As you may know, January is the month where we focus on International Human Trafficking Awareness, and January 11th is selected for International Human Trafficking Awareness Day. Senator Cris Dush works with many international and state renown organizations that have been fighting Human Trafficking for years. His recently enacted legislation, Pennsylvania Act 39, depicts his desire to improve victim support and provide the legislation necessary for law enforcement and social services to better assist those who have been trafficked. Furthermore, Senator Dush’s background in law enforcement has allowed him to effectively fight those who are responsible for trafficking innocent children throughout the years. Act 39, signed into law by Governor Shapiro in December 2023, allows victims to now receive social services without having to identify (for whatever reason) their traffickers, protecting victims and helping them to receive assistance and move away from this deadly environment.
In recognition of this important month, Senator Dush will be presenting short synopses of interviews he recently completed with not only victims of Human Trafficking, but also benchmark organizations that are currently fighting Human Trafficking in Pennsylvania and around the world.
Below is his schedule of interviews for January 2024:
Today, Senator Dush will be interviewing:
Sidney McCoy
Director of Advocacy and Policy Counsel, Shared Hope, International
https://sharedhope.org/
Sidney McCoy is the Director of Advocacy at Shared Hope International, a non-profit dedicated to preventing, restoring, and bringing justice for survivors of child and youth sex trafficking. Prior to joining Shared Hope, Sidney was Staff Attorney & Policy Counsel at Amara Legal Center, a non-profit that provides free legal services for those involved in commercial sex. Sidney also serves as Board President for the Virginia Coalition Against Human Trafficking (VCAHT), an alliance seeking to remove barriers to trafficking survivors by passing survivor-centered legislation, and her advocacy efforts resulted in the unanimous passage of affirmative defense and vacatur legislation in the Virginia General Assembly in 2021. Ms. McCoy holds her J.D. from Penn State Law School and is licensed to practice law in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the District of Columbia.
For more information, the complete interviews can be viewed here.