News

MSW Students & Faculty Present Research at National Conference

A team of Salem State MSW students and their professor presented their research findings at the 6th Annual Conference on Prostitution, Sex Work and Human Trafficking in Toledo, Ohio on October 2, 2009.

The student team includes MSW candidates Ellen Calhoun, Melissa Geoffroy and Dominique Gutierrez. Their collaborating research professor is Dr. Elspeth Slayter, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work. The study, entitled Understanding and Supporting the Needs of Sexually Exploited Girls Involved in Child Protection Services: The More You Know, The Harder It Is, explores the ways in which working with sexually exploited girls impacts child protection workers’ personal and professional lives. The study's findings suggest the need for developing positive coping skills, targeted clinical supervision models and family engagement models that are strengths-based and trauma informed.

This international conference in Toledo draws professionals from the fields of social work, law and medicine in "an effort to lay the groundwork for future collaborative research, advocacy and program development as well as to educate social service, health care, and criminal justice professionals on human trafficking and the needs and risks of those victimized by the commercial sex industry."  The conference website is at prostitutionconference.com/.