Measuring Outcomes in Services to Domestic Victims of Human Trafficking: Instrument Development and Testing

Measuring Outcomes in Services to Domestic Victims of Human Trafficking: Instrument Development and Testing

Federal agencies, service providers, and victim advocate groups have invested substantial resources in recent years in programs to serve victims of human trafficking. However, few outcome evaluations of these programs exist, and the field lacks a tested instrument for measuring outcomes. This study will help identify effective service strategies and develop evidence-based services for victims of trafficking. We will accomplish this by refining and assessing an evaluation instrument designed to document clients’ progress towards proximal outcomes related to safety, well-being, social connectedness, and self-sufficiency. To refine the existing instrument, we will conduct an environmental scan; convene expert panels of service providers, survivors, and researchers; and conduct cognitive interviews with case managers who are similar to the eventual users of the instrument. To assess and improve instrument scoring, we will engage program directors in a sorting exercise to assign the instrument’s descriptors to the crisis, vulnerable, stable, growing, and thriving categories. Finally, we will assess instrument validity and reliability by having program directors and case managers use the instrument to describe hypothetical clients in narrative vignettes.

Our dissemination strategy will focus on making the instrument broadly accessible and supporting its use within outcome evaluations of trafficking victim service programs. Our anticipated products and dissemination strategy will focus on three audiences: (1) service providers who can use the instrument within their programs, (2) funders and policymakers who can support increased outcome evaluation within trafficking programs and incorporate findings into future program development, and (3) researchers and evaluators who assist service providers in collecting and using outcome data. ca/ncf