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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special thanks to the Jane Addams Center for Social Policy and Research for funding this study.
I am very grateful to Dean Creasie F. Hairston for her feedback on the project in its initial stage.
I am especially indebted to the participants from the 14 faith-based organizations, for their
excellent contributions to this study.
I am thankful to my research assistant Elka Cubacub for her input, especially during the data
collection.
I am appreciative of John Holton for his feedback on the preliminary draft of this study report.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This study explores the experiences and input of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in the anti-
human trafficking movement in the U.S. by exploring their motivations and experiences in
preventing human trafficking, serving trafficking survivors, and helping prosecute trafficking
cases. The study has four objectives: (1) examine the motivations of FBOs to engage in human
trafficking work; (2) describe the distinctive characteristics and competencies that make FBOs
key stakeholders in the fight against human trafficking; (3) examine the experiences and
challenges of FBOs in doing human trafficking work; and (4) assess FBOs’ interagency
collaboration for human trafficking work. A qualitative research design, with an interview
method, was used. A purposive sample of 16 participants from 14 FBOs experienced in human
trafficking work was selected. A semi-structured interview guide was used to collect data from
the 16 respondents via Zoom. Thematic analysis of the interview data was conducted.
Key Findings
The 14 FBOs include 13 organizations of Christian denominations and one organization
of a Jewish denomination. Most participant organizations provided services at more than one
geographic level (countywide, statewide, nationwide, and international). While eight of the 14
FBOs provided services at the national level, six did so at the city/county level, and two at the
international level. All the respondents were in leadership positions in their respective
organizations. Four of the 14 FBOs were among the biggest ones nationally in service areas,
including housing services for human trafficking victims, training about human trafficking, and
policy advocacy about child sex trafficking. One of them was reported as the biggest FBO
addressing human trafficking in the USA.
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Two key factors led the 14 FBOs to engage in human trafficking work: faith and social
justice. Faith provides these FBOs with a strong inspiration for human trafficking work despite
their challenges. All the respondents repeatedly cited sacred scriptures to illustrate their
agencies’ human trafficking work. Some respondents were so resolute in their faith that they quit
lucrative corporate jobs to dedicate their time and competencies to human trafficking work.
Social justice was highlighted as another critical source of inspiration for FBOs engaged in
human trafficking work. Yet, the level of passion and compassion that FBOs show in doing
human trafficking work often leads many people outside their circle to believe FBOs have
hidden agendas to work in such a dangerous field as human trafficking. As highlighted below,
this misperception was countered by the findings from this study.
Respondents concurred that FBOs could easily access and use community resources to
mobilize people for outreach and advocacy about human trafficking. FBOs have traditionally
relied on congregations and faith communities they are tied to, which allows tapping into diverse
assets necessary for trafficking-related services. Interestingly, law enforcement agencies value
FBOs’ outreach and awareness-raising competency. Reaching out to FBOs for help indicates
some trust that law enforcement agencies appear to have in FBOs’ capacity to mobilize
substantial community support. Respondents perceived that FBOs play a forefront role in
awareness raising, policy advocacy, training, and victim services such as shelter, housing, and
drop-in services.
During the last ten years, federal agencies started requiring their grantees—mostly
secular organizations —to include survivors’ voices in activities and programs they implement.
In contrast, FBOs have taken advantage of survivors' input for a long time. Most respondents
said their agencies met trafficking survivors where they were and valued the latter’s input in the
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services they received. Key staff in some of the participant FBOs were trafficking survivors,
which explains their efforts to value survivors’ voices in their anti-trafficking services.
The findings contradict misperceptions and mistrust affecting FBOs’ credibility and
legitimacy for human trafficking work. All the participants in this study concurred that efforts to
convert trafficking survivors to one’s religion are counterproductive because such actions
hamper survivors’ self-determination and trust-building and can be re-traumatizing. Situations in
which religious leaders use their position of power to influence and exploit vulnerable
individuals were perceived as unethical and detrimental to survivors and FBOs trying to avoid
retraumatizing survivors. The study findings corroborate Lewis et al. (2020), which shows no
evidence to substantiate views that many FBOs in human trafficking work use their assistance
services to convert trafficking survivors.
Respondents discussed contributions their organizations made in the areas of prevention
of human trafficking, protection of survivors, and even prosecution of trafficking cases. The
findings contradict the literature indicating that FBOs in the field of trafficking overwhelmingly
focus on sex trafficking (Weitzer, 2007) because the participant FBOs provided services related
to all forms of human trafficking. Prevention services they provided include internet
communication technology (ICT), training, and policy advocacy. Three of the 14 FBOs used ICT
tools to monitor sex trafficking ads online and track transactions about potential victims. Human
trafficking-related training was the most frequent activity reported by ten of the 14 FBOs.
The findings about the policy advocacy activities of participant organizations not only
corroborate the literature but also show distinctive strategies FBOs used. Two FBOs,
experienced in policy advocacy, focused each on a specific issue: one primarily focused on
policies addressing domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST), and the other concentrated its
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efforts on bringing about anti-trafficking policy reform in international for-profit companies. The
FBOs providing victims’ services prioritized using trauma-informed and survivor-centered
approaches. Two organizations played a leading role in shelter services for human trafficking
survivors at the national level. One of the two FBOs conducted a comprehensive survey of
shelters available for trafficking victims in the USA. The second one specialized in maintaining
family units by keeping women survivors with their children and pets. The capacity of these
organizations for housing services for trafficking survivors provides a glimpse of the leading
experience of FBOs in this area. One key aspect of the contributions FBOs made to
investigations and prosecution of human trafficking cases was that law enforcement and other
criminal justice stakeholders often reached out to FBOs in this study for help during
investigations and prosecutions of trafficking cases.
FBOs rarely apply for or receive public grants for their human trafficking services. Only
one of the 14 FBOs relied mainly on federal funding for its work. Four FBOs with leading roles
in policy advocacy, shelter, and direct services at the national level avoided federal funding
because the grant application process was perceived as tedious and time-consuming. FBOs often
avoid any funding that comes “with too many strings attached to it or is not aligned with their
faith,” as one respondent said. Considering the challenges in public grants, thirteen of the 14
FBOs prioritized private funding for their human trafficking work. Private funding is more
accessible and simpler to manage and report. Sources of private funding for FBOs are diverse,
including philanthropic sources, corporate contributions, fundraising, individual and group
donations, church-sponsored funding, membership dues, and other sources. Operating outside
public funding allows FBOs to develop flexible services without time constraints because it is
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challenging to estimate the time necessary for recovery for trafficking survivors who have
experienced trauma and to assess the cost of care they need ahead of time.
Access to specialized services for trafficking survivors through referrals was often
challenging for FBOs because of the lack of enough specialists, which put too much stress on
organizations trying to find appropriate help for survivors, especially for mental health services.
The most concerning challenge the FBOs faced relates to the misunderstanding, suspicion, or
rejection they experienced from people, groups, or organizations not part of the faith
communities. FBOs’ reliance on a non-discriminatory approach and survivor self-determination
in their service delivery is noteworthy. All 14 FBOs had an anti-discriminatory policy requiring
all service recipients to be treated with dignity and respect without considering their faith.
Respondents acknowledged that faith support could be vital to survivors’ recovery and
restoration, as illustrated in the literature (Lewis et al., 2020; Pertek, 2022; Schmitt, 2017).
However, participant FBOs prioritized survivor self-determination as a critical principle
governing their services, because this approach helps avoid situations of power and control
service providers could have over survivors. Survivors should decide when they need any
spiritual support. Faith questions should be discussed only if survivors raised them and wished
for faith resources. Thus, survivor self-determination helps prevent or limit survivors’ perception
of unending control over their life, from traffickers to service providers.
Interagency collaboration is vital in addressing services gaps, funding challenges, and
increasing access to resources needed for comprehensive services. Interagency collaboration was
also reported as crucial for policy advocacy, networking, and referrals. Participant FBOs actively
participated in interagency collaboration and were leaders of such partnerships developed for
effective service delivery. However, any form of interagency collaboration was not without
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challenges. Bias, suspicion, misperceptions, and lack of consideration by secular organizations
could be perceived as the biggest obstacles participant FBOs faced in their efforts to develop a
successful partnership. The pervasiveness of misperceptions about FBOs was also present in
interagency collaboration with public agency stakeholders. Yet, the cautious behavior of public
agency partners is intriguing, considering that FBOs are known to have influenced the
development of human trafficking policy in the United States (Harrelson, 2010).
FBOs faced limited obstacles in interagency collaboration with criminal justice system
stakeholders. It is surprising to find that interfaith collaboration about human trafficking work
was problematic. Thus, while interfaith collaboration was often successful among FBOs sharing
a specific belief system, it is contentious between FBOs with different belief systems. Even
though they may share denominations, some FBOs have difficulty collaborating because of
differences in faith. Surprising was the finding that FBOs of Christian denominations would not
accept collaboration with Jewish FBOs because the former group believed that the latter should
not intervene in the field of human trafficking or did not need any financial resources for their
work. Such misperceptions limit the partnership of Christian FBOs with other FBOs of different
faith denominations, such as Judaist, Muslim, and Baha’í, regarding human trafficking work.
Implications
The study has important implications for stakeholders, including FBOs, secular NGOs,
criminal justice system leaders, and public administration leaders. It is crucial to assess and
consider FBOs’ distinctive approaches for more organized efforts to address human trafficking.
Efforts should be made to connect FBOs with public stakeholders while respecting the separation
of religion and state. However, it is crucial to develop interfaith ethical guidelines and a code of
conduct to be used by all FBOs engaged in human trafficking. Doing so could address issues of
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misperception FBOs in the field of human trafficking often face. Strategies should be developed
to harness FBOs’ collective capability for policy advocacy and service provision, which could
result in effective FBOs’ input in task forces, coalitions, and decision-making arenas. There is a
need for more research than stories on services that FBOs provide regarding human trafficking to
strengthen the legitimacy of their input. It is also important to conduct comparative research on
specific human trafficking services provided by FBOs, secular NGOs, and public agencies to
improve the contributions of each of these stakeholder groups in implementing human trafficking
policies.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
No
Titles
Page
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………………………….
2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY………………………………………………………………..
3
I
INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………….
13
II
LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………………………………….
14
A
Faith’s Connection with the Fight against Human Trafficking………………………
15
B
Controversies about FBOs’ Anti-Human Trafficking Work……………………….
16
C
Faith’s Influence on Human Trafficking Survivors of……………………………….
18
D
FBOs’ Roles in the Fight against Human Trafficking……………………………….
18
E
Issues with Interfaith Collaboration………………………………………………….
19
F
Gaps in Research on FBOs’ Human Trafficking Work……………………………..
20
III
METHODS…………………………………………………………………………………
21
A
Research Design and Participant Selection……………………………………………
21
B
Data Collection………………………………………………………………………..
22
C
Data Analysis………………………………………………………………………….
23
D
Human Subject Protection……………………………………………………………
24
IV
FINDINGS…………………………………………………………………………………
24
A
Participant Organizations’ Characteristics……………………………………………
24
B
Organizations’ Motivation for Human Trafficking Work……………………………
27
1
Factors of motivation to engage in the anti-human trafficking movement……….
27
a
Personal experience or witnessing of human trafficking events
b
Need to address the deficit in victims’ services
c
Participation in educational and awareness-raising events
d
Call for social justice
2
Faith’s overriding influence on FBOs’ engagement in human trafficking work…
33
a
Faith as a driving philosophy in human trafficking work
b
Misinterpreting FBOs’ passion to do human trafficking work
c
Mandated by faith to oppose human trafficking
d
Service delivery approach impacted by faith
C
Competencies of FBOs Engaged in Human Trafficking Work………………………..
