Intro to Spiritual Abuse and Human Trafficking - Session 1

Speaker: Elyse Dobney

Speaker Qualifications:

Elyse Dobney (she/her) is the Social Justice and City Mission Director for The Salvation Army Central Territory. In this position, she is responsible for providing support throughout the Midwest for the development and operation of social justice initiatives, including anti-trafficking responses/programs.

Prior to this role, Dobney was the Program Manager for The Salvation Army STOP-IT Program. In her role with STOP-IT, Dobney lead and supervised the STOP-IT Program, which provides comprehensive services to survivors of trafficking throughout Northern Illinois, and was responsible for providing training and technical assistance to community service providers, law enforcement, and medical personnel on trafficking dynamics and intervention techniques. She also worked closely with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois to jointly establish and lead the Cook County Human Trafficking Task Force since 2010.

Dobney received a master’s degree in social work from the University of Illinois at Chicago and holds an undergraduate degree from Elmhurst College.

Speaker: Helen Tarokic

Speaker Qualifications:

Helen Tarokic is an immigration attorney who counsels both individuals and businesses in all aspects of immigration law, including citizenship, employment-based immigration, humanitarian and victim visas, and removal defense. She advises clients nationwide and abroad. Her law office, Helen Tarokic Law PLLC, handles investment visas, O-1 cases, and PERM labor certification (types of employment-based immigration cases), and has been on the cutting edge of T and U visa law practice.

Ms. Tarokic is Board Certified by the North Carolina State Bar’s Board of Legal Specialization as a NC Board Certified Immigration Law Specialist in the State of North Carolina. Ms. Tarokic is also a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). Since immigration falls under federal law, Ms. Tarokic can represent individual and business clients throughout the U.S. and abroad in their U.S. immigration matters. She is admitted to practice in the NC Courts as well as the Federal District Court for the Middle District of NC.

Ms. Tarokic obtained her J.D. from Wake Forest University School of Law in 2006, with awards for mentoring and promoting the concerns of women in the legal profession. She graduated summa cum laude from Lake Forest College near Chicago, Illinois, in 2000 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in International Relations.

During this training:

As we all strive to improve our practice on T visas in the area of Spiritual Abuse and Human Trafficking, join us for this live, unrecorded, interactive session with Elyse Dobney. It will help you with screening, preparing for different scenarios, and becoming more comfortable with these topics.

• T visas where the trafficking has a religious, faith-based, or spiritual component
• Force, Fraud and Coercion
• Support for survivors
• Hypos, and questions and answers
• Q&A

For this event, it’s okay for lawyers and their paralegals to attend

Rules on recording:

• This will not be recorded so please join us for the live virtual

• All participants must honor these rules as the discussion topics are sensitive and involve law enforcement issues.

• Third-party recordings or participant recordings are strictly forbidden.

North Carolina CLE will be requested by Helen Tarokic Law PLLC

• NC CLE credit will be requested since the organizer is based in North Carolina

• Attorneys licensed outside of NC can attend. A certificate of attendance will be provided upon request for those who need proof of attendance.

• Attorney-supervised paralegals may attend for educational purposes.

• Attorney-supervised means the paralegal must be employed by a licensed attorney and under regular supervision to prevent the unauthorized practice of law.

• Attorneys signing up paralegals take responsibility for their employee’s registration fees and participation in the program and agree to pay full and fair wages for time the paralegal trains in the seminar as part of work hours/on-the-job training.

This is an interdisciplinary seminar, so please be mindful that we will have individuals of various levels of knowledge attending and have law enforcement, therapists, and other anti-trafficking professionals in attendance. It will be an excellent opportunity for all.