Collective Liberty

I founded Collective Liberty in 2018 and have spent the past 3 years primarily piloting our approach to ending the systems that enable human trafficking in Texas, Florida, and New England. With a small, committed team we have witnessed the great need for our work and have been recognized with prestigious national awards every year since our founding. We are now in a position where nearly a dozen new states have requested to partner with us to feel the impact of our innovations, partners, and data resources.

In 2021 I hope to use Elevate funds to scale our existing and establish new national communities of practice of direct service providers for different survivor groups and build out the tools to empower grassroots advocacy that uses local (i.e. municipal or state) level policies to create a national movement of liberty. 

There are limited organizations that can meet complex survivor needs, and even fewer available to support in crisis without notice. This means ad-hoc personal networks are not enough, the field needs a trusted, comprehensive support network driven by survivors and tested resources and tools, that is driven by the communities it serves, with survivors and their experiences at the center.

After law school, I spent 6 years as a prosecutor of gender-based violence crimes in Philadelphia, and tried the county’s (and state’s) first two human trafficking trials. I have a proven record of solo-prosecuting 20 felony jury trials, over 100 rape, human trafficking, and domestic violence felony bench trials, over 10,000 domestic violence misdemeanor hearings, and processing of over 10,000 domestic and sexual violence indictments. 

This work informs my efforts shifting systems to address root causes and has led to the arrest of over 1,000 human traffickers and shift in approach toward human trafficking in over 300 agencies. Before creating Collective Liberty, I worked at Polaris where I led national field building around multi-disciplinary collaboration in official anti-trafficking efforts, authored the national playbook for ending massage parlor (hybrid form of sex and labor) trafficking. 

Mentorship and grassroots field-building are a driving passion, and this work is my love and my sacrifice for those in greatest need. I have cultivated an amazing team of changemakers I’m proud to work alongside every day, both formally on the CL team, and informally across the nation. Collaborating with others who are working to move society toward their ideal vision of support for social structures and our fellow humans makes us all stronger.

Human trafficking is a threat to the long-term stability of the international community. Its tendrils are not limited by borders or national stability; rather, they stretch into every nation and affect every people. In an ‘industry’ that nets more than $150 billion a year, it is estimated that over 40 million people are trafficked globally, and yet only 17,880 prosecutions and 7,045 convictions globally in 2017 per the 2018 TIP Report.

In the U.S. multiple industries profit from the exploitation of vulnerable people, and the systems that enable these industries must all be identified and tackled in order to stem the tide of exploitation. Our deep bench of multi-disciplinary, anti-trafficking field experts have backgrounds navigating the very systems we aim to shift. Together our team of current/former law enforcement, direct service providers, and labor and sex trafficking survivors have a combined 50 years of experience. We start with in-depth research and data analysis. From there, we develop innovative tactics that disrupt traffickers while uplifting victims and survivors. Then we train and empower local leaders to put these tactics into action, all the while continuously learning from those on the frontlines to improve and refine the approach.

In November 2020 we launched the Human Trafficking Fusion Center, connecting anti-trafficking professionals from across the nation to the tools they need to stop traffickers. This includes cutting edge intelligence analysis, curated data, and networks of like-minded colleagues.

HTFusion transforms the current dynamic of uncoordinated reactive methods by combining and analyzing new and previously disparate datasets using subject matter expertise and AI technology to proactively identify previously unknown networks of human trafficking. In 2020 our focus was to disrupt networks’ ability to traffic humans and launder the proceeds, and to give enforcement agencies the tools and technology necessary to fight back.

As we move into 2021 we are replicating this model with robust, online resources that can reach a wide audience of survivors and service providers. This allows us to continue to empower groups and individuals that are frequently under-resourced and underserved and to elevate the marginalized voices of survivors with emerging best practices and survivor-informed tools. 

We bring local networks of survivors, law enforcement, and service providers together from across the nation to foster collaboration. There is currently no national effort to coordinate and empower this sort of collective, hyperlocal-but-national effort to prevent and end trafficking. 

Human traffickers are a broad, interconnected network that harnesses technology, victim vulnerabilities, and the ability to rely on, and learn from, fellow traffickers and connected systems. In order to break the collaborative impact of traffickers we must have a comparably powerful network of organizations that can offer support and healing. Since 2018 we have trained 8,000+ stakeholders, helped to arrest over 1,500 buyers and 1,000 traffickers, ensured 189 victims were identified and connected to trauma-informed services, and helped pass 61 laws at the state and local level to close critical loopholes. Despite COVID-19 our impact has continued to grow.

The first step in healing for a survivor is restoring their choice in how and where they receive services. We collaborate with 75 providers in over a dozen states, allowing us to provide these options for survivors. In one instance we were able to connect a U.S. survivor in Mexico to the support they wanted to receive in California. With a growing directory of over 2,000 providers we can build out strong, nuanced networks that have this level of connectivity and cooperation available to ALL survivors. Our combination of survivor consultants and focus on smart, grassroots-empowered advocacy can permanently change humanity.