36
1
Prevention………………………………………………………………………….
37
a
Capacity to gather and use community resources
b
Capacity for outreach and advocacy
2
Protection…………………………………………………………………………
38
a
Dual value of the input of FBOs in the fight against human trafficking
b
Providing survivor-led services and a safe environment for trust-building
c
FBOs’ ability to assist survivors and build trust
d
Allowing for self-determination in service provision
e
Providing long-term services for recovery and reintegration
3
Prosecution………………………………………………………………………..
43
4
Perceptions of limitations in FBOs’ human trafficking work…………………….
44
a
Ethical issues around preaching in FBO’s human trafficking work
b
Issue of faith contributing to trafficking conditions
D
Participant Organizations’ Experiences in Human Trafficking Work…………………
48
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1
Salient aspects of participant FBOs’ trafficking-focused services…………………
48
a
Prevention
b
Protection
c
Prosecution
2
Funding for FBOs’ human trafficking work……………………………………….
63
a
Issues with public funding
b
Challenges in accessing public funding
c
Prioritizing private funding
d
Funding challenges for human trafficking work
3
Major challenges faced by FBOs in anti-human trafficking work…………………
72
a
Gaps in victim service and resources
b
Issues of misperception about FBOs’ engagement in human trafficking work
c
Ethical considerations in providing service
E
FBOs’ Interagency Collaboration for Human Trafficking Work………………………
83
1
FBOs’ efforts and successes in interagency collaboration…………………………
83
a
Capitalizing on interagency collaboration for comprehensive services
b
Leadership roles and active input in partnership-building
2
Categories of FBOs’ interagency collaboration……………………………………
87
a
Inter-FBO collaboration
b
Interagency collaboration with secular organizations
c
Partnership with academic institutions for research
d
Partnering with criminal justice stakeholders
e
Collaborating with public agencies and departments
f
International Partnership
3
Faith’s impacts on interagency collaboration for human trafficking work……
94
a
Positive impacts
b
Negative impacts
F
Ways of Enhancing FBOs’ Engagement in the Human Trafficking Movement………
100
1
Importance of expanding FBOs’ input in human trafficking work………………
100
a
Giving due attention to FBOs’ input
b
FBOs’ approach to human trafficking work as a promising model
c
Harnessing FBOs’ collective ability for policy advocacy and service provision
d
Increasing FBOs’ input in task forces, coalitions, and decision-making arenas
e
Need to expand outreach efforts towards other FBOs
f
Seeking active input from survivors should be prioritized by FBOs
2
Addressing the gaps in research on FBOs’ anti-trafficking programs……………
104
a
Need for evaluation of FBO’s services
b
Need for more research than stories to improve the quality of FBOs’ work
3
Addressing misperceptions about FBOs’ legitimacy and capacity………………
105
a
Reckoning with FBOs’ legitimacy in the fight against trafficking
b
Addressing obstacles to expanding interfaith collaboration
4
Advocating against human trafficking practices in big
corporations………………..
106
V
DISCUSSION………………………………………………………………………………
107
A
Inspired by Faith and Social Justice…………………………………………………..
108
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B
Distinctive Competencies of FBOs…………………………………………………….
109
C
Participant FBOs’ Service Responses to Human Trafficking………………………….
113
D
Gaps in FBOs in Human Trafficking Work……………………………………………
117
E
Issues of Partnership in Human Trafficking Work…………………………………….
118
VI
IMPLICATIONS and LIMITATIONS……………………………………………………
120
A
Implications……………………………………………………………………………
120
B
Limitations…………………………………………………………………………….
122
REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………..
124
APPENDIX…………………………………………………………………………………
128
TABLES
Table 1. Distribution of respondents and their organizations based on demographics……
25
Table 2. Distribution of agencies based on forms of trafficking addressed and types of
services provided…………………………………………………………………………..
26
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I. INTRODUCTION
No populations or communities are spared from human trafficking, which is an act of taking,
sheltering, providing, or patronizing a person through force, coercion, or fraud, for sexual
exploitation, labor exploitation, or organ removal, with benefits for a third party. This
phenomenon is considered one of the top three illegal businesses in the world, including gun
trafficking and drug trafficking. The covert aspect and high profitability of human trafficking
make this criminal activity difficult to prevent, challenging to protect the victims, and hard to
investigate and prosecute cases. Thus, stakeholders among public agencies and non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) have often conjugated efforts to address the problem.
Among NGO stakeholders, faith-based organizations (FBOs) have had substantial involvement
in the anti-human trafficking movement. They are at the forefront of the non-governmental
movement to fight human trafficking (Gee & Smith, 2014).
FBOs had been addressing human trafficking long before the UN’s Protocol to Prevent,
Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons of 2000 (Palermo Protocol) was adopted, and the
U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) was enacted. Harrelson (2010) found
that FBOs have been engaged in action and advocacy to eliminate slavery for a century and a
half. More importantly, in the past three decades, human trafficking has moved onto center stage
for many faith-based communities, especially those of Christian denominations. FBOs have had
a considerable impact on the way human trafficking has been conceptualized. Harrelson (2010)
argued that the input of FBOs in the anti-trafficking movement is likely to increase, making them
influential stakeholders, strong adversaries, or powerful allies for other stakeholders. It is
important to develop a better understanding of the perceptions and experiences of FBOs in
human trafficking work and the scope of their contributions to implementing anti-trafficking
policies.
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This study aims to explore FBOs’ input in the anti-trafficking movement in the U.S. by
exploring their motivations and experiences in preventing human trafficking, serving trafficking
survivors, and helping prosecute trafficking cases. The study has four objectives: (1) examine the
motivations of FBOs to engage in human trafficking work; (2) describe the distinctive
characteristics and competencies that make FBOs key stakeholders in the fight against human
trafficking; (3) examine the experiences and challenges of FBOs in doing human trafficking
work; and (4) assess FBOs’ interagency collaboration for human trafficking work.
In line with these four objectives, four key research questions will be addressed:
(1) What are the motivations of FBOs to engage in human trafficking work?
(2) What distinctive characteristics and competencies make FBOs major stakeholders in the fight
against human trafficking?
(3) What is the experience and challenges of FBOs in doing human trafficking work? and
(4) How is interagency collaboration utilized by FBOs for human trafficking work?
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
FBOs are organizations that specify their purpose within the framework of a faith tradition and
whose mission is an expression of that faith (Harrelson, 2010). According to Clarke and Jennings
(2008), an FBO is ‘‘any organization that derives inspiration from and guidance for its activities
from the teachings and principles of faith or a particular interpretation or school of thought
within a faith’’ (p.6). FBOs can also be viewed along a continuum, with, at one end,
organizations whose primary purpose is faith expanding with goods or services as a means of
access to those they want to reach with their religious message; and, on the other end, those
feeling obligated by their faith to act on behalf of vulnerable groups and offer services with no
expectation of conversion (Harrelson, 2010; John-Michael, 2019). Overall, FBOs hold stronger
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connections with the poor and vulnerable groups and benefit from an ongoing presence in
communities, which helps them build widespread support and trust among recipient communities
(John-Michael, 2019; Jones & Petersen, 2011).
A. Faith’s Connection with the Fight against Human Trafficking
Substantial work has been conducted on the influence of the sacred texts and faith on the
engagement of FBOs in the anti-trafficking movement, showing that the involvement of every
FBO in human trafficking work has a solid religious impetus or connection (e.g., Barrows, 2017;
Gee & Smith, 2014; Purekal, 2012; UNODC, 2010; WIRSCWG, 2016). Many Christian anti-
trafficking organizations within and outside the USA identified their sacred scriptures as the
driving force behind their work (Purekal, 2012). The belief in the innate dignity of all humans is
central to most faiths. FBOs in the anti-trafficking movement in the UK –mostly Christian--
identified William Wilberforce, a famous Christian British abolitionist, as a source of inspiration
for their work. Wilberforce crusaded to end the slave trade in the British Empire in the name of
Jesus Christ (Purekal, 2012). The Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization
Act of 2008 provides a salient illustration of the influence of Wilberforce-like Christian activism
in the U.S. anti-trafficking policy responses. Though faith-based human trafficking work is not
limited to Christian organizations, Christian stakeholders have substantially influenced and
shaped the U.S. federal anti-trafficking legislation (Gee & Smith, 2014).
Barrows (2017) explored how the sacred texts inspire the work of major FBOs involved
in the US-based anti-trafficking movement, including the Torah’s influence on Judaic anti-
trafficking drive, the New Testament’s validation of Christian anti-trafficking enthusiasm, the
Qur’an’s guidance for Muslim anti-trafficking motivation, and the Bahá’u’lláh’s inspiration in
Bahá’í’s anti-trafficking activism. Likewise, the Washington Inter-Religious Staff Community
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Working Group on Human Trafficking’s (2016) report analyzed the influence of faith in the
work of the major FBOs. T’ruah (2016) explained that the Torah commands Jewish worshippers
to protect strangers and demonstrate empathy for the most vulnerable. T’ruah argued that the
human trafficking work of Jewish FBOS is historically connected with the Jewish people’s
historic journey to freedom from slavery. UNODC’s (2010) report titled “Combating Trafficking
in Persons in Accordance with the Principles of Islamic Law” shows that Islam prohibits certain
types of exploitation, including the prohibition of labor exploitation and exploitation of the
prostitution of others. Although FBOs concur that human trafficking is wrong, their strategies
and goals are varied and conflicting (Zimmerman, 2011), leading to controversies about their
input's impacts on anti-trafficking efforts.
B. Controversies about FBOs’ Anti-Human Trafficking Work
Despite their frontline roles in the anti-trafficking movement, FBOs are not given enough
legitimacy because of people’s misperceptions about their motivations and contributions to the
movement. Accusations of FBOs using services they provide to trafficking victims to convert
them to religion have often contributed to rampant criticism against FBOs in the field. They are
sometimes criticized for several reasons, including lack of accountability and their area of focus
being very narrow because they focused on the sex trade and sex trafficking (Harrelson, 2010;
Purekal, 2012; Weitzer, 2007). For instance, Weitzer (2007) accuses Christian groups of using
the issue of trafficking to push an anti-sex agenda.
Likewise, faith was reportedly used to persuade and coerce individuals into human
trafficking (Heil, 2017; Pureskal, 2012; Salvation Army, 2019; US Dept. of Justice, 2021). The
pastor of a Pennsylvania-based church was sentenced to prison for coercing church members to
do specific jobs while pocketing their earnings and instructing them to defraud various hotels
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(US DOJ, 2021). Religious precepts combined with the exploitation of the victim’s faith have
sometimes been used as a justification for child abuse. Based on a review of court cases, Heil
(2017) explained how belief systems facilitated victim coercion into human trafficking. Many
abusers would use religious beliefs to justify exploitative actions, especially when potential
victims’ faith is important to them. Traffickers would use religious language to their advantage,
using fraud and coercion to cause submission while ensuring trafficking victims do not recognize
their situation as exploitation (Salvation Army, 2019). Religious language also comes into play
when survivors are assisted by FBOs trying to help them exit their trafficking situations. Thus, it
becomes difficult to know to what extent trafficking survivors are re-traumatized through faith.
