EVALUATION OF DOMESTIC HUMAN TRAFFICKING DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS

Research Triangle Institute, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

The overall purpose of this project is to inform the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) on its efforts to improve services for victims of human trafficking. In 2014, ACF's Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) awarded three grants to carry out demonstration projects to provide coordinated case management and comprehensive direct victim assistance to domestic victims of severe forms of human trafficking. The intent of the grant program is to improve organizational and community capacity to deliver trauma-informed, culturally relevant services for domestic victims of human trafficking. The grantees are expected to build and sustain coordinated systems of agency services and partnerships with allied professionals in community-based organizations, such as runaway and homeless youth, domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking victim services programs. Each grantee will conduct a community-specific assessment related to victim service needs, gaps, and referral options, and an organizational capacity assessment to determine what resources, training, technical assistance, and partnerships are needed to meet the needs of domestic human trafficking victims in their communities. To meet the needs identified, grantees will expand their partnerships with relevant organizations and agencies, and they will expand their existing case management services to include all aspects of a fully comprehensive victim assistance model. The demonstration projects will be implemented in Salt Lake City, New York City, and the metropolitan areas of Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. Working closely with FYSB, OPRE is overseeing a cross-site process evaluation of these new demonstration projects. RTI International is carrying out the evaluation. Key questions of interest are related to the use of the community needs assessment, the necessary conditions for partnership expansion, factors associated with the provision and receipt of comprehensive victim-centered services, survivors' experiences with the program and their short-term outcomes, and the costs of program components. Additional project activities include working with grantees to improve performance measurement and informing ACF's decisions regarding future evaluation activities. Future activities may include developing instruments and planning and executing additional evaluation activities.