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Empowering
professionals
with expert
training,
technical
assistance and
lived experience
services
You Belong exists to address familial
trafficking. Our goal is to offer specialized
training, technical assistance, support
survivors, and advocate for policies and
services for those affected by familial
trafficking and broader systemic changes.
By working together, training, and
introducing creative approaches, we aim
to empower survivors, address demand ,
and envision a future where everyone is
liberated from exploitation and coercion.
About:
Zoe Christine Bellatorre, founder, is a subject matter expert in familial
trafficking with over 10 years experience in the field; additionally she has
earned a Masters in Intercultural Studies with Children at Risk, and a
Bachelors in Education. She holds lived experience in familial trafficking
being trafficked by her father and grandfather beginning at age 2 into
early adulthood.
“The trafficking was normalized within the familial culture; many of the
perpatrators (buyers) were in a network known to my family. I never went
missing, so there were no alerts or law enforcement intervention, the
traffickers were within my immediate family. No one ever intervened and I
was never helped.”
I desire to change this for those being exploited now, addressing systems
and methods for child trafficking response. This includes equipping first
responders, healthcare, dentists, social services, education and more that
can impact a child or adult who is being trafficked. We must move beyond
current knowledge of human trafficking and be inclusive of familial
trafficking.
Zoe Christine holds extensive experience within the anti-trafficking field.
44% -60% of exploited people are familial trafficking survivors. We have to change this.
About Familial Trafficking...
What is it?
- “Familial Trafficking occurs when a parent or caregiver is the trafficker or the one who sells the child to a 3rd party trafficker.”
- TIP, 2021
- The average age of entry is 4.
- White, et al. 2023 “Parents as Perpetrators”
- The most common traffickers are parents or step parents.
- Sprang and Cole, 2018 “Familial Sex Trafficking of Minors”
- 44% -60% of human trafficking cases are familial.
- Jody Raphel, 2020, “Parents as Pimps.
- Andrea Nichols, 2023 “ Practitioners’ Perspectives of Family Involved Sex Trafficking of Minors: Implications for Practice”
Resources
When the family member is the trafficker, the exploitation is often normalized and accepted within the family culture, sometimes spanning
generations. If another family member notices the exploitation of the child, there is a strong incentive to look
the other way to protect the family, both physically and in reputation, from outside interventions.
Child labor trafficking includes
domestic servitude, forced
begging, and working coal mines
or brick kilns; while child sex
trafficking can include familial
trafficking, pimp-controlled
trafficking, survival trafficking, and
child sexual abuse material.
Resources
Experiencing trafficking can have
significant psychological implications on
children, including struggles with
regulating emotions and impulses,
attentional difficulties, dissociation, and
negative consequences to their self-
perception and views about the world.
In this episode of the Masculine Wilderness
Podcast, host Tom Perez speaks with Zoe
Bellatorre, an expert in familial trafficking.
They discuss Zoe's background, her work
with survivors, and the critical issue of
familial trafficking, which often goes
unnoticed. The conversation delves into the
differences between familial trafficking and
other forms, the impact of early trauma on
victims, and the societal reluctance to
acknowledge these issues.
Co-created by Zoe Bellatorre and
Becky Bullard, this advanced
module provides education for law
enforcement, social workers,
educators and other professionals
on familial trafficking.
Let’s Stay Connected
PO Box 27691
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Telephone: (323)-457-3524
hello.youbelong@gmail.com
@_you_belong_llc
You belong, llc