The double-edged role of faith “..underlies the potential damage in support environments of
undue influence in trying to shape the religious identities of people with past experiences of
severe exploitation (Lewis et al., 2020, p. 30).
However, in their (2020) seminal study, Lewis, Lonergan, Murray, Tomalin, and Waite
found no evidence that FBOs involved in the UK’s anti-trafficking movement “were riddled with
direct evangelism, proselytism, and spiritual abuse… despite some fear that this is the case,” (p.
3). Even so, the fear of a converting agenda impairs trust and partnership work in the anti-
modern slavery sector (Armour, 2020). According to Lewis et al., FBOs felt there was
widespread suspicion and doubts over their professionalism and that they had to ‘go the extra
mile’ to develop collaboration with secular organizations in the sector of human trafficking
services. Barrows (2017) argued that ignorance about the motivation and purpose of faith-based
organizations contributes to misunderstanding and contention between FBOs and secular
organizations in the anti-trafficking movement.
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C. Faith’s Influence on Human Trafficking Survivors
Faith is reported to be important in the restoration of human trafficking survivors
(Barrows, 2017; Lewis et al., 2020; Pertek, 2022; Salvation Army, 2019; Schmitt, 2017).
Religious worship and spirituality were reported to be vital to trafficking survivors’ recovery
(Lewis et al., 2020). According to Barrows (2017), “FBOs also have a unique role within the
anti-trafficking movement: They are able to respond to the spiritual needs of survivors” (p. 288).
Survivors reported confidence in searching for faith for themselves while accessing the support
services available (Barrows, 2017). In a study with 14 trafficking survivors, Pertek (2022)
highlighted the importance of faith and religion in resilience mechanisms and the psychological
survival of trafficking survivors during forced migrant journeys. He found that faith enables
trafficking victims to survive and cope with their situation of exploitation. Trafficking survivors
reported that their faith had strengthened because of traumatic experiences. As much as
alienation from their faith community damages survivors, having a welcoming faith community
is an excellent resource for their recovery (Schmitt, 2017). Nevertheless, issues of being judged
for past actions during trafficking, and access to services contingent on engagement in faith-
based activities, can be problematic in the recovery journey of trafficking survivors (Schmitt,
2017).
D. FBOs’ Roles in the Fight against Human Trafficking
FBOs have been engaged in anti-trafficking efforts since the end of the nineteenth century
(Barrows, 2017). They have been not only at the forefront of the anti-trafficking movement, but
they have also made considerable contributions in the areas of prevention, protection, and
reintegration, and to some extent, prosecution of trafficking cases (Barrows, 2017; Bernadin,
2010; Gee, & Smith, 2014; Gjermeni & Van Hook, 2012; Harrelson, 2010; Schmitt, 2017).
Page 19 of 128
According to Harrelson (2010), FBOs can offer unique and important contributions to human
trafficking in terms of resources because they have access to extensive human and financial
resources and can tap in not only into their staff and volunteers but also into the congregations
and religious networks they are affiliated with (Harrelson, 2010). FBOs enjoy legitimacy and are
often headed by moral leaders perceived to be trustworthy. More importantly, they can sustain
their human trafficking work because of deep faith traditions and roots within some communities
and established social networks and systems (Harrelson, 2010; Schmitt, 2017).
Barrows (2017) found that FBOs in the U.S. are involved in changing and addressing
human trafficking through legal advocacy at the local, state, and federal levels, with some FBOs
concentrating their efforts on a specific issue to enhance their advocacy campaigns. For instance,
Shared Hope International focuses on policy advocacy about domestic minor sex trafficking.
FBOs are also engaged at the community and organizational levels (e.g., My Project USA;
T’ruah). To a limited extent, FBOs are involved in investigations of human trafficking cases. For
instance, through its Tennessee Investigative Center, Hope for Justice USA often assists regional
law enforcement agencies with investigations of human trafficking cases (Barrows, 2017). Most
FBOs do not limit their human trafficking work to survivors of the same religion (Barrows,
2017; Lewis et al., 2020; Schmitt, 2017). Lewis et al. found in their national study on anti-
trafficking FBOs in the UK that the organizations did not promote their faith in their victims’
services or condition services on religion.
E. Issues with Interfaith Collaboration
Whereas many FBOs agree that human trafficking is wrong and needs to be fought against, there
is sometimes misunderstanding and conflict between organizations of various faiths, which
impedes inter-FBO collaborations (Barrows, 2017; Zimmerman, 2010). Zimmerman (2011)
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found that FBOs’ anti-trafficking strategies and objectives are conflicting, which leads to
controversies about their contributions to anti-trafficking efforts. Barrows highlights issues
hampering collaboration between FBOs in the U.S. First, the absence of a national association of
anti-trafficking FBOs is a consequence of limited collaboration between FBOs in the anti-
trafficking movement. Second, ineffective collaboration among anti-trafficking FBOs results in
competition for funds and recognition. Finally, there are major service gaps within the anti-
trafficking movement because most FBOs focus only on sex trafficking (Harrelson, 2010;
Purekal, 2012; Weitzer, 2007).
F. Gap in Research on FBOs’ Human Trafficking Work
Besides limited collaboration among FBOs in the anti-trafficking movement, there is a
lack of research on the effectiveness or impact of services provided by FBOs. A large part of the
limited research available on FBOs’ extensive work in the field of human trafficking is
conceptual. It consists of either systematic reviews of organizational reports and websites or
reviews of grey literature. According to Barrows (2017), “with such a high degree of engagement
in the anti-trafficking movement, it is important to measure the impact of services provided by
FBOs,” (p. 288). Reviews of FBOs regarding services other than human trafficking show that the
evaluation of FBOs’ services was basic and lacked reliability (Barrows, 2017; Johnson,
Tompkin, & Webb, 2008).
Lewis et al. (2020) is the most prominent empirical research on the topic. A key finding
of this national research mentioned above was that, contrary to a pervasive misperception about
the motivation of FBOs, there was almost no evidence that FBOs involved in human trafficking
work in the UK (mostly of Christian denominations) used proselytizing as a condition or channel
for services they provided services to trafficking survivors. There is a lack of empirical
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evaluation of the effectiveness of FBOs’ trafficking-related services. There is also a gap of
knowledge on the following concerns: FBOs’ perceptions of their strengths and weaknesses as
key stakeholders in the fight against human trafficking; their experiences of doing any human
trafficking work; and their experiences of interagency collaboration in engaging in the human
trafficking movement. The present empirical research attempts to fill the gaps in the literature on
some of the concerns raised above.
III. METHODS
A. Research Design and Participant Selection
A qualitative research design, with an interview method, was used. A purposive sample of
participants from FBOs with anti-human trafficking work experience was selected based on two
criteria: 1) be from an FBO that has had at least five years of service experience in human
trafficking services, and 2) be designated by their FBO as a spokesperson regarding their
organization’s experience of human trafficking work. To identify FBOs from which to recruit
participants, two strategies were used. First, a Boolean search was conducted with a combination
of three groups of keywords: a) religion, religious, faith, faith-based, organization, center,
services, coalition, association, etc.; b) human trafficking, human trafficking work, services,
victims’ services, assistance, exploitation, sex trafficking sexual exploitation, slavery, modern-
day slavery, etc.; and c) Roman Catholic, Christian, Evangelical Christian, Protestant, Jewish,
Baha’i, Muslim, Hinduist, etc. Second, the literature that discussed issues of faith, religion, and
human trafficking work was reviewed to identify more FBOs and narrow the selection. The
search for FBOs was limited to FBOs in the U.S. states. During this search, FBOs’ contact
information (e-mail and phone numbers) was collected.
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The leaders of eligible FBOs identified were each sent an e-mail, informing them about
the research project and asking them to designate a spokesperson knowledgeable about the
organization’s anti-human trafficking work experience and send their contact information for
recruitment. The designated spokespersons were contacted by e-mail and/or phone to schedule a
time for an interview. Twenty-five FBO spokespersons were successfully reached and invited to
participate in the project. However, only 14 FBOs participated in the study. Even though the plan
was to have only one participant from each FBO, two organizations asked to have an additional
participant each because they said one person could not be able to respond to all the questions
planned for the interview guide, which was shared with organizations two or three days before
each interview. Thus, 16 participants from 14 FBOs participated in the project. Efforts to recruit
participants from FBOs of several major denominational faiths (e.g., Muslim, Baha’i, Hinduist,
etc.) were not successful for several reasons, including lack of responses to invitation e-mails
sent or calls made, time constraints for interview scheduling, recent turnovers in some FBOs, etc.
B. Data Collection
A semi-structured interview guide (see Appendix A) was used to collect data from the 16
respondents via Zoom. The interview guide includes questions exploring the following variables:
(1) demographic characteristics; (2) motivations of FBOs to engage in human trafficking work;
(3) distinctive characteristics and competencies of FBOs involved in the fight against human
trafficking; (4) experiences and challenges of FBOs in their anti-human trafficking work; (5)
FBOs’ interagency collaboration for human trafficking work; and (6) recommendations about
improving FBOs’ engagement in human trafficking work. All the interviews were audio-video
recorded and transcribed verbatim. The average time for each interview was approximately 60
minutes to complete.
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C. Data Analysis
Thematic analysis
1
of the interview data was conducted. The transcribed data from the interviews
were reviewed and categorized into six separate Word files corresponding to the six major
sections in the semi-structured interview questions. Each Word file contained passages from
each of the sections of responses to the same interview question representing the same key
theme, which helped create homogenous segments of texts to limit divergences in text
segmentation during the coding process (Carey & Oxtoby, 1996). The Atlas.ti 8 qualitative data
analysis program was used for the initial coding and analysis of the data in each of the six major
thematic files. The six themes that emerged from the coded data included: (1) participant
organizations’ demographics; (2) FBOs’ motivation and engagement in human trafficking work;
(3) Distinctive characteristics of FBOs engaged in anti-human trafficking work; (4) FBOs’
experiences and challenges in providing anti-human trafficking work; (5) FBOs’ interagency
collaboration in human trafficking work; and (6) participants’ perspectives and recommendations
about ways to strengthen the legitimacy of FBOs in the anti-human trafficking movement.
Peer debriefing and member checking were utilized to ensure the accuracy and credibility
of the thematic analysis of the interview data. Peer debriefing strengthens the credibility of the
findings in qualitative research (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). The researcher and a research assistant
coded the data, reviewed it, and discussed the interpretation of the data. Member checking allows
participants to correct errors and challenge what may be perceived as wrong interpretations
(Creswell, 2003). The researcher sent parts of the interview findings and interpretations to seven
respondents to check for the accuracy of the analysis of the information they provided.
1
Thematic analysis is a method for identifying, analyzing, and reporting patterns or themes within a qualitative dataset. It minimally organizes
and interprets various aspects of the research topic (Braun & Clarke, 2006). It is an appropriate method to examine and understand experiences,
thoughts, or behaviors across a data set (Kiger & Varpio, 2020). Thematic analysis involves a six-step process: familiarizing oneself with the
data, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing themes, defining, and naming themes, and producing a report (Kiger & Varpio,
2020).
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D. Human Subject Protection
There were no direct benefits to participants. All the respondents, except three, received a gift
card as an incentive for their time participating in the study. The risks of participating in the
study were minimal. The participants were asked questions about their professional services and
their opinions on the impact of their work. They did not share any sensitive information about
their work or answer sensitive questions about human trafficking survivors they had served. No
data were collected on specific persons respondents served or interacted with, or on internal
problems within the respondents’ organizations. The study was approved by the Office for the
Protection of Research Subjects at the principal investigator’s university. To protect the
participants’ privacy, pseudonyms are used to identify each.
