In May, the Amara Legal Center is celebrating mothers with our Speaker Series: "Empowering Mothers By Addressing Systems & Gaps in Services." Join us on May 31, 2022, from 12 pm-1 pm, for a panel discussion about the institutional systems and gaps in services that leave many mothers vulnerable and at risk of trafficking and other forms of exploitation and victimization. Our panelists will share with attendees the solutions and the services and continuum of care needed to empower mothers and strengthen their opportunities for success.

Panelists:

Alana C. Brown, Founder and Executive Director, The Safe Sisters Circle Ms. Brown is a Public Interest and Human Rights Attorney focusing on nonprofit litigation and advocacy for survivors of domestic violence, sexual abuse, and human sexual trafficking, as well as at-risk youth within the Washington, DC area and globally. In 2018, Ms. Brown, a DC-area native, founded The Safe Sisters Circle, which provides culturally specific, trauma-informed, and holistic services for Black women survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse living primarily in Washington DC's Wards 7 and 8.

Ms. Brown has been featured in the following media:

• The Washington Post’s The Lily. Dec 2021. Homicide is a leading cause of death in pregnant people, a new study finds. Black women are at greatest risk.
• Washington Area Women’s Foundation #AskHer Series. Oct.2021. #AskHer Series: Alana Brown, Executive Director of The Safe Sisters Circle - Washington Area Women's Foundation Website
• National Crime Victim Rights Week Feature on WHUR. April 2021. Supporting Victims of Crime | WHUR 96.3 FM
• What is the connection between domestic violence, sexual assault, and reproductive justice and how does it impact Black women? Published by Alana C. Brown. Jan 2021.
• My Nonprofit Life Podcast. Nov. 2020 Supporting &Healing Black Women Survivors - Your Nonprofit Life

Ms. Brown is also the recipient of DV LEAP’s 2020 Tip the Scales of Justice Award for making an impact in the gender-based violence field in Washington, DC. Alana received her B.A. in Africana Studies from New York University and JD from Georgetown University Law Center.

Tina Frundt, Executive Director/Founder of Courtney’s House Ms. Frundt has been actively raising awareness of the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) since 2000. A high-profile national advocate on the issue of domestic sex trafficking and a survivor of CSEC, Ms. Frundt is deeply committed to helping other children and youth, who are living through experiences similar to her own. She has been featured on numerous national shows and publications, including the OWN Network’s Our America with Lisa Ling: 3AM Girls, which featured an undercover look into sex trafficking in Washington, DC, the CNN Freedom Project, and in 2016 the Whitney Young Unsung Heroes award by the Urban Institute. In 2010, she became the first U.S. citizen to receive the Free the Slaves Freedom Awards-Frederick Douglas Award, which recognizes survivors of sex trafficking who use their life in freedom to help others. In 2016 she was appointed by President Obama to the First White House Survivor Advisory Board.

Ms. Frundt trains law enforcement and other non-profit groups, and is also a member of the Washington, DC, State of Maryland and Prince Georges County Anti-Trafficking Task Forces. She also was appointed by the Governor of Maryland to the Safe Harbor Working group. She has testified before the U.S. Congress about her own experiences and the need for greater protection and services for trafficked persons. She is the founder and executive director of Courtney's House, which provides direct services for domestic sex trafficked males and females ages 11-24 years in the Washington, DC metro area. Since its inception, Courtney's House and Ms. Frundt have helped over 2,000 survivors get out of their trafficking situation.

Melody Webb, Executive Director and Founder of Mother's Outreach Network Ms. Webb heads the DC Guaranteed Income Coalition. A graduate of Harvard College and Law School, she is a career-long public interest attorney with a broad practice and policy background that includes positions as a legal services attorney, an associate general counsel at Service Employees International Union, legislative counsel on Capitol Hill, public policy advocate on local DC and federal issues, and as a solo practitioner in the field of child welfare.

Ms. Webb was a family defense counsel to DC parents who could not afford representation as a member of the Counsel for Child Abuse and Neglect of the DC Superior Court, also serving on the DC Superior Court Court Improvement Program Advisory Committee. She has lectured on critical race theory, movement lawyering and the child welfare/family regulation system. She authored From Authoritarian State to Black-Inclusive Democracy, in the 2020 edition of the University of Florida Journal of Public Policy and wrote a forthcoming article Guaranteed Income to End the Child Welfare System in the Columbia Journal of Race and Law.

She founded the Mother's Outreach, a non-profit organization that works for the economic empowerment of mothers experiencing poverty, focused on Black mothers with children entangled in the child welfare/family regulation system.