Collective Liberty’s projects will target key states that are estimated to have hundreds of thousands of victims. Collective Liberty targets areas with the highest numbers of trafficking, source and transit routes, and that are connected to multiple areas to more effectively disrupt trafficking.  Ending their traffickers’ ability to profit from them and connecting them to culturally-appropriate service providers means restoring their ability to choose their own economic future.

--In 2020 we were able to connect 90 victims to services in a dozen jurisdictions across 3 states, creating systemic shifts in those jurisdictions which arguably supports their entire populations.

--In 2021 we plan to be able to connect 200 victims to services in 32 jurisdictions across 8 states 

--By 2025 we want to be able to have permanently changed how trafficking investigations are handled in the United States and have a network of providers creating safety and healing to 125 jurisdictions across 42 states - including California, Texas, Florida, and Hawaii, which have some of the highest rates of trafficking and with the potential to impact over 120 million people

In order to achieve the UN’s indicator 5.2 and 8.7 in the United States, we know we must permanently change the systems that enable human trafficking. We work specifically with systemic actors who have the ability and power to effect systemic and cultural shifts. To date, we have supported these shifts of restorative and empowering justice for human trafficking survivors in over 300 US jurisdictions, some at quicker paces than others. Those 300 jurisdictions represent a population of nearly 15 million people. Our goal is to increase those numbers exponentially each year. Now that the concept is proven and iterations have fine tuned the approach, we are ready to scale rapidly. 

This first stage is focused on equipping as many US jurisdictions with the tools, knowledge, and networks they need to slowly shift systems around some types of trafficking. As those networks establish and the collaboration models entrench, we will scale the data, intel, and best practices to encompass all 25+ types of human trafficking operating in the United States. And the scaling will continue to be as collaborative and collectively oriented as the current model of systems change work we deploy.

Demand for our services and energy in supporting and uplifting trafficking survivors throughout the criminal justice process has only increased during COVID and the pandemic, so our market fit and demand have only increased since our founding. In the next year, our biggest barrier to scale is fundraising. Government technology and issue areas focused predominantly on women and people of color are spaces woefully lacking in funding and investment. Our founding team being mostly women and people of color only contributes to the narrowing of funding paths. 

Over the next 5 years our biggest barriers and challenges are likely to be found in the pace at which government systems shift, and the underwhelming investment in technology for government, including the lack of digitization of data and investment in sophisticated and secure technology across non-profit and government agencies in all 17,000+ US jurisdictions. This slows the ability to scale technologically when the agencies with whom we need to work are technologically under-resourced. 

Systems change work is often inaccessible to the general public, slow, and not always exciting enough to garner rapid notoriety. One large hurdle for non profits is in being able to market their work, as grants often prohibit marketing, and mission-focused budgets focus on achieving social impact, making it difficult to divert funds. Individual and sustained giving patterns indicate that people are more likely to give to established and known entities. Awards honoring our  groundbreaking work that is transforming, and will ultimately eradicate, the ability for trafficking to thrive in this country. Winning the Elevate Prize will facilitate broader awareness of this solution to outdated approaches, as well as increase the input of innovation, bright ideas, and collaborative problem solving for even stronger solutions.

Additionally, since boards are not compensated for non-profits, it can be difficult to identify a consistent pipeline for a diverse, fresh board of directors who are dedicated to the responsibilities of board membership. We are lucky to have a dedicated and passionate board, but for the long term health and maintenance of our governing board, a healthy pipeline of future members is vital, something the Elevate Prize could support.

Collective Liberty regularly assesses any operational or systemic barriers that may inhibit critical lived experiences from being present among staff and its board. This can include things like removing unnecessary requirements for advanced degrees or requiring work that is often underpaid (e.g. many non-profits in the service sector are below market rate). Instead we work to recruit those with design-thinking, lived experience, and the technical skills necessary for various roles (e.g. communications, training/facilitation, grassroots advocacy). We also dedicate resources, especially time and connections, to developing staff. We seek to be an amazing workplace and to be a launching pad for those who seek a better world for everyone in the United States.

Our team is also diverse and representative. Of our 14 dedicated board and staff, 43% are people of color and first-generation immigrants, 72% are women (including our CEO and founding board chair), 43% identify as LGBT. We work closely with survivors, law enforcement, indigenous community members, and social service agencies to ensure that all of our solutions continue to be relevant and representative of the communities we are serving. And our staff are formerly OF those communities, bringing direct and relevant experience to every solution we implement. 

Collective Liberty’s team is a deep bench of multi-disciplinary, anti-trafficking specific field experts. Our background is in navigating the very systems that need to integrate and collaborate in order to holistically support survivors of human trafficking while stopping their traffickers is a unique strength, including former LE and prosecutors, former direct service providers, and survivors. Our work is led by CEO Rochelle Keyhan, a former prosecutor in Philadelphia for six years, strategic leader on system change, and international stop slavery hero (Thomson Reuters Foundation 2018). Together the Collective Liberty team has a combined 50 years of experience in anti-trafficking and social impact work and lived experience as part of the various communities we work with. 

