Santa Barbara County Human Trafficking Update

Rita Truman spent the first part of her professional life as a Clinical Outpatient Therapist providing in-home therapy to resource families of foster youth as well as individual and family therapy with the youth’s family of origin.  She was trained and certified in Trauma Systems Therapy (TST) as well as Parent Management Therapy (PMT). She pioneered a Rapid Response Team used to deploy therapists into the field when survivors of human trafficking were recovered. She worked diligently with the Kansas Attorney General’s Office to develop Human Trafficking training for Law Enforcement and related stakeholders. She developed national webinars targeted to training resource parents and interested parties on parenting survivors of human trafficking.  She also began a private practice with a focus on attachment and systems-based therapeutic interventions. She worked with individuals, couples and families.

She then moved on to become the Program Supervisor for Victim Witness at the Santa Barbara County’s District Attorney’s Office and Santa Barbara County’s Human Trafficking Task Force Coordinator.  In addition to her duties supervising advocates, providing court support and services to all victims of crime, she is working to develop and expand Santa Barbara County’s Human Trafficking Advocacy Program and is working closely with law enforcement to shape Santa Barbara County’s Human Trafficking Task Force. She is a part of several human trafficking specific multi-disciplinary teams for protocol creation, policy development and service provision. She is part of a cadre of trainers for the State of California for Human Trafficking and Victim Service-related trainings. Rita is co-located and co-deployed with designated detectives on human trafficking related operations, investigations, and other crisis call-outs. She helps to manage the Sexual Assault Response Team crisis line and coordinator. She responds to calls for coordination of exams and interviews with law enforcement, nurses, and interviewers.