Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2019, $492,912)
Under the FY 2018 Integrated Services for Minor Victims of Trafficking program, all grantees are required to serve all minor victims (boys and girls under age 18) of all forms of human trafficking (sex and labor). The grantee will work with OVC Program Managers and Training and Technical Assistance Providers to ensure all victims are served. The U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking (USIAHT) is a national nonprofit, faith-based organization that operates the only safe house for sex-trafficked boys in the State of Florida. FLSH currently has five beds and has served 32 male minor trafficking victims during its 48 months in operation, providing wraparound services that include safe shelter, clothing, transportation, education, physical and mental healthcare, including trauma-informed therapy, and — with support from Gulfcoast Legal Services (GLS) legal assistance. This project will expand its capacity to provide an even greater set of comprehensive victim services to meet the significant unmet needs of these trafficked boys and men that will lead to healing and restoration for their successful and productive future. It will do so by (1) Providing comprehensive, trauma-informed direct services to labor and sex-trafficked male minors primarily from Florida, providing community based education support, providing regular mentoring, stabilizing funding for focused case management, and assisting in locating housing; (2) Increasing identification of commercially sexually exploited child victims who have been trafficked through collaboration with agencies, families, law enforcement, and others in the HT community (GLS, More Too Life, Tampa Bay Crisis Center, and others in its network, such as Florida Department of Children and Families, and Pasco County Sheriff’s Office); and (3) Increasing awareness about and identification of labor trafficked victims in Florida by providing materials and training to entities throughout the state.