By Chris Benjamin

Chicago native Danielle Hodges (BSW’17) remembers her mother, a nurse from East Preston, helping people. “Her side of the family’s from there.” Although the cities are separated by miles and orders of magnitude, Hodges sees similarities between Chicago and Halifax. In Chicago, she remembers disparity: affluent neighbourhoods and ones where everyone struggles. Her mother often worked hardest for the people lacking financial resources. “The same inequality exists here. I live in Halifax’s south end, in student housing. You can go five or ten minutes and see people struggling.”

Wanting to emulate her mother, she attended Dal ten years after high school, completing her Bachelor of Social Work in 2017. Hodges now works as the manager of YWCA Halifax’s sexual exploitation and trafficking program, which includes the Safe Spaces program, the first offering victims and survivors of human trafficking safe and secure housing in Nova Scotia. The province has among the highest rates of trafficked youth in Canada. And she is working toward her MSc in Health & Epidemiology in Dal’s Faculty of Medicine. The studies align with her work. “I wanted to bring a social-justice lens to research,” she says.

“A lot of my work is researching best practices, what are other agencies doing across Canada to help victims of sexual exploitation? How can we help people in Nova Scotia who are escaping it?” The data shows programs must match the complexity of trafficking. There’s no cut-and-paste solution. What works in other jurisdictions doesn’t necessarily work here.

“Nova Scotia is a hub for this. Even if the victims don’t stay here, they are being transported to other provinces from here.”

Hodges is also focused on establishing an emergency shelter for youth, aged 13-24, who are fleeing exploitation. There needs to be significant distance from their traffickers, but proximity to supports as they start over. It’s reminiscent of the challenges facing women fleeing domestic violence, with added wrinkles and dangers. “I’m looking at the advantages and disadvantages of having survivors living together and establishing what kinds of resources are needed for crisis situations,” she says.

In Nova Scotia, as in other provinces, tackling a global issue like human trafficking is daunting. Without an established shelter, survivors need a place to live now and there’s a significant gap in available housing. Hodges is optimistic that much can be done, but says it must be done strategically.

“Nova Scotia is a hub for this,” she says. “Even if victims don’t stay here, they are being transported to other provinces from here. You have to look at the bigger picture and the nuanced relationships in any community where you work. Sexual exploitation is the foundation of a systemic oppression and a marginalization that doesn’t just go away.”

Emergency housing is a first step in what Hodges hopes will be long-term, sustainable programming offering safety and hope for victims by understanding the complexity of their situations, often rooted in the poverty she and her mother have long observed and worked against.