IV. FINDINGS
The findings are presented in six major sections, including: agencies’ demographics; participant
agencies’ motivation in doing human trafficking work; participants’ perceptions of the
distinctive characteristics of FBOs engaged in human trafficking work; agencies’ experiences
and capacity in human trafficking work; agencies’ involvement in interagency collaboration for
human trafficking work; and participants’ perspectives on how to improve the engagement of
FBOs as key stakeholders in the fight against human trafficking.
A. Participant Organizations’ Characteristics
Table 1 displays the distribution of participants based on their positions in their agencies, their
organizations’ faith denomination, and their geographical scope of work. The majority of the 14
FBOs in the study were of Christian denomination (13; 93%); only one organization was of
Jewish faith denomination. Most participant organizations provided services at more than one
geographic level (countywide, statewide, nationwide, and/or international).
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Table 1. Distribution of respondents and their organizations based on demographics
Variables (n=14)
Organization’s faith denomination
Frequency
Percent
Catholic Christian
5
35.7
Other denominational Christian
4
28.6
Non-denominational Christian
4
28.6
Jewish
1
7.1
Total
14
100%
Organization’s scope of human trafficking work*
Citywide/countywide
6
32.0
Statewide
3
16.0
Nationwide
8
42.0
International
2
10.0
Participant’s organizational position (n=16)**
Executive Director
5
31.3
Program Director
5
31.3
Committee Leader
2
12.2
Chief Operations Officer
1
6.3
Board member
1
6.3
Community Outreach Director
1
6.3
Vice President
1
6.3
Total
16
100.0
Organization’s length of time in human trafficking work (n=14)
4 years
1
7.1
6 years
1
7.1
7 years
1
7.1
8 years
3
21.3
10 years
1
7.1
16 years
2
14.2
20 years
2
14.2
24 years
1
7.1
32 years
1
7.1
Over 40 years
1
7.1
Total
14
100.0
*Noncumulative statistics: five organizations' geographical scope of anti-trafficking is at two levels.
** Noncumulative statistics; 16 interview respondents, including two additional respondents from two
organizations; two participants reported two positions each.
While most of the FBOs (8 out of 14) provided services at the national level, six did so at
the city/county level and two at the international level. All 16 respondents were in various
leadership positions in their respective organizations, most of them being executive directors (5;
31.3%) or program directors (4; 25%). As displayed in Table 1, by the time of this study, seven
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organizations (50%) provided human trafficking-related services for 4-10 years, while six (43%)
provided those services for 16-32 years.
Table 2. Distribution of agencies based on forms of trafficking addressed and types of
services provided
Forms of trafficking
addressed
Types of services provided
Female sex trafficking
(n= 7)
Training services, victims’ services, and research
Outreach and safe housing
Outreach, training services, and safe housing
Outreach, awareness-raising, and training services (3)
Training services, awareness-raising, victims’ services, and mentoring
Female sex trafficking
and labor trafficking
(n = 6)
Safe housing and training services,
Policy advocacy and lobbying for corporate responsibility
Policy advocacy, outreach, and training services
Policy advocacy, research, training services, and small grant-making
Awareness-raising and training services
Outreach, awareness-raising, training services, and victims’ services
Male sex trafficking
(n= 1)
Outreach, training services, victims’ services, and referrals
Frequency of services reported: training services (10); outreach (6); victims’ services (4); safe
housing (3); awareness-raising (3); policy advocacy (3); research (2); and funding support (1).
While seven of the 14 FBOs primarily addressed female sex trafficking, six dealt with
sex trafficking and labor trafficking, and only one with male sex trafficking (see Table 2). The 14
FBOs provided varied types of services. Each organization provided more than one type of
service. Outreach to victims and awareness raising in various communities and environments
were reported by more than half of the FBOs. In connection with these mentioned services, ten
of the organizations provided training services about human trafficking. While three FBOs
primarily provided safe housing services, three others focused on policy advocacy. The research
was part of the human trafficking-related activities of two agencies.
Participants of four of the 14 FBOs reported that their organizations were the biggest
ones nationally in three service areas: housing services for trafficking, training, and policy
advocacy about child sex trafficking. For instance, Nadine (pseudonym) claimed that her FBO
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was a national leader in shelter services in the USA. Daniel’s international FBO, consisting of
business investors and shareholders of Christian denominations, could be considered the only
one in the USA advocating against human trafficking within big corporations. Annie, another
respondent, claimed, “As far as being the Catholic Church’s organization, I believe that we are
one of the biggest organizations in the US Catholic Church that focus solely on human
trafficking.”
B. Organizations’ Motivation for Human Trafficking Work
The findings here are categorized into two major themes: factors of motivation to engage in the
anti-human trafficking movement; and faith as the connecting influence in FBOs’ engagement in
human trafficking work.
1. Factors of motivation to engage in the anti-Human trafficking movement
Five subthemes from the data highlight the motivations of FBOs to engage in anti-human
trafficking activities and services. These include: personal experience or witnessing of human
trafficking events; need to address the deficit in victims’ services; participation in educational
events; and call for social justice.
a. Personal experience or witnessing of human trafficking
Five of the respondents created or joined their current organizations either because they had
witnessed the exploitative situations of trafficking survivors or former clients they assisted. As
Nadine, who had worked for over 16 years in business before creating her current organization
providing safe housing and training on human trafficking, stated, “Human trafficking survivors
have so changed me and shaped my identity and my understanding of the problem that I would
say that that has given me a tenacious, unrelenting pursuit because all of those people are now a
part of what drives me to do that.”
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Amanda, a survivor of sex trafficking, who too used to own a business company, now the
leader of another FBO providing safe housing and training, was inspired by an encounter with an
exploited person on the streets of Baltimore. She explained, “That interaction compelled me to
sell my company and my home and buy a property to start the first shelter program for victims in
the mid-Atlantic area.”
Nicole, a program director in her FBO, said that the founder of the organization, who
used to be a Congresswoman, created an international organization dealing with anti-trafficking
policy advocacy after witnessing sex trafficking in Asia. “Being a Christian and someone who
really cared about people in general, she decided she had to do something about this,” Nicole
said.
b. Addressing victims’ service deficit
Nine of the 14 FBOs were established to address human trafficking victims’ services and
resources missing in their communities. Five subthemes were highlighted by the findings about
this point: issue of service deficit and quality of care for survivors; feeling compelled to fill the
gaps in services for groups of victims often overlooked; shortage of adequate housing for sex
trafficking victims; need to provide services to survivors unable to receive assistance anywhere;
and responding to calls from law enforcement for assistance to sex trafficking victims in the
community.
Four FBOs felt compelled to fill the gaps in services for groups of victims often
overlooked by secular organizations and public agencies. Isaac, the founder of the only FBO in
the study that dealt with male sex trafficking, said he felt compelled to create the organization to
fill the gap in basic services for male sex trafficking survivors because no agencies wanted to
address the need of that category of survivors in Illinois. Isaac realized the issue when he was
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volunteering with an organization doing outreach to women in the sex trade on the streets of
Chicago. During the organization’s outreach, he noticed men out on the streets. When he
inquired about the men, the people he was with said, “Well, no one works with the men; no one
talks to the men.” According to Nadine, “the motivation was because we saw the need and the
gaps in the ability to meet the needs. There were not enough beds. There were not enough
survivor-led organizations to understand and solve the issue.” Amanda’s organization provided
services to a unique group of survivors unable to receive assistance anywhere: sex trafficking
women with kids and pets. As she explained,
A service gap that we saw was women with children and pets. So now we pretty much
only serve women with children and pets. We do take single women as well if they're
older and can't be placed, but essentially we've become the organization that you send
people to if they don't fit anywhere else. We try to keep the family units together if we
can. There are actually zero other places that accept trafficking survivors with pets, and
there are very few options for women with children. So, we have, over the years,
developed into filling this niche.
The police would sometimes reach out to FBOs to help prevent the sex trade in their
districts and provide support during or after rescue operations. As Julie, a sex trafficking survivor
and leader of an FBO providing safe housing and corollary services to female sex trafficking
survivors, stated:
In 2002, things were very rough in the North Side Humboldt Park area, and the police
asked our pastor if something could be done to rescue these women who were out in
prostitution in the corners of the community area. So, the pastor opened up a ministry and
began looking for properties to accommodate these women once rescued (Julie).
c. Participation in educational and awareness-raising events
Participation in educational and awareness-raising events about human trafficking was a
major trigger for the establishment of seven of the 14 FBOs and their engagement in their anti-
trafficking movement. The following variables from the interviews highlight how these FBOs
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decided to join the movement: engagement after participating in campaigns about human
trafficking; engagement following volunteering in outreach events; and motivation to partake in
public efforts to address the issue.
i. Engagement after participating in campaigns about human trafficking
Explaining how her FBO was established, Leah explained that a parishioner became interested in
the topic of human trafficking and asked other members to join her at a Long Beach human
trafficking task force meeting. Their participation in the meeting made them realize this was “a
huge, scary issue” none of them was aware of. “And then we thought, ‘what can we, this little
group, do to make a difference?’ And we thought, well, ‘What do Catholic churches have?’ We
have people, so we could have volunteers,” she added to show how they organized their
congregation.
ii. Motivated to partake in public efforts to address the issue
Some FBOs decided to engage in the anti-human trafficking movement to address an apparent
detachment within their communities that were traditionally unconcerned about the problem. For
instance, discussing the engagement of Jewish FBOs in human trafficking work, Sara explained
that:
The Jewish community was not really connected to this issue or felt like it didn’t relate to
us. One of our goals was to heighten awareness about trafficking and its impact on our
community and us. The myth that it could never happen to anyone Jewish or that there
are no Jewish traffickers was just something that we sought to dispel. And that it is a
major problem for the world, so we should be part of helping to address it. It just made
sense that we would raise our voices.
Sometimes, FBOs are established because faith community members believe that doing
something about human trafficking is a tangible way for their congregations to demonstrate their
mission to fight for the oppressed groups.
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Now you’re seeing people saying, “What are we doing locally?” And people want to step
in and help. So, they’re saying, “Wait, this is something our church can get behind
because people are being brought to more awareness.” So, I think that the church is
learning that there’s a need, and they have a place to help make that need be filled (Leah).
d. Call for social justice
Call for social justice was also identified as a key factor in respondents’ organizations’
involvement in the human trafficking movement. This call was reflected in the following
elements highlighted from the data: passion for social justice; fighting for the voiceless through
faith; compassion for the oppressed; and call for fair labor practices in for-profit companies.
ii. Passion for social justice and compassion for the oppressed
All the respondents acknowledged that social justice is one of the core values sustaining
their FBOs’ human trafficking work because every religious tradition has a philosophy such as
‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’
The call for social justice implies fighting for the voiceless: The Sisters are not afraid to
stand up for what’s right or speak against injustices. They’re not scared to lobby
legislators. Our motivation is to help people who need help and don’t have a voice. So
those of us who have a voice need to be able to do that. (Hannah).
