FREE COMMUNITY AWARENESS EVENT: Look Beneath The Surface

Please join us for an important community awareness event. “Look Beneath The Surface,” will focus on the human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) and how we can bring awareness to something that unfortunately takes place across this country, including in Montgomery County.

This conference will take place on, Monday, October 30, from 8:30 a.m. – noon, at the HFM BOCES campus on State Route 67 in Johnstown, adjacent to the campus of Fulton-Montgomery Community College. This conference format is geared for social workers, counselors, teachers, law enforcement, first responders and anyone who works directly with children. This event is open to the first 100 people to register, so please do not hesitate to register. You may RSVP by clicking the link on the flyer that is attached to this email or by contacting Montgomery County Youth Bureau Director Brenda Rava by email at brava@co.montgomery.ny.us or by calling (518) 853-4355.

On the agenda:

Survivor Jasmine Grace Marino will serve as the keynote speaker. Ms. Marino will share her harrowing experience of human trafficking and sexual exploitation and how she survived.

Interactive sessions with experts to include:

CAPTAIN Street Outreach Specialists who work in Montgomery County,

Mr. John Kelly, Human Trafficking/CSEC Coordinator for Saratoga County, who previously worked with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children,

Ms. Melanie Puorto-Conte, Schenectady County Safe Harbour Coordinator,

Mr. Christopher Smith, FBI Task Force for Crimes Against Children.

By joining us, you will have an opportunity to learn about this important issue and then be able to take the information back to your organization to help identify youth who are being trafficked or commercially sexually exploited and those youth who are at risk in order to seek services for those youth in need. The knowledge gained will allow your organization to Look Beneath the Surface and help put an end to human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children in our communities.

We hope to see you on October 30 at HFM BOCES. Check-in and breakfast begins at 8 a.m.

For more information contact:
Brenda Rava, Executive Director Montgomery County Youth Bureau (518) 853-4355 brava@co.montgomery.ny.us