Evaluation of OVC FY09 Services for Domestic Minor Victims of Human Trafficking

This project will address the knowledge gap concerning the characteristics and unique needs of domestic minor victims of trafficking and the strategies for delivery and coordination of services to these youth. The investigators plan to employ a participatory process evaluation in collaboration with three programs funded under a separate solicitation by the Office of Victims of Crime (OVC). The investigators expect that the findings will ascertain promising practices to help victim service agencies and law enforcement make informed decisions for victim services and create a knowledge base for future programs. The first goal of the project is to document components of program implementation in two programs currently providing services to this population. The objectives of this goal are to provide a description of who receives services and how participants use the services, to describe key partnerships and their activities, and to document any unintended activities. The second goal is to identify promising practices for service delivery programs for this population. The objectives of this goal are to identify critical elements of the service delivery programs, to assess the extent to which the program was implemented as planned, and to assess participant and stakeholder experiences and satisfaction with the programs. The third goal of the project is to inform delivery of current and future efforts by youth-serving agencies, law enforcement, and others serving this population. The objectives of this goal are to provide feedback to OVC-funded grantees serving this population, and to produce grantee-specific summary reports, a final report to NIJ, and disseminate valid policy-relevant results. A three phase process will be employed in partnership with two OVC-funded grantees and their partner agencies. First the investigators will use applied ethnographic techniques to familiarize themselves with the grantees, their partner agencies, and communities. They will then engage in a structured evaluation with each of the two OVC grantees to articulate program elements. Second, the investigators will work with the grantees on evaluation implementation including qualitative and quantitative data describing client characteristics, service delivery, partnership structure and functioning. The analysis will serve as the basis for program refinements. The last phase will involve dissemination during which the investigators will generate products designed for each of four targeted audiences (practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and the general public).
nca/ncf

Human trafficking is a serious concern both internationally and domestically within the United States. With passage of the TVPA legislation, programs for domestic victims of trafficking were more available, as public awareness increased and services needs were better understood, such as prostitution recovery, sexual assault, domestic violence, child-focused, and faith-based services. These increased services, however, are not yet supported by a knowledge base about promising practices. This lack of knowledge on effective services extends to youths, including domestic minor victims of trafficking. Indeed, many of the challenges in providing services to victims of trafficking are even more complex when the victims are minors. Given confusion about existing definitions, many cases of trafficking of minors go unrecognized.

This participatory process evaluation has worked collaboratively with OVC-funded grantees to document program implementation and ascertain promising practices in order to help victim service agencies and law enforcement make informed decisions about services to minor victims of human trafficking. Supplemental funding provided under this application will allow full analyses of data from three programs funded by the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) under extended operations. These analyses will address specific challenges related to meeting the needs of domestic minor victims of human trafficking, including the challenges of identifying domestic minor victims of trafficking, the challenges of understanding the characteristics and service needs of minor victims of human trafficking, the challenges of service provision, and the challenges of coordinating services.

The requested supplemental support and extended timeline will allow extended activities in both data collection and dissemination. RTIs funded original funding supported collection, management and analysis of de-identified data from sites through December 2012. However, each program was granted a no-cost extension of up to six months by OVC. RTI proposes to continue its work of data entry, quality control and delivery of summary feedback to each site during this period. We will collect de-identified data from each of the three sites through the end of their contract periods, working with them to resolve any omissions and errors as quickly as data are entered. We anticipate that this extended data collection will significantly bolster the dataset available for analysis and dissemination.
nca/ncf