OVC Improving Outcomes: October 2023 Newsletter

October 2023

Newsletter

Relevant IO Resources & Events

Events

Webinar: Identifying a (Very) Hidden Population at Risk: The Young Child Screen For (Sex and Labor) Trafficking and Exploitation (YCSTE)

Date: November 7th, 2023

Time: 1:00 to 2:00pm ET

In this webinar, Dr. Jordan Greenbaum, medical director of the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, will discuss the development and implementation of a new screening tool designed specifically for identification of children at risk for labor and/or sexual exploitation and trafficking. This webinar will discuss:

screening questions;
important considerations for screening this younger audience;
optimal ways to implement the tool;
feasibility of incorporating screening into various contexts;
and consider potential challenges to implementation.

This webinar is open to the public and we encourage you to invite relevant partners.

Click here to register for the webinar

Resources

Survivor Engagement Resource

This workshop, created in partnership with Office for Victims of Crime's (OVC) Survivor Engagement Training and Technical Assistance (SETTA) Project, is designed to identify key challenges, successes, and best practices involving survivor engagement as the field moves from survivor informed to survivor-led. This workshop is focused on engaging survivors in systems-level anti-trafficking efforts.

Click here to access the Survivor Engagement Resource

Innovation Insert

IO Grantee

Massachusetts

Never Worry Alone: Engaging Foster Parents in Best Practices to Care for Youth Who Are at Risk of or Who Have Been Exploited

This 9-part video series was developed in partnership with My Life My Choice, a survivor-led organization that provides comprehensive and evidence-based programs. While educational in themselves, the videos are used as a starting point for further conversation and relationship building between the caregivers and the Department of Children and Families (DCF) staff who support them. The videos are publicly available on YouTube.

Click here to view the video series

What are we reading/attending?

The Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking (CAST) has recently released a legal foundations training through their training and technical assistance program. The Legal Foundations for Social Service Providers training is a self-paced, on demand course "designed to help social service providers build up knowledge and skills around legal needs and remedies available to survivors of human trafficking."

Click here for more information on the training

Expert

Corner

Bethany Gilot, MS, national consultant on anti-trafficking policy and practice, has developed a fact sheet on child welfare legislative changes. This resource was created from Ms. Gilot’s presentation on “Child Welfare’s Response to Human Trafficking: The Impact of Federal Legislation” at the Improving Outcomes Annual Grantees meeting held in May 2023. This factsheet provides an overview of federal laws directing child welfare’s role in serving children and youth who have, or are at risk of experiencing severe forms of trafficking in persons. This legislature may impact your state’s child welfare response processes to cases of human trafficking.

Click here to access the factsheet

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Updates from OVC

OVC welcomes the new FY2023 Improving Outcomes grantees!

The Executive Office of the Governor of Delaware

Criminal Justice Council (CJC)

Delaware's IO project will include an assessment of child and youth sex and labor trafficking victims, identifying the risks and needs of the population, tailored training for stakeholders, and evaluation of statewide anti-trafficking efforts and progress.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services

Michigan's IO project proposes utilizing methods that have been pivotal in advancing the work of the domestic violence and sexual assault fields to advance Michigan’s anti-trafficking movement.

Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services

Ohio's IO project proposes a new statewide strategy to build capacity of Ohio’s juvenile justice and child welfare systems to identify and serve minor and youth victims of human trafficking.

What is the Improving Outcomes Grant Program?

The OVC Improving Outcomes for Children and Youth Trafficking grant program seeks to improve outcomes for child and youth victims of human trafficking by 1) drafting and advising on policy, practice, and programming to address human trafficking at the state-, local- or tribal-levels and 2) enhancing coordinated and multidisciplinary services for trafficked youth across the state.

Who is this newsletter for?

This newsletter is for anyone and everyone interested in learning more about how to support child and youth victims of trafficking through state or tribal-level approaches to enhance coordination, strengthen responses, and ultimately improve outcomes.

This newsletter was developed under 15POVC-22-GK-01576-HT, awarded by the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed throughout this presentation are those of the contributor and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.