Combating Child Sex Trafficking and Online Child Sexual Exploitation (MHSc)

The program was developed in partnership with a diverse lineup of faculty members, senior professionals, and survivor-leaders who work at the helm of major law enforcement, clinical practice, legal, and technological organizations and agencies. You will engage and network directly with these experts through guest lectures and experiential learning activities.

Faculty

Program Advisory Committee

High-ranking professionals from a variety of community and governmental organizations helped shape the program. Some also serve as guest lecturers. They bring rich, diverse insights, perspectives and lived experience in applying real-life practices to theory. Some of these leaders include:

• Jennifer Richardson, Director at Solicitor General, Canada’s first Chief Advisor to Combat Human Trafficking, Ontario’s first Director of Provincial Anti-Human Trafficking Coordination 
• Dr. Roberta Sinclair, Strategic and Operational Services Unit of the Sensitive and Specialized Investigative Services, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)
• Dayna Boyko, Co-Founder and Lead Interviewer at Helix Investigative Consulting, Former Detective Constable, Child Forensic Interviewing Specialist at the Sex Crimes Unit, Toronto Police Services.
• Jennifer Stanton, Crown Attorney specializing in prosecutions of Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) and sexual violence in the Toronto Region
• Casandra Diamond, Survivor-leader, Founder of BridgeNorth Women’s Mentorship & Advocacy Services, the lead behind provincial CST-OCSE policy and training requirements across all of Ontario’s school boards
• Tanya Smith, Nurse practitioner and co-director of the Lotus Program (for child victims of sex trafficking) at The Hospital for Sick Children
• Marc-Antoine Therrien, Manager, Corrections and Community Safety Policy Directorate, Public Safety Canada / Government of Canada
• Luanna Shirt, Indigenous Knowledge Educator, Traditional Medicine Practitioner
• Julien Sher, Investigative Journalist
• Dupé Daodu, Child Welfare Advisor, Ministry of Citizenship and Multiculturalism

The program is supported by many other allied professionals, some of whom are also members of TMU’s Centre for Combating Child Sex Trafficking and Online Sexual Exploitation. Visit the centre’s website to view research in this expanding field.

This first-of-its-kind curriculum was co-designed with highly experienced anti-CST/OCSE leaders, advocates and decision makers who work in a wide variety of community and governmental organizations in health, law, community, technology and other allied fields.

The curriculum balances theory with application. In contrast to siloed, sector-specific trainings, this graduate-level program gives students an in-depth, interdisciplinary, holistic understanding of the social/political complexities of the issues. It explores their intersecting impacts, their transnational nature, and the need for coordinated, evidence-based child protection response strategies across disciplines, organizations and sectors.

You will learn from professors who are experts in:

• Child rights and child protection
• Public health theory and practice
• Indigenous contexts 
• Black communities 
• Substance use/abuse and family vulnerability 
• Disability
• Migration
• Trauma practice

Courses are highly interactive — with seminars, case-based learning, guest lectures and collaborative projects. You’ll learn to take theories, methodologies, therapeutic practices and lived experiences and then integrate them into the real-world design and implementation of prevention/intervention strategies and best practice responses to support victims.

Courses

• CT8000 Foundations of CST-OCSE (intensive)
• CT8001 Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Practice 1
• CT8002 Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Practice 2
• CT8003 Research Methods
• CT8004 Ethics and Equity
• CT8005 Integrated Practices and Applications 1
• CT8006 Integrated Practices and Applications 2
• CT8007 Integrated Seminar

In-person intensive:

Cohort culture is a key feature of the program. This starts with a 5-day in-person intensive, held on campus and at community-based service and practice sites in Toronto. You will develop relationships with your cohort for upcoming collaborative projects, interact with professionals now working on CST-OCSE in leadership positions across  sectors, and observe how work unfolds in prevention, intervention, policy and advocacy.

Localized assignments:

Throughout your online courses, within your own local context, you’ll explore coordination of services across sectors and converse with professionals in the field.

Guest lecturers and network building:

Each course features guest lectures by academics, senior professionals, program partners, survivors, and individuals from especially impacted communities representing different focus areas in CST-OCSE. They’ll share knowledge, stories, technology insights, and explanations of necessary competencies across sectors.