We work closely with sex and labor trafficking survivors across all areas of our work, from trainings, to outreach, law enforcement engagement, and survivor engagement. This ensures not only accuracy in our work, but also minimized trauma through the inclusion of survivor voices and experiences to guide our work while balancing stated survivor boundaries and autonomy. Survivor leaders are involved in our vetting process, approval of protocols and scripts, and have co-created our corporate survivor engagement policy for hiring, recruiting, and collaborating with survivors.

As I watched my career move on an upward trajectory in my early professional career, that success began to feel tied to being a model minority, a token example of blending in quietly to dominant structures, and a stifling of my own sense of justice and equity.  

In a previous role, I had to decide that my identity wasn't something that could be kept abstract or devalued, especially in the context of creating a corporate diversity and equity policy. Forcing the conversation to truly center equity and inclusion was met with such resistance that I was initially shocked but unbowed. I knew that neither I, nor my team (the most diverse in the organization) could be used to provide token approval of surface improvements. Using my power to stand up on behalf of myself and the other non-white staff members around me in that meeting and every meeting after led to no longer being a “culture fit”, and also a significant shift in that company's leadership and policy structures. It also gave me the freedom to create an organization of diverse, talented people committed to changing the world true to their authentic selves.

I am recognized as the leading expert on human trafficking and nuanced law enforcement approaches and design thinking and so have nearly monthly speaking engagement requests. 

As a national expert, I have been featured across nationally syndicated television broadcasts, as well as local channels. Select television features include:

• Lisa Ling “This Is Life: The Secret World of Massage Parlors” https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/12/04/this-is-life-massage-parlors-clip-2.cnn

• NBC Nightly News https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/qanon-looms-behind-nationwide-rallies-viral-hashtags-n1237722

• CBS - Aurora, CO https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/investigations/aurora-bases-illicit-massage-ordinance-off-recommendations-from-a-human-trafficking-organization/73-c132ccaf-9631-47d8-9521-f562ac224086

• Washington Post Feature - https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/dc-start-up-collective-liberty-uses-technology-and-data-to-help-police-stop-human-trafficking/2020/03/13/72ccf670-58c4-11ea-9b35-def5a027d470_story.html

• Fox News - https://video.foxnews.com/v/6256273879001#sp=show-clips

• Dallas Morning News - https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2020/03/28/sex-trafficking-poses-the-risk-of-spreading-covid-19-to-thousands-of-people/

My expertise has also been sought for federal, state, and local policy, including federal task forces and state level senate hearings, including:

• Testimony before California Senate - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeAMldm-nC0

Finally, I am often honored with the privilege to provide keynote addresses and trainings and support for international, national, and local conferences. A selection of those recent opportunities are: 

• Keynote Panelist, “The Women America Know”, The Aspen Ideas Festival: https://www.aspenideas.org/sessions/the-america-women-know

• Dozens of speaking engagements across the world for audiences from 12 to 1,000+, including international livestreamed events. Select engagements include:

  •  South by Southwest (SXSW), Crimes Against Women Conference, Thomson Reuters Foundation Anti-Slavery “Trust” Conference in London, INternational Association of Financial Crimes Investigators (local and national conferences); Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Professionals (local and national conferences); 

  • Cyber Week. Tel Aviv, Israel;  RENATE Policy Conference. Sweden, May 2019. Presented on US policy and best practices for combatting human trafficking via victim-centered investigations and support services to RENATE. RENATE is a network of social service support and policy agencies supporting trafficking survivors across European nations.

The biggest hurdle for non-profits is becoming known. Individual and sustained giving patterns indicate that people are more likely to give to established and known entities. We know that we are a groundbreaking organization that will permanently transform, and ultimately eradicate, the ability of trafficking to thrive in this country. In order to do this we need sustained capital and we need to grow our organization with strong, diverse team members and board members that can bring technical skills, as well as different experiences and viewpoints that are a vital part of our innovative and nuanced approaches to system change. The funding from Elevate, and especially our exposure to new markets and potential individual or grant donors, will go a long way in ensuring the longevity of our diverse fundraising portfolio.

We partner with hundreds of local law enforcement, direct service providers, civil enforcement, policymakers at the state and municipal levels, survivor leaders, grassroots advocates, and connected private industries like finance/banking and hotel/hospitality. This is a struggle we must all come together to combat and we know that we must partner with multiple sectors to achieve permanent system change. We currently have key partnerships in place, with growing trust and deepened collaboration every year.

1. Federal agencies (e.g. Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Patrol, Department of Transportation, Department of Treasury)

2. State and Local Law enforcement agencies (hundreds of police departments, sheriffs offices, and prosecution offices, representing over 300 jurisdictions across 45 states)

3. Non-profit direct service providing agencies (2,000 agencies connected to state and local task forces focused on human trafficking, as well as agencies providing specialized services to marginalized trafficking survivors)

4. Federal, state, and local legislators 

5. National and local media agencies

6. National and International Anti-trafficking agencies (e.g. International agencies like United Way and RENATE, national agencies like Polaris and NCOSE)