I’m not familiar with every single group of Catholic Sisters, but the ones I surrounded
myself with are all very social justice oriented. And the ones that have chosen human
trafficking as one of their causes, I’m just so impressed with their abilities to move
forward and commitment. (Stacey)
There’s a great need and desire for faith-based organizations to be involved. This passion
for justice is huge; you have to have that passion because this is hard work. You hear
terrible stories. You encounter people who have gone through terrible things. And how
do you deal with that day in and day out? You have passion, and you have faith to fall
back on. And I think those are two huge factors in being successful. (Annie)
For Nadine, social justice relates to compassion for the oppressed:
The stories are remarkably similar in terms of how we were called in this field and what
motivates them. There is keenly a sense of the injustice of it, and many people are
motivated by an effort to right a wrong. Because of our Christian ideology, we believe
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that nobody is excluded from redemption, and so all lives are valuable, all lives are worth
saving. And so, those are big drivers.
Amanda pithily summarized the shared view of all participants about social justice as an impetus
for faith communities to fight human trafficking:
Are there any religions in the world that don’t believe in social justice? I don’t think so. I
haven’t come across any. I believe that that is an edict within every religion, whatever it
is. Whether you’re a Jew, whether you’re a Christian, or whether you’re a Hindu, we all
believe the same when it comes to justice. Nobody believes that someone should be
treated inhumanely or injustice. The issue of human trafficking has that built into it from
start to finish. It is entirely injustice. All religions believe justice and equality, and equity
are necessary for people to feel part of their community.
ii. Call for fair labor practices in for-profit companies
ICCR (Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility), represented by Daniel in the present study,
is a unique FBO addressing human trafficking from the business system. Established in the
1970s by business owners and shareholders of the Christian faith, it aimed to bring about reforms
addressing the human rights of vulnerable populations. This FBO shows how faith-based
business networking is utilized to advocate for policy changes for fair labor practices and the
prevention of human trafficking in big companies and their supply chains.
The reason was the recognition that we had in the late sixties that while churches had
excellent policies around economic justice, environmental justice, warranties, and worker
rights, around human rights, there was no connection between the social policies of the
churches and their investment strategies. So, when we came together in the 1970s, it was
to unite the social, ethical human rights policies and the financial decision-making to
ensure they were aligned. (Daniel)
2. Faith’s overriding influence on FBOs’ engagement in human trafficking work
All the factors highlighted above are secondary to faith, perceived by the 14 respondents as the
overriding, connecting factor that substantiates the involvement of any FBOs in the anti-
trafficking movement. The findings show an overwhelming influence of faith not only over the
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impetus of FBOs for human trafficking services but also in the service delivery approach they
use. Subthemes that indicate the influence of faith on the FBOs’ human trafficking work include
the following: faith as a driving philosophy in human trafficking work; opposition of all religions
to slavery; human trafficking work as a suitable field for practicing faith; misinterpreting FBOs’
passion for human trafficking work; and connection between human trafficking and history of
persecution.
a. Faith as a driving philosophy in human trafficking work
The findings show that faith pervades all parts of the human trafficking activities of FBOs. Isaac,
the leader of the only FBO addressing male trafficking, said,
It is our faith that motivates us to help. …If someone is a believer, it is innate within them
to help. I think when we love our neighbors as ourselves, we see their humanity, and we
see their need; therefore, we are compelled to serve.
Thus, the FBOs’ faith-based service approach compels them to prioritize the basic human rights
of trafficking victims. Annie explained, “Most faith traditions have an idea of basic human
dignity. So, I think that's why they come to this work naturally.” Even though there is a variety
of faiths, the core value of religious teachings about assisting vulnerable groups is shared by all
the participant FBOs. As Lisa observed,
All Christian faiths are motivated by the teaching of ‘love thy neighbor as thyself.’ But
we have dealt with Jewish organizations, Muslim organizations, or even individual
members of other organizations of different faiths, and they have similar teachings. So,
when we work with them, we share certain philosophies. And even though we may not
have the same origins as them, in terms of the teachings or motivations, we have very
similar ones. So, I think it's that mentality and that position that motivates us.
Nicole, a respondent from a national FBO, focusing on policy advocacy, explained that it was
through Christian faith that human trafficking work was embraced in the first place by the
founders of her agency. The latter were firm believers and felt it was their responsibility to help
as many people as possible without discrimination as to what those people's faith was.
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b. Misinterpreting FBOs’ passion for human trafficking work
People cannot understand how faith impacts the passion of many FBOs to dedicate their time and
resources to a dangerous field such as human trafficking. People are puzzled at witnessing their
Christian colleagues or friends quit lucrative businesses or positions for work in the human
trafficking field, as was the case with at least two of the FBO leaders in this study (e.g., Amanda
and Nadine). Nadine justified her faith-laden passion:
One of the things that we bring to people who are not people of faith is a mystery about
what compels us. I worked for just over 16 years in business and left. Thus, thousands of
people will go, “I don't get it. Why would you do this? Why would you give up? You
were making a lot of money in Washington, DC. Why would you do that?” I think the
mystery of why people of faith are compelled to do extraordinary things is initially
discordant, but over time it's very attractive.
Even survivors, who have developed distrust because of their trafficking experiences,
showed skepticism at how some FBOs would provide services to them without expecting
anything in return and without using religion to bargain services:
There was a woman with a son trying to get out of the sex industry, and she needed to be
set up. We went and delivered her a sofa and other things she needed. And she said she
just was shocked that someone would help her with no agenda. It's the fact that we were
just willing to help her, and she just couldn't believe it. (Lisa)
c. Mandated by faith to oppose human trafficking
Respondents concurred that, in general, religions and Sacred Scriptures oppose slavery. Jenna, a
regional leader of one of the biggest international FBOs in the study, explained that “When you
look at the faith community, human trafficking goes against the values of all of the major
religions, like the actual teachings from their literature.” Participants reported that faith calls for
FBO staff to reach out and help victims unconditionally:
When we reach out to these women out in the streets, we basically give them that hope,
that opportunity, that restoration of them, letting them know that “Hey, you being out
here, that's not your life.” And the motivation that we get obviously is a faith-based
motivation that we get from what we believe in and whom we believe in. (Julie)
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Like most participants, Jenna reported that loving, serving, and supporting any people needing
help is mandated by the Sacred Scriptures, regardless of their religious beliefs.
You are called to provide support to your neighbor and provide resources to people in
need. So, it is our call to provide and support our community. We are called to do that
because that is what God has called us to do, regardless of whether people want to attend
our church or want to follow the same God.
Illustrating the same point about the faith-based mandate of assisting people in need, Nicole
explained that “The Bible is filled with admonitions to do justice, have mercy. It is replete with
those kinds of instructions. It was through faith that her agency was established in the first
place.” Thus, human trafficking provides a convenient opportunity for believers to put their faith
into practice. As Megan explained,
We never push our faith on them [survivors], but our staff are all faith-centered, and our
volunteers align with our mission and values. What makes that unique is that we are
bringing our faith into the foundation of who we are through community engagement and
people in the community.
Sara, the respondent from the only Jewish FBO in the study, observed that human
trafficking was comparable to the persecution the Jewish people experienced throughout history.
Thus, it was easy for Jewish groups to engage in the anti-trafficking movement early in
American history:
There are just so many times over history, including biblical history, that the Jews stood
up against injustice and the value of human life and the value of human dignity. Our
trafficking program is part of an organization that was at Ellis Island over 125 years ago,
making sure that young girls weren’t taken by potential traffickers and put into child
labor or sex trafficking.
2
2
For 125 years, the National Council of Jewish Women has been fighting human trafficking, starting with the protection of vulnerable women
and children immigrants at Ellis Island. https://www.ncjw.org/stories/fighting-trafficking-and-celebrating-our-successes/
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d. Service delivery approach impacted by faith
The influence of faith in the service delivery approach to human trafficking is highlighted
through the following subthemes: fighting for the voiceless through faith; faith’s influence on the
fight for trafficking victims’ dignity and self-determination; and faith as an enabling influence.
Faith helps FBO workers cope with vicarious trauma and burnout due to their work with victims
who have experienced violence and trauma while in captivity.
I would say that one of the attributes that the faith-based community has is that when you
set your aspirational goal higher than the success of one individual, because we set out
goal higher, meaning we are doing this because God loves us and God saved us and so
that allows us to survive the high fluctuations, the amount of turnover, the trauma, and
the violence of the stories you have. (Nadine)
Faith provides an environment for empowering victims for their dignity and self-determination:
The edict of love oversees all. We're still going to love people, whatever their choices are.
For us, it's a quite easy decision that love oversees everything. So, we don't have to make
decisions to discriminate or to judge because we're just supposed to love people.
(Amanda)
C. Competencies of FBOs Engaged in Human Trafficking Work
Participants’ knowledge and perceptions were sought about the distinct characteristics that make
FBOs key stakeholders in the fight against human trafficking. The findings highlight seven
subthemes, which are analyzed in three areas: prevention, protection, and prosecution.
1. Prevention
Two subthemes about FBOs’ characteristics and capacities are in prevention services, including
FBOs’ ability to capitalize on faith-based community and networking resources: and capacity for
outreach and advocacy.
a. Capacity to gather and use community resources
FBOs have unique community resources to capitalize on to prevent human trafficking. As
Amanda said:
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The numbers are not as critical to faith-based organizations getting the next piece of
funding; they're basically using their community resources to do preventative work. Our
organization educates other churches. We offer certificate training to businesses that have
policies and stuff like that. When you get a community behind something, it creates
momentum that moves forward. And that's quite different from a government program
that has to meet some criteria or other things.
Further illustrating her point, Amanda argued that, even though a structure such as the
Department of Health and Human Services has human trafficking liaisons in its different centers,
the problem is that there are too many regulations these centers must adhere to. As she said:
In government-funded programs, you first have to figure out if they [survivors] qualify
for the assistance before you help them. We [FBOs] don't have to do that because we
have the community behind us who wants to see this.
FBOs can have access to various social support within their community.
“They have a lot of safety nets in place, not only in intervention but also in prevention
work. And because these networks and resources are already pretty well established, a lot
of potential trafficking victims are already actively engaging with FBOs and faith-based
communities,” said Jenna.
The flexibility in managing their resources allows FBOs to assist any survivors who need their
services, even if they are not survivors of human trafficking. Many FBOs refrain from screening
survivors for eligibility for services before providing or finding them the help they need.
Even if a rescued survivor did not meet our criteria for a human trafficking case, we
wouldn't put them out on the street. We would contact our partner NGOs and pass the
survivor off to the appropriate NGO. So, we're not going to be like, “No, we're not
helping you because you're not a human trafficking victim.” And that's a difference
between community-based organizations that are working with each other and
governmental programs that sometimes you've got to answer 45 questions before they
even give a survivor a meal. (Amanda)
b. Capacity for outreach and advocacy
Using grassroots organizing, FBOs play a critical role in advocacy and outreach about
trafficking. They often do street and night outreach on behalf of sex trafficking victims, and are
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uniquely positioned to reach families and their members through their connection to church
congregations:
Los Angeles has a huge Hispanic population, and we also have a large Asian population.
Labor trafficking victims come from these populations, who are also members of
churches. So, if survivors can find their churches, either as a safe haven or if they can
reach out to those who might be able to reach others in their community, it is really the
grassroots way of getting back into the community to address these issues. (Megan)
FBO staff’s skills for advocacy and outreach allow them to show love, compassion, and
solidarity with survivors.
You're meeting victims where they're at, and you're fighting, not for them, but with them.
