We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Katlyn Pryshlak. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Katlyn below.

Alright, Katlyn thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

If you’ve ever worked or volunteered on a Hotline it will probably resonate with you when I say that what it takes to be successful in this line of work is self-care. The more you learn about human trafficking in the United States and across the world, the more potentially overwhelming it becomes. On the Hotline, people share their stories with us every day and it is a privilege to be able to help in some small way. However, sometimes it feels too small against the seemingly ever-growing problem of human trafficking and human exploitation.

We invite our volunteer Hotline Advocates to do something before and after their shift that allows them to 1.) mentally prepare and 2.) let go. One Advocate told me that she imagines putting on a hazmat suit before her shift. This way, when her shift is over, she can take off the hazmat suit with the idea that she will not continue to carry any of the trauma and suffering she heard about while on shift. As the field of trauma stewardship (also called compassion fatigue, traumatic stress response, and other things) grows we continue to learn how difficult this truly is. Not only is it difficult, but there are also cultural and structural forces working against it. As Laura van Dernoot Lipskey writes in her book Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide for Caring for Self While Caring For Others, “In fields where I work, there is historically a widely held belief that if you’re tough enough and cool enough and committed to your cause enough, you’ll keep on keeping on, you’ll suck it up: Self-care is for the weaker set.”

Maybe some of you cringed when you read that I think self-care is what it takes to be successful. It is a term that has become more popular but also, overly commercialized. Companies have easily jumped on this trend and muddled what self-care truly is. At its core, self-care is a highly individualized practice that allows you to mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually check in with yourself, giving your body and mind what they need to keep engaging in your work with integrity. The reason self-care is so important in this work has everything to do with sustainability. I want to keep our volunteers and Hotline staff in their positions, doing good work, for years to come and that is not possible without practicing what we preach about self-care. My organization, LCHT, encourages a culture of self-care. Also, it’s not just lip service, the organization has worked hard to build fair policies that back this idea up such as fair pay and paid wellness hours.

Self-care is one of the hardest practices I’ve ever engaged in because you have to slow down and ask yourself, what do I need? This is a loaded question not only as a helping professional who is “never supposed to need anything” but also as a woman. However, without self-care it’s likely I wouldn’t be working at this organization today. I’ve spent 10 years working in the human rights space broadly in the United States. Without self-care I would be much more burnt out, hopeless, and emotionally exhausted without much capacity to make myself available to our callers and texters. I’m not saying my self-care practice is perfect yet, but I think I’m heading in the right direction to continue to dedicate my professional career and volunteerism to human rights.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I manage the Colorado Human Trafficking Hotline at the Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking (LCHT), a Colorado based nonprofit organization. My job falls under both the “program management” umbrella which involves logistics and organization as well as the “helping professions” umbrella which is where the actual Hotline work comes in. All Hotlines are different, but most are designed to be available for those who need help or information quickly. On our Hotline, we talk and text with people every day and try to connect them with relevant resources to improve their lives, their client’s life or their family member’s life.

The Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking is a nonprofit organization that I feel privileged to be a part of. We focus our efforts on four main program areas including Research & Action, Training & Education, Leadership Development and, of course, the Colorado Human Trafficking Hotline. We use research as the foundation to inform all the work that we do.

Some of the things I think we do well are maintaining a statewide presence, promoting sustainability among staff and volunteers and, importantly, incorporating survivor voice and guidance into the work whenever possible. As a statewide organization with only 8 staff, it can be difficult to reach all corners of our large and diverse state. However, I think LCHT works hard to connect and collaborate with urban and rural communities especially through 1.) our trainings that are delivered virtually and in-person across the state, 2.) research where we do focus groups and interviews with individuals and groups across the state and 3.) the Hotline where we not only serve the whole state, but invite volunteers from all corners of Colorado to participate. We need to engage audiences across the state if we are hoping for a coordinated statewide response to this issue.

Another thing we do well as an organization is sustainability. I’ve never worked at an organization that so frequently discussed and made space for self-compassion and care like LCHT. In the nonprofit sector there tends to be a lot of “get the work done” attitudes because often the work feels urgent and/or too important to wait. However, we all know these big problems are not going to be resolved by us working ourselves into the ground. LCHT acknowledges this and promotes employee sustainability in multiple ways, giving us space to do the same for our volunteers, interns and Board Members.

Finally, LCHT actively seeks out survivors as staff, consultants, volunteers and guides in this work. Survivors have lived experience of trafficking that can and should inform all anti-trafficking organization’s work. We also utilize the information gathered from calls and texts on the Colorado Human Trafficking Hotline to help inform changes and improvements that need to be made to better respond to the needs of survivors contacting our Hotline.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Leading a team of fellow humans is something that needs a significant amount of time and effort, no matter the size of the team! My advice is to spend some that time getting to know them. Maybe that seems obvious, but too often managers and leaders think they don’t need to get to know their people personally. However, when they skip the chit chat they also miss out on learning about their family, their preferred work styles, and what they need to do their job, etc. No matter how urgent the work feels or how much you need to get done in a certain meeting, I’ve found that if I get to know my team then we can work together much more effectively.

It took multiple instances of not doing this very well to learn what was missing. I even worked for an organization where leadership was challenging and unsupportive and imagined (all the time!) what I would do differently were I in their place. When it finally was my turn, urgency got the better of me and I skipped over the important work of getting to know my people. It took months to get back on track.

Now, I’m learning how to implement my own advice not only with staff, but also with our volunteers! On the Hotline, we utilize the talents of about 50 volunteers, and I’ve had 1-1 conversations with almost all of them whether over the phone or in person. For me, it is important to get to know each of them on a deeper level than just their volunteerism and commitment to the cause, especially seeing as they are all remote volunteers. In this way I have tried to develop open communication and trust. I know our volunteers as a whole feel supported and heard because they’ve told me so! I also know they feel comfortable giving the staff team feedback about how to improve which is important to me.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

One summer, the Executive Director of the small nonprofit I worked for assigned us all summer reading (ugh). I was honestly, kind of annoyed. Little did I know she would be unlocking a lifetime journey of learning, reading, listening, and unlearning for me.

I lazily picked up Daring Greatly by Brené Brown when I was on my summer vacation working on a farm in France (that’s another story). We had finished all the farm chores for the day and as I started reading with pretty low expectations, I found I could not put the book down. I have since read four of the other books she has written, listened to every episode of her two podcasts, watched her Netflix special and generally fan-girled out over anything Brené Brown produces.

Her research and writing have transformed the way I think about emotions, work, leadership, and creativity. It has made me more open, thoughtful, and willing to look inward at my inner critic and leadership journey. If you’re ready for a whole lot of open-hearted, challenging learning then please read, watch, or listen to absolutely anything by this amazing woman!     

Contact Info:

• Website: combathumantrafficking.org
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katlyn-keane-03848269/

Image Credits
Nick P. Ross