A five-day course, hosted by the Alliance against Modern Slavery, in partnership with the Ontario Trillium Foundation and U.S. Embassy began on Monday.
The "Understanding and Working with Children and Youth who have been Sexually Exploited/Trafficked" training course is intended for law enforcement, child welfare workers, front line service providers, social workers, victim witness protection staff, legal clinics and community organizations.
Karlee Sapoznik, Alliance Against Modern Slavery president, said in a statement "This training brings together key sectors in the community to learn from one another, help draw awareness and identify next steps in order to coordinate an effective response to human trafficking for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation, which is alive and well in Windsor."
She added "90 per cent of the curriculum was written by survivors of this crime...[and] Windsor is a key source, transit and destination hub for human trafficking for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation in Canada and the United States."
The course is being held at the Windsor-Essex Children's Aid Society and is being facilitated by internationally recognized expert and survivor, Jennifer Richardson.
It comes following the release of the Walk Free Foundation's Global Slavery Index in October, which estimates that approximately 5,600 to 6,200 people toil as slaves in human trafficking situations in Canada.
The group also says child welfare legislation in Ontario needs to change to allow workers to get involved when third party offenders are abusing children, as other provinces in Canada have done.
Richardson said in a statement "child welfare legislation can be extremely effective in disrupting this type of crime...when social workers are given the right training and working under effective legislation that allows them to intervene in cases in which children have been trafficked, they can be a huge asset to criminal investigations and to the long term support that these children need."
