Statewide Coordination of Oregon's County-based Human Trafficking Task Forces

The purpose of this award, funded under the Improving Outcomes for Child and Youth Victims of Human Trafficking Program, is to improve outcomes for children and youth who are victims of human trafficking by integrating human trafficking policy and programming at the state or tribal level and enhancing coordinated, multidisciplinary, and statewide approaches to serving trafficked youth.

This proposed project will expand Oregon’s current statewide strategy and build upon the work of the state’s Advisory Committee in order to address gaps and strengthen our ability to accurately identify child and youth victims of trafficking, develop a consistent statewide response, provide identified victims with services, and establish standards for data collection across the multi-disciplinary fields that interact with this population. The applicant proposes to do this by: developing, and supporting implementation of, statewide protocols (for local communities as well as corrections organizations); building awareness in communities and within systems by providing training to local communities and developing curriculum for local task forces to provide training; improving offender accountability by supporting law enforcement in their investigations through training, consultation, and investigation; and developing and implementing statewide data collection and reporting protocols. This is a statewide project that reaches into the geographically diverse areas of the state, from the most populated cities, to the rural and frontier counties, and into the Tribal Nations. As many of the existing task forces are located in rural parts of the state, much of the work of this project will directly benefit those areas with fewest resources.CA/NCF