Empowering Girls to Prevent Trafficking

With funding through the OVC 2024 Preventing Trafficking of Girls program, Ho’ola Na Pua (HNP) proposes a project titled, “Empowering Girls to Prevent Trafficking” to bolster prevention and early intervention efforts targeting at-risk, sexually exploited and trafficked girls ages 11–24 on Oahu and Hawaii Island. The primary purpose is to strengthen the continuum of care by offering a multifaceted approach to prevent trafficking statewide and to prevent girls from falling prey to sex and/or labor traffickers. The primary activities include prevention education to middle and high school students, with a focus on Title I schools and those located in underserved communities. Emphasizing the signs of trafficking, social media recruitment tactics, ways to seek help, and available services, HNP’s Hawaii Department of Education-approved curriculum aims to mitigate victimization before it occurs. HNP will provide trauma-responsive groups sessions and/or 1-to-1 mentoring to at-risk girls, fostering healthy connections and equipping them with protective factors to address trauma, strengthen coping skills and identify behaviors hindering success. For sexually exploited and trafficked girls ages 11–17, Pearl Haven will offer another tier of early intervention support through residential services and intensive therapy, in tandem with medical care, onsite education, and experiential programming, designed to unlock trauma and improve clinical outcomes. The expected outcomes include: (1) 250 at-risk girls ages 11–24 will receive 2,500 duplicated trauma-informed, culturally relevant, and gender responsive 1-to-1 mentoring and/or trauma-informed resiliency group sessions; (2) 1,250 at-risk girls ages 11–17 will be equipped with tools and protective factors to prevent exploitation and trafficking through 1,250 Prevention Education hours; (3) 35 at-risk, sexually exploited, and trafficked girls will receive 1,500 experiential programming sessions to augment Pearl Haven intensive clinical care, social services, and onsite primary and secondary education; and (4) 35 at-risk, sexually exploited, and trafficked girls will experience average decreases in trauma related symptoms. These include a 40% decrease in trauma symptoms, a 25% decrease in depressive symptoms, and a 20% decrease in anxiety symptoms. The geographic service area includes trafficked girls ages 11–24 on Oahu and Hawaii Island.