When Survivors Lead, Change Follows
Survivor engagement is critical to creating effective responses to sex trafficking. Without survivor input, policies often miss the mark on what survivors actually face and need. Centering survivor voices leads to more trauma-informed, responsive, and impactful solutions.
However, inclusion alone isn’t enough; survivors need resources, training, and support to participate as confident leaders and decision-makers. Investing in survivor leadership ensures they are recognized not just as storytellers, but as lived experience experts.
Founded in 2017, the PACT’s Survivors’ Council brings together diverse survivors to shape education, inform programming, and guide advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill. Importantly, PACT compensates members for their expertise, recognizing the value of lived experience and strengthening efforts to advance more effective legislation.
Sustaining this impact requires continued investment in survivor engagement, including paying survivors for their contributions.
Here are a few examples of the progress and ongoing advocacy that happen when survivors get involved:
In fall 2025, survivors stood in solidarity with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell on Capitol Hill. Their message was clear, urgent, and impossible to ignore. It’s time for truth, accountability, and justice. The Epstein Files Transparency Act was signed into law on November 19, 2025, mandating that the U.S. Attorney General publicly release all unclassified Department of Justice documents related to Jeffrey Epstein.
“Let’s stop calling it an Epstein client list, and let’s call it what it actually is. It’s Epstein’s sex buyer list.”
PACT Advocacy Manager, Sheena Dume, shares about the importance of the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act (TSRA)
In spring 2025, PACT’s Survivors’ Council attended a Meta Day of Action, joining other advocates and grieving parents at a vigil outside Meta’s New York City headquarters to demand stronger protections for children online, laid roses in honor of lost lives, and hand-delivered an open letter addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, signed by over 10,000+ parents, advocates, and child safety organizations. In Spring 2026, Meta was found liable for misleading users about platform safety and failing to protect children from harm.
PACT meets consistently with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, advocating for protections for survivors. In spring 2025, PACT CEO, Lori Cohen, and PACT Advocacy Manager, who oversees PACT’s Survivors’ Council, attended a biannual ATIP Policy Roundtable meeting in the United States Senate, where the goal was to advance key anti-trafficking policies such as the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act (TSRA). The Trafficking Survivors Relief Act of 2025 was signed into law on January 23, 2026, allowing victims of human trafficking to vacate federal convictions and expunge arrest records for non-violent crimes committed as a direct result of their exploitation.
PACT’s Survivors’ Council participated in a lobby day hosted by New Yorkers for Equality Model in winter 2025 to advocate in support of The Sex Trade Survivor Justice & Equality Act, which decriminalizes people in the commercial sex trade, expands access to services, and advances criminal justice reform.
In spring 2024, PACT co-led the Rising Together Congressional Day of Action alongside peers, ChildFund, IJM, Rights4Girls, Human Rights for Kids, and NCOSE, where survivors and allies met with congressional leaders on Capitol Hill to call for legislative action and survivor-centered solutions. At the event, PACT Survivors’ Council joined United States Senators Lindsey Graham and Dick Durbin to advocate for the passage of the EARN IT Act and the STOP CSAM Act, aiming to hold Big Tech accountable and protect children from online sexual exploitation.
In summer 2023, PACT’s Survivors’ Council members along with representatives from peers, RESTORE, CATW, NOW-NYC, Sanctuary for Families, and World Without Exploitation participated in a press conference, where they shared their insight on the adverse effects of New York City’s de facto full decriminalization.
Progress takes years of persistent survivor-led advocacy, whose insight and leadership help to shape policies and protections. To sustain this momentum, we must invest in survivor leadership, compensating them for their expertise and supporting their ongoing advocacy to drive meaningful, lasting systemic change.
“PACT is grateful for the growing support behind our Survivors’ Council. Over the past year, survivor voices have been critical in advancing meaningful social change: from requiring online platforms to remove child sexual abuse material (CSAM) under the “Take It Down Act,” to the recently passed legislation that enables trafficking victims with federal criminal convictions to clear their records through the Trafficking Victims Relief Act, to the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
This progress is only possible because of supporters like you. Your commitment makes it possible for members of PACT’s Survivors’ Council to play important roles in these efforts and stand in solidarity with trafficking survivors everywhere. Guided by their mantra “nothing about us without us,” we cannot achieve this progress without you.”
