Rod Khattabi Grace Farms and Steve Francis GTI, NIPRC

Grace Farms Teams Up With Feds to Train Police Here and Abroad on Fighting Forced Labor

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Grace Farms Foundation and the U.S. government want to reduce, if not eliminate, forced labor around the world, a modern form of slavery that the foundation has made one of its goals. To that end, on Thursday officials from the foundation and federal customs and immigration agency signed an agreement to form a partnership meant to help law enforcement develop new approaches to combat forced labor. — an announcement from Grace Farms Foundation

Officials from New Canaan-based Grace Farms and the Global Trade Investigations Division of Homeland Security Investigations signed a memorandum of understanding agreeing to work together. HSI is a division of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, also known as ICE. The two organizations are partnering to convene law enforcement personnel for capacity building opportunities and training sessions starting this year at Grace Farms.

The goal of the collaboration is to bring experts in forced labor to work with law enforcement and sharing data, knowledge, and research to improve transparency and access to justice for victims of modern slavery.

Winter Grace Farms

Grace Farms to Host Panel on How Public/Private Partnerships Combat Modern Slavery

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Grace Farms Foundation today announced its upcoming public panel, “A Framework for Freedom,” which will discuss the critical role that public-private partnerships play in eradicating modern day slavery. — an announcement from Grace Farms Foundation
Hosted during National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, the event will address the importance of collaboration between organizations and local and federal law enforcement in preventing, investigating, and prosecuting human trafficking crimes. Grace Farms Foundation’s Rod Khattabi, chief accountability officer & Justice Initiative director, and Alina Reynolds, general counsel & senior advisor to the Justice Initiative, will be joined by Lt. Terry Blake of the Norwalk Police Department and Donna Hubbard, a human trafficking survivor. “It is vital that organizations like ours work in tandem with law enforcement agencies to provide the knowledge, resources, and tools necessary to effectively investigate human trafficking,” said Khattabi. “Collaborative efforts that educate the public and simultaneously support both local and global law enforcement strengthen our ability to fight this crime and increase the likelihood that one day we’ll live in a world without it.”
The Foundation’s Justice Initiative works to eradicate the multi-billion-dollar industry of human trafficking and forced labor through training, policy, and advocacy.