The Niagara community is one step closer to combating human trafficking in the region with the release of a draft code of conduct designed to raise awareness and provide resources and strategies for local businesses and organizations.<\/p>\n
The draft Code of Conduct for Human Trafficking Prevention in the Niagara Region<\/a> is the result of a collaborative project<\/a> between TOES (Tools of Empowerment for Success) Niagara, a Welland-based non-profit organization promoting the empowerment of women, and Brock University Professional and Continuing Studies (Brock PCS).<\/p>\n The Code of Conduct includes available resources as well as specific actions businesses and organizations can take to help prevent and respond to human trafficking, with key responsibilities outlined for the steering committee, business signatories and priority sectors.<\/p>\n The draft was developed by a steering committee \u2014 led by Chair Corrina Massicotte, Vice-Chair Joyce Morocco and policy consultant Dave Augustyn \u2014 of individual community members and key representatives from the hospitality and tourism sector, educational institutions, local government, law enforcement and community agencies.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are so proud of the community response to make Niagara inhospitable to human trafficking,\u201d says Massicotte. \u201cI am proud of the work our committee and community have done already to show traffickers that they are not welcome in Niagara.\u201d<\/p>\n While the process has already involved discussions with key local organizations and input from the community, including more than 400 responses to online surveys, the steering committee is seeking further input.<\/p>\n Members of the community can provide feedback on the first draft of the Code through an online form<\/a> on the TOES Niagara Website or by participating in an online session<\/a> on Tuesday, Jan. 28 at 6:30 p.m.\u00a0Community feedback will be collected until the end of February.<\/p>\n \u201cThis project is about making Niagara the safest community it can be,\u201d says Morocco. \u201cIn order to do that, we need to hear from the community on how we can continue the work that has been started by our steering committee and project team.\u201d<\/p>\n The steering committee and project team will incorporate collected community feedback into the final version of the Code, which will be shared with local businesses, government agencies and community agencies and other priority sectors to\u00a0sign and implement.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a call to action for hospitality and tourism businesses, partner organizations and citizens alike to make Niagara inhospitable for human trafficking,\u201d says Nyarayi Kapisavanhu, Executive Director of TOES Niagara, which received funding from the Government of Canada\u2019s Women and Gender Equality<\/a> (WAGE) office for the project.<\/p>\n As the Code of Conduct continues its development, Brock PCS has been working with TOES Niagara to develop educational support materials for local businesses. The rollout of these materials will align with the adoption of the Code of Conduct.<\/p>\n \u201cBrock PCS is committed to supporting training for local businesses,\u201d says Brock PCS Director Nathan Cheney. \u201cThis is an opportunity for us to further support Niagara businesses while making the community safer.\u201d<\/p>\n TOES Niagara is an MOU partner of Brock University, with the two organizations signing an agreement in 2021 to formalize their long-standing partnership. TOES and Brock collaborate on a variety of mutually beneficial initiatives with units across the University. For more information about Brock’s MOU with TOES, visit the Brock Community Relations website.<\/a><\/p>\n Anyone with questions about the project, including representatives of hospitality and tourism industry organizations interested in getting involved, are asked to contact the project partners at either info@toesniagara.ca<\/a> or ce@brocku.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Niagara community is one step closer to combating human trafficking in the region with the release of a draft code of conduct designed to raise awareness and provide resources and strategies for local businesses and organizations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98747,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9794,1],"tags":[703,11177,7208],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98746"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98746"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98767,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98746\/revisions\/98767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}