We're taught about how Christ was our advocate, what He's done for us, and what He did
for our lives. It's about grace and redemption. Then, outreach is just in your DNA if
you're brought up in the church. It's about learning to serve the community. (Megan)
2. Protection
Five subthemes about FBOs’ characteristics and capacities are found around protection,
including FBOs’ dual value in the fight against trafficking; FBOs being most active in victims’
services; ability to provide survivor-led trafficking services; ability to provide an environment
for trust building; and ability to provide long-term recovery and reintegration services.
a. Dual value of the input of FBOs in the fight against trafficking
Some respondents perceived that the importance of FBOs as key stakeholders in the anti-
trafficking movement could be credibly explained through theory and practice perspectives.
Nadine, one of the respondents, summarized this perception in the following terms:
First, on a theoretical plan, one of the distinctive characteristics of FBOs is we’re
predicated on hope. If you think of something like harm reduction as a philosophy, it says
people can just stay in addiction, but we want it to be safer; there's nothing aspirational or
hopeful about that; there’s nothing in there that says, “life could be better.” In the mix of
options, trafficking survivors need to see that there's hope. Second, most of these faith-
based agencies take no government funding. So, if you want to be pragmatic about it,
that's a state or a nation's cheapest option. Because somebody else is paying for all of that
care, that's just a practical reality. FBOs are very connected to their local community,
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very embedded in cultures and local resources, and are able to do things that the top-
down approach can’t get done. So FBOs in this work are providing a valuable option.
The findings show that FBOs are overwhelmingly represented among victims’ service
providers, providing shelter services, housing, drop-in center services, mental health services,
etc. According to Nadine,
The faith-based community is probably the most robust and active in the victim services
arena. Where you would see them most obviously and perhaps in the larger numbers is in
victim services. And that's everything from running a drop-in center to street outreaches.
b. Providing survivor-led trafficking services and a safe environment for trust-building
Half of the FBOs in the study had survivors as their leaders or as key staff in their programs,
which allows survivor-informed services because “It's the lived experiences of the people who
have lived the life and have been there and have the compassion in dealing with their situation
and looking at the whole picture,” said Stacey. Respondents perceived that FBOs provide a safe
environment for trust-building with survivors and communities. Discussing the level of
communities’ respect for Catholic Sisters involved in the human trafficking movement, Stacey
said:
For us, the sisters, especially in the Catholic Church, where there's a lot of distrust, are
still valued and trusted as earnest hard workers. And they are in the trenches working
with the people. In terms of the moral voice, we evince compassion. We try to build
bridges and not just point blame.
FBOs’ work ethics and accountability were other key values the findings highlighted.
Respondents shared the perception that FBOs tend to excel at managing money well because, as
Annie said,
You can never be assured of your next dollar, so you have to be very careful with how
you use them. They [FBOs] tend to be very good about their money, especially if they're
smaller. Your donor could be the person you're eating breakfast with. There's a higher
level of accountability..
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c. FBOs’ ability to assist survivors and build trust
Participants concurred that FBOs provide a safe space that helps survivors to develop trust.
FBOs tend to show love and compassion for trafficking survivors while allowing for self-
determination. As Amanda explained,
You can come to our organization for help; you don't have to have any identification; you
don't have to have anything. You need help, and we're going to help you. And we're not
going to ask a lot of questions. Eventually, we're going to need to know more, but only
when you're ready to tell us. So that allows for a level of trust that a public agency cannot
develop. That's something that faith-based organizations have that really helps them with
trust-building because they don't have to be as inquisitive as early.
Annie’s assumption about how survivors develop trust is that, based on the services they receive,
and the way service providers treat them, they can determine by themselves if the therapeutic
relationship is safe and unconditioned. As Annie explained:
I'm not making a blanket statement that any particular group is trustworthy, but I think
people who are survivors of human trafficking can wonder, “Why are these people
helping me? Why would they even do that?” If a survivor comes into a situation, they
may be a little leery of anyone, and rightfully so, and if they can make a reasonable leap
in their head as to why someone is helping them, they are more likely, I think, to trust
them.
FBOs’ distinctive ability to serve human trafficking survivors could be explained by the fact that
people who are on their staff have personal stories of exploitation or trafficking, which allows
them to evince compassion while allowing for self-determination. “From my experience, I see
that most people who join these faith-based organizations have a testimony. They all have some
type of trauma or whatever the situation was,” explained Julie.
d. Allowing for self-determination in service provision
Respondents stressed the importance of considering trafficking survivors’ input in services being
provided to them. They reported that faith calls for self-determination in the choices people
make. Amanda explained that,
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If and how are they going to make a choice to request for spiritual guidance? God gives
us free will. If you feel like you have to become a Christian in order to get food or
shelter, that's not free will. I don't think that that's a thing people should be doing. I think
if we live out our faith, if we live out our love, if we do what we're supposed to do as
humans, then naturally people will get drawn to ask, “What is that thing within you that
gives you the ability to love this much, that gives you the ability to just forgive this
much?” And when they start asking, then we can start helping them. What we don't do is
force them to go to church or pray or whatever. It's entirely up to them.
Opportunities for spiritual development are offered to survivors only when they seek and ask for
such information. As Isaac stated,
I think that our Christian teaching is that people need to make their own decisions. It is
totally up to survivors if they want to participate in a religious program. Or if they don't
want to participate in it, they still have access to every program and resource that we
offer. We believe that if they do, they may have their reasons for it. But it's not a
prerequisite at all exactly. It's our responsibility to just love and provide support to folks.
e. Providing long-term services for recovery and reintegration
FBOs’ active role in victims’ services is highlighted through three interconnected subthemes:
their ability to provide long-term recovery and reintegration services, their use of an approach
like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to avoid expediting services survivors need; and their
tendency to provide services to survivors without time constraints.
Five respondents reported that their FBOs’ human trafficking-related services are not
time-constrained because it takes time for trafficking survivors to recover from the trauma they
have endured. Thus, the therapeutic relationship with survivors is not broken. As Julie said,
We provide the resources when it comes to an exit strategy of the life they're living in,
building that relationship with them, and bringing them as family. That's what we're
meant to do. We are meant not to give up and just say, ‘Okay, here you go, bye, bye.
Here's your certificate.’ No, we continue. We continue to be with each other and build
that community with those who need it in their life, with whatever situation they're going
through.
With the understanding that it takes time for survivors to be restored from situations of trauma
caused by exploitation, and before even considering discussing any faith-related issues with
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survivors, respondents reported that their organizations would use the approach of Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs to gradually respond to trafficking survivors’ needs until the latter reach a
level of comfort where they feel safe to reach out for other needs. Amanda explained that,
We believe in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in which victims’ needs need to be met
before we can really consider their spiritual needs to be paramount. So, before we can
worry about their spiritual needs, we first need to worry about their physical needs such
as water, shelter, clothing, psychological safety, and the very basic needs that have to be
met. Over time, it is my hope that they will see us living out our faith and asking about it,
but it's not for us to tell them and force it upon them. It's for us to show them what love
looks like. So, if we do that and they ask questions, that's ideal.
The use of an approach like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs by some FBOs explains why some
respondents said that their agencies rarely put a time limit on the services their clients needed.
We like long-term restorative care because there's that continuing meeting individuals
where they're at and not giving up. And a lot of times when you get federal grants, and
there is a certain alignment, you have to get so much done within a certain amount of
time. And you've got to prove numbers, whereas a lot of times with faith centers, it is the
person over that process because they're worth the investment. (Megan)
3. Prosecution
One theme is connected to prosecution, that is, FBOs’ ability to partner with law enforcement for
rescue operations and after-rescue assistance. Respondents reported that partnership with law
enforcement agencies is invaluable. As Nadine explained,
I've seen it work extraordinarily well when a law enforcement agency jurisdiction
partners with faith-based organizations to provide the services that law enforcement can’t
do or impedes their progress. It looks like this: When law enforcement is going to do a
sting operation, and they anticipate that they're going to apprehend thirty victims, they
can’t, unless they charge those individuals, they can't legally hold them, but if they have a
partner organization that can go on that sting operation with them to be that interface with
the victim, not have the same agenda, not have the same authority, provide for their
material needs, offer resources, their operation may be successful.
FBOs’ partnership with law enforcement can be helpful for investigations. FBOs can
provide trafficking survivors with a sense of safety and have their basic needs met. Thus, not
only are the survivors rescued from their trafficking situations but also they are moved into a
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situation that's not detention, which increases the likelihood that they will be willing to help in an
investigator process, if necessary. According to Nadine,
There are models across the United States like that that are working extraordinarily well
and could be replicated, but that's up to each jurisdiction and what are the faith-based
partners in those areas. I would love to see examples like that amplified and showcased
across the United States because we could be more creative about partnering.
In their human trafficking services, FBOs’ help is also welcomed by pimps, who sometimes view
faith groups doing outreach to sex trafficking as a resource for them. Respondents reported that
pimps would tolerate or fear FBOs because the latter are not law enforcement and would even
request prayers or faith guidance. Julie observed that,
There have been times, in a positive way, where because we are faith-based, the pimps
fear us, because some of them that we encounter grew up knowing God. So, they fear
once they hear that we are a faith-based ministry. Once they hear we're from the church,
they'll be like, ‘oh, okay.’ And as crazy as it sounds, sometimes the pimps ask and
receive prayer more than the women.
4. Perceptions of limitations in FBOs’ human trafficking work
Limitations of FBOs doing human trafficking work are highlighted through three subthemes,
including: ethical concerns around preaching in human trafficking work; faith as an enabling
factor for exploitation; and lack of evaluation of FBOs’ work.
a. Ethical issues around preaching in FBOs’ human trafficking work
Respondents found it unethical and traumatizing that some FBOs would use faith acceptance as a
condition for trafficking victims to receive or access assistance services. They concurred that it is
counterproductive that any FBOs in the field of human trafficking push their beliefs, faith,
regulations, and customs onto trafficking victims because the last thing victims need is to comply
with a whole new set of faith requirements, which can re-traumatize them. That is why,
according to Nadine, “The more seasoned people in this work are, the more mature they are and
have learned that we have to be much more patient with faith; some survivors will not choose
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that for themselves.” Likewise, four other respondents (i.e., Sara, Hannah, Annie, and Nicole)
described their agencies’ anti-preaching philosophy.
I would be cautious about when assistance crosses into the perception of ‘I'm trying to
save you because you need to get out of this horrific situation you're in,’ or ‘I want to
save you, and then there's just a certain way you need to be in this religious structure.’
So, I think that when religious organizations veer into extremism, that is unhelpful. So
maybe in Judaism, it would be like “We all need to be Orthodox and religious to make
sure that our homes are safe from trafficking coming in our doors.” We're not preaching
any of that. That's not our motive. (Sara)
If you are a faith-based person, it is going to show in how you speak and how you act, but
you don't push that on anybody because they can't grasp that right now or can't accept
that right now. Thus, influencing someone in that respect is just harmful to their psyche,
and to their healing process. (Hannah)
I do think it does the overall FBOs against trafficking a disservice. I think it's unethical to
say, ‘Okay, we'll do this, but you have to do this.’ It becomes a transactional issue, which
all these survivors are just getting out of. And I think it is great harm to the survivor who
is just coming out of a very transactional relationship. (Annie)
Our funded partners that are directly ministering to survivors of sex trafficking make
Bible study or counseling available, but they don't force it on the people. We know that
doesn't work. So, it’s more an offering and an atmosphere of love and acceptance that
often will win people over without any direct proselytizing. (Nicole)
Respondent believed that preaching to trafficking survivors not only hampers their self-
determination and trust building but can be traumatizing. Hannah argued that people who find
themselves in trafficking situations might feel very much abandoned by their religion or by God
and feel disconnected. So, pushing any religion on survivors does not help them. Yet,
demonstrating compassion can help survivors find their way back to God. “Pushing them on
your religion, pushing them on your faith, I don't think that helps at all,” observed Hannah.
