Delaware Child and Youth Victims of Human Trafficking Improvements

The Executive Office of the Governor of Delaware - Criminal Justice Council (CJC) is the SAA and will utilize OVC – Statewide funding for identifying and assisting child and youth victims of both sex and labor trafficking and/or investigating how they fall victim to traffickers and how to address post recovery needs. Delaware has implemented multiple approaches to address the consequences for trafficked minors, and recently created the Delaware Anti Trafficking Action Council (DATAC) embedded in CJC. Still efforts remain fractured and siloed. Grant funds will assess the number of children trafficked in Delaware and how to prevent their becoming victimized. Programs to support needs post trafficking will be developed in all 3 counties. The goal of the grant is to improve responses and outcomes for child and youth sex and labor human trafficking victims in the state of Delaware. The project will be broken into four phases including 1) Assessment and Research: Objective: During this phase, DATAC along with the University of Delaware will conduct a landscape analysis which will include numbers of trafficked children and youth, types of trafficking specifically including sex and labor statistics, risks, demographics, barriers, existing services, mental health and physical needs, cases within the system, and outcomes of cases. Deliverable: DATAC/UD staff will produce a comprehensive assessment report and data dashboard. 2) Planning: Objective Based on assessment results and utilizing a data driven approach, DATAC staff along with the Council will plan steps to be completed to improve responses child and youth human trafficking victims statewide. The DATAC group will identify the necessary services that will be funded, how to support existing services and/or develop those that are lacking. Deliverable: Strategic implementation and unified training plans will be developed along with outreach materials. 3) Implementation: DATAC will oversee the implementation of the plan components and training strategy. CJC grant management staff will administer grant funding sub awards for direct services to children and youth impacted by sex and labor trafficking as outlined in the statewide strategy developed in the Assessment and Planning phases.  4) Evaluation: Objective: Collect data and engage in performance measurement to assess whether the program is meeting goals and objectives and whether system collaboration has improved. Deliverables: 1. Documented lessons learned related to implementing the strategy and the impacts on child and youth victims of human trafficking, and performance reports including a final evaluation report.