The Child Sex Trafficking Victims Initiative: Developing a Comprehensive Response to Sex Trafficking Among Child Welfare-Involved Youth

Child sex trafficking is a severe form of child sexual abuse with victims found in every state and the District of Columbia. Risk factors include any set of experiences that may lead to increased emotional or physical vulnerability, such as a history of neglect or abuse, low self-esteem, poverty, and foster care placement. In 2014, concurrent to the enactment of P.L. 113-183, the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act, the Children’s Bureau awarded grants to nine agencies and organizations around the country “to build a greater awareness and a better response to child trafficking within the child welfare population.”

A state university under the auspices of the State’s Department of Human Services (DHS), which serves as the State’s child welfare agency, and in collaboration with other vital collaborating partners, is utilizing these funds to build internal capacity for addressing the issue of sex trafficking within the child welfare population. 

Drawing on past successes and lessons learned from local social services agencies and other partners, this initiative has been spearheading efforts to develop a cohesive training plan that will be used by DHS in statewide staff educational opportunities.  The university has built upon relationships with DHS, the State Human Trafficking Task Force, the State Department of Health, as well as a statewide coalition of victim services providers to review past work and coordinate a more cohesive training response.  After 18 months of development and piloting, the statewide roll out of this training began in September 2017 and is expected to be completed in September 2019. After that, the training will be institutionalized as a part of the two-year onboarding training for new child welfare workers in the State.