Likewise, Stacey said:
There's no proselytizing. It's just because it's a power situation. If you're helping a victim,
you can't do that. I imagine some organizations just feel the need to convert, but that's not
how we operate. I don't think that's an effective way to proceed because these people, the
situations that they're in lesser power, and they're trying to exit that. And if an
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organization then essentially replaced the power position of the trafficker and tried to
convert them, that would be completely wrong in my opinion.
Respondents believed that some FBOs like proselytizing because, as Stacey put it, “they want to
save people, and rescue people. And in many faith traditions, there is this belief that the only way
to save someone is to bring them to a particular faith tradition.” However, Annie argued that,
Not only do I believe it unethical for organizations that are engaging in anti-trafficking
work, but it's also harmful to survivors. I think it's overall harmful to the faith tradition
because no one brought to something in a forced manner is going to actually have an
authentic relationship in that faith tradition.
Another limitation highlighted by the findings is about FBOs discriminating against
trafficking survivors based on race, gender, or other differences. Participants reported that there
were faith-based agencies out there that do discriminate sometimes based on gender, race, or
similar kinds of considerations. Yet, in addition to issues of proselytizing and discrimination
reported by the respondents, it was found that faith is sometimes used to exploit vulnerable
people seeking help from FBOs.
b. Issue of faith contributing to trafficking conditions
Respondents admitted that faith has sometimes been used by religious or spiritual leaders to
coerce people into human trafficking. Trafficking victims can be so vulnerable that they will
accept any conditions or believe or take anything just to get shelter, food, and water, which can
result in situations where religious leaders can take advantage of and revictimize them. Hannah
observed that “It makes me very angry that someone would use religion to manipulate someone.”
Jenna too said,
We have traffickers who use the Bible to exploit other people. We have traffickers who
have been convicted, who were leaders in their own church. So absolutely, I think
anything can be manipulated, misused, and abused. That isn't what our faith actually is.
That's not a true biblical teaching, but absolutely anything can be distorted.
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Lisa, another respondent, also stated she knew of people who had been trafficked by fellow
church members. So, according to her,
Churches are not always on the side of good; some of these people can be on the side of
evil. And so, it could be a trigger for them to go back and try to say to vulnerable people,
‘To be a good Christian, you need to do this, or you need to do that.’ That may be the
worst thing survivors need to hear at that moment.
Amanda too expressed concern about FBOs using their position of power and faith to manipulate
and exploit the labor of vulnerable individuals who trusted them with spiritual guidance. The
majority of FBOs in the field tried to expose those among them using religion to unscrupulously
exploit survivors. As Amanda argued,
While it is very unfortunate and it definitely shouldn't happen, that is not true of all faith-
based organizations. And to be fair, it's the minority, not the majority. Within every
profession, there are some people who do it wrong, and we have those within the faith-
based community as well. And when we see those things happening, we try to report it.
We try to do things about it. They have directors that make bad choices along the way.
Every walk of life has that small group of people who do it the wrong way that gives
everyone else a bad name, but it is not the majority of the intent of most places.
Sometimes, an FBO leader, a former trafficking survivor, would unintentionally project their
trauma into the work they do as they try to convert survivors. Likewise, for being in contact with
trafficking survivors and intensely listening to their various stories of trauma for too long, some
FBO providers experienced vicarious trauma.
3
As Megan explained, “What we've seen is a lot of
times people at anti-trafficking organizations usually have had their own trauma and abuse. And
they're bringing their own stories into the way they lead.”
This is a very draining job because literally 24/7, you are working with survivors and
their stories so much that you take on their trauma. And if you have your own trauma and
you're not working through it, it impacts your work. We have seen other agencies where
they re-victimize the girls by how they try to take control because they can't take control
of their own circumstances. And they force their agenda on girls that don't even know
how to do life yet. And so, we've seen girls leave programs completely broken and scared
of anything faith-based because of what was told to them or what they need to believe.
3
Vicarious trauma is a process of change resulting from empathetic engagement with trauma survivors.
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So, they don't want to go anywhere near anything that's faith-centered due to that. It
breaks our hearts because I feel like we're picking up the pieces and it takes a lot of time
because we're cleaning up other people's messes from their own trauma that they've
created issues within survivors (Megan).
Lack of evaluation of FBOs’ human trafficking work was pointed out by participants as a
major weakness that hampers the value and scope of their distinctive contributions. This concern
is well summarized by another respondent in Megan’s organization:
I think that the weaknesses are the research and investigation because there are not
enough organizations and people doing that kind of work, because they're so busy on the
front lines, working with the people in the trenches, rolling up their sleeves, and doing the
work. And there are not enough people that are competent to do the research and do the
investigations and things like that. Sometimes it's left out to other organizations or other
individuals who are not faith-based to do some of that work, and then you just take the
results and then you implement them in your faith-based organization. And we need more
faith-based research, kind of like what you, Charles, are doing because that can really
turn things around for organizations.
D. Participant Organizations’ Experiences in Human Trafficking Work
Findings about participant organizations’ experiences in human trafficking work show four
themes, including salient aspects of trafficking-focused services by participant FBOs; funding for
their human trafficking work; major challenges faced in human trafficking work; and ethical
considerations in service provision.
1. Salient aspects of participant organizations’ trafficking-focused services
Human trafficking-related services that participant FBOs provided are, to a large extent, focused
on the prevention of trafficking and protection of survivors, and to a lesser extent focused on
contributing to the prosecution and investigations of trafficking cases. As mentioned above in
Table 2, the 14 FBOs’ human trafficking work centered on the following key service categories,
by frequency: training services (10 FBOs); outreach (6); victims’ services (4); safe housing (3);
awareness raising (3); policy advocacy (3); research (2); and funding support (1). The
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subsections below describe their key service aspects, and their strengths and successes based on
the 3“Ps” strategies including prevention, protection, and prosecution.
a. Prevention
Three subthemes are highlighted in the prevention-focused trafficking services the 14 FBOs
provided, including: education, awareness-raising, and outreach; training; policy advocacy; and
capitalizing on diversified staff and volunteers.
i. Education, awareness-raising, and outreach activities
Ten FBOs conducted activities of education, awareness-raising, and outreach as part of their
human trafficking prevention efforts. The efforts of these FBOs were primarily about awareness-
raising and providing education within their membership, their geographic communities, and
other organizations and associations.
At our church level, we organize speakers to come to speak at the masses. We were able
to get a dropdown on the church website to talk about our ministry against human
trafficking. We had gatherings after masses so that we could introduce the idea of labor
trafficking and how fair-trade ties into that. So, we were able to share a lot of those
resources and do those things at our parish first. (Lisa)
Another area is a program of trained volunteers. We call them Ambassadors of Hope, and
they've all been equipped. There are about 1200 now, a large group of people who are not
paid. So, these trained volunteers go out and really do a lot of work in the community to
educate and identify opportunities for us to get engaged. (Kathy)
Only one FBO reported raising awareness about male sexual exploitation. Isaac reported
that his FBO was one of five organizations nationally that work with male survivors and raising
awareness about the situation of this overlooked population, and let people know that boys and
men are impacted by commercial sexual exploitation. In contrast, over half of the FBOs in the
study organized outreach campaigns that targeted mostly female victims in hotspots of sex
trafficking or labor trafficking in major cities, during social or sports events.
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Our program obviously also does outreach, rescues, and extractions of victims as
necessary, sometimes in conjunction with law enforcement, sometimes not. So, it's street
outreach; we also put information out in the community and libraries and other
businesses. (Nicole)
An interesting finding regarding prevention efforts was the use of the Internet and
Communication Technology (ICT) by at least two FBOs in the study not only to monitor and
track the moves of trafficking victims by traffickers but also to reach out to potential victims
whose information is posted online to inform them about ways to request help for rescue or
health issues. Amanda, who is an ICT expert and founder of her FBO, said her agency staff used
ICT to screen all data that was coming in on the world wide web for sex ads and ran algorithms
to try to pinpoint locations where human trafficking was happening. As she explained,
We do that so that we can outreach to those locations specifically rather than just going to
every massage place or every strip club or whatever. We pinpoint the ones using artificial
intelligence and machine learning and other things to help pinpoint. So, we're not wasting
our resources and also annoying businesses that are perfectly legal. And that way we can
target more people who are likely to be being trafficked, whether that's a manufacturing
plant or a massage place, or a tattoo we're just able to have better data.
In addition to using street outreach, Isaac’s agency, which focuses only on male sex trafficking,
also used ICT to monitor online transactions and reach out to potential male sexual exploitation
victims.
We utilize a technology called Freedom Signal, which actually has the ability to scrape
websites where sex is being sold, and once we're able to get basic information, we can
then send out text messages to people to say ‘Hey, we are offering the service. If you
know anyone who's in need of help, have them reach out.’ We do it via technology, and
we do a lot of street outreach.
In educating, raising awareness, and conducting outreach campaigns about human trafficking,
respondents reported that FBOs enjoy high credibility with the public and communities they
serve. Leah explained that, thanks to her FBO’s awareness-raising sessions, communities started
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realizing human trafficking was a critical issue to be educated about. The success of these
sessions could be justified by the trust people have in faith groups. As Leah said,
Awareness raising was our biggest strength, and the sisters of St. Francis have a lot of
credibility because, first of all, of being Sisters, but second of all, they'd done a lot of
social justice work in the community. Thus, people really trust them.
Thus, through their awareness-raising and outreach work, FBOs successfully engage many
congregations and community members in initiatives to address the problem of human
trafficking in their environment. As Lisa said,
Our success is our community impact. We've been able to have an impact on our parish,
and our anti-trafficking ministry has grown to over eighty members within our parish.
We've been able to have an impact on our community because not only now are we
members of the task force, but also we have become core team members and we
represent the faith-based organizations in the Long Beach Human Trafficking Task
Force.
ii. Training activities
Human trafficking training was the most frequently reported activity done by FBOs in this study.
The findings show that ten of the 14 FBOs provided training services that targeted diverse
groups of stakeholders, including businesses, religious congregations and communities, schools,
health and social services agencies, and other NGOs. Nadine’s organization is one of the two
national FBOs that conducted training for other organizations trying to improve access to care
and enhance the quality of care for trafficking survivors.
We have a training program for startups. So, if an NGO in the South Side of Chicago
wants to start a shelter for victims of trafficking, they can go through our three-year
program to shepherd them through the process of creating a non-profit, putting all of the
infrastructure in place, learning about human trafficking and survivors, developing a care
model enlarging their services. So that’s probably our flagship program. (Nadine)
S.A., certainly the biggest, international FBO that participated in the study, provided human
trafficking-focused training not only to stakeholders of other organizations but also to all its
national staff to enhance their competencies in identifying and responding to cases of trafficking.
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Our focus is a bit broad because we want to make sure that all of our S.A. personnel, our
employees, our volunteers are equipped to recognize trafficking because we know that
victims access support services, whether or not they're self-identifying. And we know
that actually, realistically people aren't self-identifying for many reasons. And so, we
want to make sure that our staff are equipped to sensitively recognize when trafficking is
taking place and know how to engage in a safe, supportive manner. (Jenna)
FBOs in the study appeared to have an extensive input in much human trafficking-focused
training in the United States. Megan’s FBO specialized in training stakeholders in the healthcare
and education systems, through its trauma-informed training certification.
