions: zoa.schescke@state.co.us
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