Bridging Disciplinary Boundaries (January 11 - 14, 2007)

Purpose: Human trafficking has emerged as a federal priority by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). In order to address this growing concern, DOJ has initiated capacity expansion projects with non-governmental organizations (NGOs). For the past three years, The Salvation Army, on a national-level, has engaged actively in developing their internal capacity to identify and respond to the diverse needs of persons being trafficked. Long-term objectives include identifying services and developing capacity to respond to this complex and growing phenomena. This qualitative study assessed capacity developed, and set the stage by using a complex systems approach for continually investigating and measuring the response to this emerging problem. The evaluation sought to answer two questions: 1. Was the National Council effective at implementing the project? 2. Would staff, assigned from each territory, provide a more effective vehicle for implementing the strategic plan?

Methods: Using an emergent design process approach, the evaluation applied a complexity orientation by using a “bottoms-up” organizing approach in order to identify internal interest, identify existing service capacity, provide awareness training, provide technical assistance to evolving organizations, and other capacity resulting from the program's efforts. The evaluation - conducted under a mixed-models approach - included concept mapping, a focus group (n=13), interviews (n=16) and outcomes measurement. Data sources included focus group transcripts with Council members to define and compare the explicit program theory to the strategic plan, interviews with Trafficking Council Members using a grounded theory method, review of documents including interview transcripts and program outputs, and document the emergent needs of consumers.

Results: Focus group participants and interviewees consistently indicated capacity expansion in several aspects. These included elevating the trafficking issue with key Salvation Army leaders; seeking and securing direct services funding to victims of trafficking ($2 million); developing and disseminating a manual defining the causes, effects, scope and identification guidelines of victims, safety protocols; and nurturing governmental and NGO contacts. Other key outcomes included mobilizing council members in their territories, involving participation with Salvation Army staff in Canada and Mexico, creating electronic collaboration on the topic, and assisting initially 30 victims of human trafficking.

Policy Implications for Social Work: Concerns related to human trafficking cut across several social work domains. Minimally, these include including violence, immigration, substance abuse and labor. While project efforts created capacity, approaches that support the participation of those who have been trafficked needs further attention. The results indicated that NGOs working with this population must consider numerous issues. These issues included how to respond to persons who had been trafficked when threatened by their traffickers, and how to deal with threats to themselves or family members in their county of origin, and possible deportation. Additional attention needs to concentrate on simplify the certification of qualified trafficking victims so they may become eligible for services. As evaluation methods become more rigorously applied to this emergent issue, geographic and complexity analytic methods including spatial analysis, small area estimation, nonlinear dynamics and graph theory provide promising research strategies.