This month, we hosted our collaborators from California Baptist University (CBU) Division of Social Work during their recent trip to the Philippines. In 2024, the CBU Division of Social Work and Eleison jointly secured a grant from the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Katherine A. Kendall Institute for International Social Work Education grants program. Our collaborative project, entitled Survivor Voice, focuses on co-developing a community-based participatory research (CBPR) toolkit for social work educators and anti-human trafficking organizations.
Through the Survivor Voice project, Eleison’s Survivor Leadership Council (SLC) and other members of the Eleison team are partnering with CBU social work faculty and students to co-design a training toolkit for global CBPR studies, including Photovoice projects. The final product will be an adaptable training toolkit that can be utilized by social work educators and anti-trafficking organizations to introduce students and frontline workers to participatory research through a survivor-centered lens.
Our joint CBPR toolkit, grounded in the Community Engagement and Social Innovation (CESI) framework, integrates theoretical knowledge and practical, real-world application. Through collaboration and co-creation between Eleison and CBU, the Survivor Voice project facilitates learning experiences for social work students grounded in community partnership and introduces social work students to the issue of human trafficking through participatory research methods.
During the CBU team’s recent trip, our SLC met with CBU faculty and students to discuss ongoing refinement of the toolkit. We are grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with the CBU team on this important project, and we look forward to releasing the toolkit for social work faculty, students, and anti-trafficking organizations.
