Preventing Human Trafficking

Children and youth who may be disconnected from their family, including those in foster care, are often more vulnerable to trafficking. Below are resources that can be used by child welfare and related professionals to protect young people and educate your community. 

10 Ways You Can Help End Trafficking
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office on Trafficking in Persons (2019)
Provides a list of 10 ways to help end human trafficking, including knowing the signs, reporting concerns about a situation, sharing awareness resources, considering how you shop and eat to reduce your slavery footprint, volunteering for anti-trafficking organizations, registering for training on the topic, and more.

20 Ways You Can Help Fight Human Trafficking in 2020
U.S. Department of State (2020)
Offers a list of 20 ways to become involved in preventing human trafficking.

2019/2020 Prevention Resource Guide
Author(s)
Child Welfare Information Gateway;Children's Bureau;FRIENDS National Resource Center For Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention
Availability Download (PDF - 2,718KB)
Year Published 2019
This Resource Guide was developed to support service providers in their work with parents, caregivers, and their children to prevent child abuse and neglect and promote child and family well-being. It was created by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Children's Bureau, Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, its Child Welfare Information Gateway, and the FRIENDS National Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention. The resources featured represent the work of a broad-based partnership of national organizations, Federal partners, and parents committed to strengthening families and communities.

Combating Human Trafficking in Native Communities
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office on Trafficking in Persons (2017)
Offers resources for Native American children and youth to help raise awareness and prevent trafficking in Native communities. Resources include a one-pager on the government's efforts to combat human trafficking in Native communities, a Native youth toolkit, and links to additional resources.

Faith-Based and Community Organizations Can Help End Trafficking
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office on Trafficking in Persons (2020)
Presents information on how community organizations can help identify victims of human trafficking and support survivors. The website links to information on the National Human Trafficking Hotline, the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center, and the U.S. Department of Justice's services and task forces working on human trafficking.

How to Help Stop Child Trafficking
Unicef USA
Lists strategies that can help stop child trafficking, including building community, speaking out, advocating, and providing information on how to report incidents of human trafficking.

Human Trafficking Prevention: Strategies for Runaway and Homeless Youth Settings (PDF - 2,390 KB)
Family and Youth Services Bureau (2020)
Explores strategies to integrate human trafficking prevention in to runaway and homeless youth programs and further efforts to prevent sex and labor trafficking among runaway and homeless youth populations by emphasizing the need to integrate public health, trauma-informed practice, and positive youth development into human trafficking prevention interventions. 

Love146
Provides resources and information on how Love146 has been helping to develop the movement to end child trafficking through a variety of effective solutions, such as prevention education in the United States and survivor care.

Preventing Human Trafficking Using Data-Driven, Community-Based Strategies
Community Psychology (2018)
Explores trafficking vulnerabilities at the individual, neighborhood, and societal levels and describes prevention strategies that will work to combat human trafficking in a variety of levels and settings. The article describes prevention strategies relating to overall violence and crime prevention, housing and urban development, business, health care, schools, and child welfare.

Responding to Youth Homelessness: A Key Strategy for Preventing Human Trafficking
National Network for Youth (2018)
Presents a white paper on how youth vulnerable to homelessness are even more vulnerable to trafficking and how responding to homelessness is an important strategy in the fight against human trafficking.

Staying Safe: Tips for LGBTQ Youth for How to Protect Yourself and Your Community From Human Trafficking
Polaris (2016)
Discusses risk factors and warning signs that enable lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth to recognize and respond to signs of human trafficking.

Trafficking Prevention
Youth.gov
Discusses how those who work in the youth-serving community are often able to recognize children and youth who may be on the path to becoming victimized and report these incidents to help prevent human trafficking.

Find more resources about identifying human trafficking through Child Welfare Information Gateway's Library by choosing a topic below. Search results are updated continually and include documents from 2016 to the present.

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