Standardizing Effective Responses for Minors of Trafficking in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The Virginia Office of the Attorney General (OAG) seeks to improve outcomes for child and youth victims of trafficking, especially male victims, and victims of labor trafficking by increasing the number of victims identified and the number of victims referred for services. This will be done through a statewide, multiagency collaboration initiated by the Governor’s office, led by and managed by OAG’s Director of Anti-Human Trafficking with input and guidance from lived-experience 
experts. This collaboration will ensure every department in Virginia’s government contributes to this initiative, and it will ensure high-level coordination and collaboration across the Commonwealth. The goal will be achieved by meeting the following objectives:

•  Establish a secretariat-level, statewide working group, committed to ending the trafficking of minors in Virginia that will ensure high-level support and statewide access for the work of this project.
•  Complete a comprehensive, statewide study to identify gaps and promising practices in identifying and assisting trafficked minors in Virginia, with a focus on labor trafficking victims and male victims, to include actionable data.
•  Expand Virginia’s Human Trafficking Toolkit to reflect outcomes of the research, ensuring significant improvements of information and resources for male victims and labor trafficking.
•  As a pilot, train the staff at the Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Facility to identify signs of trafficking and to use trauma-informed practices to increase the identification of trafficking victims, particularly male victims and victims of labor trafficking.
•  Hold at least five regional training events throughout the state to build effective collaboration and increase the knowledge and skills of key stakeholders to identify more minor victims of trafficking, especially male and labor trafficking victims, and to more consistently 
refer them for services.

The project partners include Virginia Commonwealth University’s Center for Public Policy and ImPACT, a community-based organization experienced with trafficked minors and justice-involved youth.