Our national prevention programs are a lot lately centered around training. We have an
awful lot of education out there, both in terms of internet safety, in terms of training for
healthcare providers, social workers, and emergency medical technicians. We have very
extensive training in our justice initiatives. (Kathy)
We deliver multimodal training in a number of ways. We do in-person training for a huge
range of audiences, but we do have an online training platform. We have fully developed
curricula. And then we have general awareness training that's available on demand on
this platform. We also have a very robust webinar series that people tune into from all
different sectors of the population. (Nicole)
There were also job training programs implemented by FBOs on behalf of survivors. For
instance, Amanda’s FBO taught survivors in its safe house about budgeting, like skills,
administrative skills, web design, social media literacy, etc. As she explained:
We work with them about budgeting, and life skills and get them to the place where can
pay for their own housing after that, because they're gainfully employed, and we try to
work with them to get them through their education or vocational training to make sure
that they're in something that they can make a living. We teach them science; we teach
them data science; we teach them administrative skills, web design, social media, and
anything that they earn a living with.
Training activities were conducted not only on behalf of communities, other organizations, or
groups but also to increase the level of competencies of FBOs’ own staff and volunteers for their
awareness and outreach services and direct services provided to survivors. For instance, the
Salvation Army has a training program called Safe from Harm. All staff and volunteers serving
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trafficking survivors in the STOP-IT program have to have this training. Because of the role that
it plays in Chicagoland, the program draws in a variety of volunteers with a variety of
experiences, beliefs, and spirituality. As Jenna explained,
That's pretty extensive training; it involves background checks, and all of that. But above
and beyond that, Stop It volunteers actually have to go through two full days of training
just to be equipped to even manage the hotline. And then, there are additional training
and resources if people are going to volunteer in the drop-in space. So, I think a really
important piece of our work is the use of volunteers, but we're strategic in how we do it.
And we make sure that they're equipped to do the work.
Participant FBOs rely on trained volunteers and staff committed to serving in such a challenging
area of service as human trafficking. Describing the competency of her FBO’s staff as a key
asset of her FBO, Nicole explained:
I think the other aspect of the strength of our organization is that we have a lot of our
employees who have been involved in this for a long time. There's a long-term
commitment. And then in addition to that, we have extremely qualified personnel that are
individually competent in their own areas.
iii. Policy advocacy activities
Policy advocacy was a key area of three FBOs in this study, including two national FBOs and an
international one. Respondents argued that FBOs are very influential not only in the arena of
outreach and awareness raising but also in the sphere where policymaking about human
trafficking occurs. Highlights from the data about the policy advocacy work of the three FBOs in
the study show the capacity of faith-based groups to shape decisions made to prevent human
trafficking and protect the victims. The choice to focus on policy advocacy often depended on
the experience and expertise of those at the helm of an FBO. That was the case with S.H., whose
founder’s past lawmaking experience has been carried onto her current influence on domestic
minor sex trafficking policy development:
Because of our founder's experience and long history as an elected official, and her
expertise in legislation and policymaking, our organization leaned into the effort to
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improve and develop laws at the state and national level that would better support the
anti-trafficking efforts in which we were engaged. (Kathy)
It is difficult to imagine business shareholders and investors establishing an FBO to advocate
against labor and sexual exploitation. Yet, Daniel’s organization, created over 50 years ago, is a
unique type of FBO made of Christian business shareholders, who aim to fight for accountability
and consideration of human rights in the corporate businesses they invested in or were partners
of. Explaining how his international FBO lobbied for fair labor practices in businesses they
collaborated with, Daniel said:
We looked at global supply chains through a moral lens and a business lens, and also
through international human rights standards. So, we use the core labor standards of the
International Labor Organization to get companies to adopt codes of conduct for their
suppliers, we want them to be aligned with international human rights and labor rights
standards. The focus of our advocacy work is to actively engage companies to change
their behavior on racism, on issues related to human rights, abuses, and worker rights
abuses which of course ranks high in human trafficking and modern slavery.
Daniel described how his FBO managed to get Marriott Hotels, a major international
hotel company, to adopt an anti-child exploitation policy that includes training all their frontline
staff at every hotel about how to identify and prevent human trafficking in their chains and
supply chains. His organization filed a shareholder resolution that went to the headquarters of the
Marriott Hotels. The resolution then got voted on by all the investors of the company and was to
be presented next at the annual shareholder meeting. Just following their filing of that resolution,
the general counsel of the company set up a meeting because they did not want that resolution to
go ahead because that made them look bad. As he explained:
So, we had a meeting at a Marriott in New York with their general counsel and some
other senior officers. On our side, we had faith-based investors in the U S who often have
been at the forefront of the anti-trafficking movement. So, we had the meeting together
and finally decided to withdraw that resolution because the company agreed to set up a
task force to really investigate and then come up with a strong policy to prevent human
trafficking from taking place in their facilities, either their hotels or their franchise.
During that process, we were able to bring our views to that task force. We were able to
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also get others like some of the religious organizations that were working in Cambodia
and elsewhere in Africa to the table so that they could educate the company. In the end,
they adopted an anti-child exploitation plan to train their frontline staff at every hotel,
train their frontline staff to know what to look for in human trafficking, and so forth.
Daniel’s FBO had a human trafficking working group that advised other faith-based associations
of investors about how to get corporate companies to address human trafficking in their chains.
Daniel believed that
Companies over time build trust with faith-based organizations because they are in it for
changing the nature of the exploitation of some of the most vulnerable people in the
globe. And it's not to enrich themselves.
At the state level within the USA, Daniel’s FBO played key roles in advocating for policies
addressing trafficking in the hospitalization and hotel industries. Explaining how a new law on
trafficking was passed in Indiana, he said:
In Indiana in 2012, we put energy and emphasis on supporting local religious
organizations, putting together packages of information for all the hotels in the
Indianapolis area, and then start talking to civic groups to the point where a new law was
passed, at the state house. The governor was Mitch Daniels. He was very conservative,
but on trafficking, he recognized that the law they had wasn't adequate. Therefore, a new
law was passed that we and other NGOs and faith-based groups supported. And I would
say Catholic Sisters were really strong in moving that forward.
Daniel described four human trafficking policy advocacy successes his FBO had
across the years. The first achievement was getting companies to change their policies. His
organization was instrumental in getting California’s Transparency in Supply Chains Act of
2012 passed. As he explained, “We mobilized faith-based and other investors and had an
impact on the governor, who finally had to sign the bill into law. The efforts helped to get
companies to report and be transparent about what they are doing.” His FBO’s second major
success was getting the UK Modern Slavery Act passed. It was instrumental in getting investors
and NGOs, and other companies to support that legislation. A third key success was in 2013
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when the FBO produced a campaign initiative that it took to companies, arguing that no
workers should pay job fees because it found that job seekers were being placed in forced labor,
which was an unethical, exploitative recruitment system. Finally, Daniel’s organization “ignited
the Responsible Labor Initiative, and helped to found that of the Responsible Business Alliance,
which was made of about 150 electronic companies, to make a fair labor policy to avoid
workers paying recruitment fees. The FBO worked alongside the International Labor
Organization (ILO) and others to bring these international labor policy changes.
Other policy advocacy activities about human trafficking that participant FBOs engaged
in included organizing major conferences at state or federal levels, coordinating task forces or
coalitions, and engaging in policy development at the state level. Stacey reported that her
organization held three human trafficking conferences on Capitol Hill before the current study.
“We have brought together Sisters, other like-minded advocates in the Washington DC space,
and legislators and staffers,” she explained. Discussing the leading role her FBO had in
organizing national training conferences on human trafficking, Nicole said:
A huge training opportunity is our JuST Conference –that is, the Juvenile Sex Trafficking
conference–every year, which involves a thousand people that attend and go through
multiple workshops. It's known to be the premier domestic minor sex trafficking training
in the country. What happened is that the Justice Department used to host an annual anti-
trafficking conference, but it got budget cuts. So Shared Hope stepped into that void, to
continue the learning and the networking of professionals who were working in that field.
Likewise, explaining the leading role her FBO played in a major law addressing human
trafficking in hotels in the state of Iowa, Hannah said,
Our organization played a major policy advocacy part recently. The state of Iowa passed
a bill that requires any hotel that houses governmental employees to be trained in human
trafficking. There were four different subcommittees on this huge training, and it got
implemented. Iowa is one of the first states, or maybe the first state in the nation to
require that of their hotels. Our organization played a key role in that, but along with over
20 different agencies and people that really worked hard to get that bill passed as well as
our state legislature.
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b. Protection
The findings about participant FBOs’ services focused on the protection of human trafficking
survivors are highlighted through the following subthemes: providing direct services; case
management; survivor-centered services, trauma-informed services; providing services tailored
to male survivors; shelter and safe housing services; rehabilitation and reintegration services;
referral services; and providing funding support to victims’ assistance agencies.
i. Providing direct services
Direct services reported by respondents included: case management, humanitarian aid, victim
assistance services, and assistance to male victims of sexual exploitation.
Case management. Case management is one of the key services of five FBOs in the
study. Jenna reported that community-based case management service was a big part of the
human trafficking-focused services provided by her FBO. The biggest part of the trafficking-
focused services that Lisa’s organization provided was humanitarian aid and victim assistance:
We provide humanitarian bags filled with clothes, blankets, food, and comfort items to
law enforcement agencies so that when they rescue or pick up victims, they can provide
these items to them. We've given clothes and toys to the Department of Children and
Family Services for rescued children. We also help individual survivors who are put in
apartments who might need home goods, mops, pans, rugs, sofas, and things like that.
Isaac described aspects of the comprehensive case management service that his FBO provided to
male survivors of sexual exploitation:
We provide at our drop-in center a whole array of social services for male survivors of
sexual exploitation. But more importantly, we provide counseling. We provide case
management, and through that case management, we do an assessment. We do an action
plan based on the assessment and based on the needs of that particular client. We will
then make the necessary referrals for nine times out of ten housing, employment, and
income assistance. And then, in addition to that, here at our drop-in center, we provide
groups. This is our survivor center, where male survivors have access and room to a safe
space.
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Isaac’s FBO could be considered one of the very few FBOs organizations in the U.S. advocating
for and assisting male trafficking survivors:
I think one of the key strengths is that we are providing services to a target, to a segment
of the population that no one else is working with. And so, for people to know that there
is an organization that works with males, that is uniquely different, sets us apart, and so
knowing that they can receive services.
Prioritizing a trauma-informed and survivor-centered approach. Ten of the 14 FBOs in
the study reported using a trauma-informed approach to provide survivor-centered services as
much as possible. For instance, in its case management service, Isaac reported that his FBO used
a combined trauma-informed and strength-based model in its services with male survivors:
I would say secondarily our second success is the trauma-informed approach that we take
to be able to meet these particular survivors where they are and provide trauma-informed
care that takes into account where they are mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. And
then we use a strength-based approach to help meet their needs in the physical drop-in
center where they can come to gain access to resources.
Megan’s FBO established a volunteer trauma-informed mentoring program that provided
survivors with a safe environment:
I would say our biggest strength is our trauma-informed mentorship program. Now
survivors feel like they have a voice, and we're helping their voice be heard through our
training and so they're receiving a lot more healing knowing that it's helping other
individuals. The mentorship program is what we thrive in. And a lot of the agencies in
our community say this is too good to be true because it's free.
Providing a safe environment for privacy and trust building. Amanda reported that her
FBO provided a particular 24/7 Hotline service:
We provide a 24/7 hotline that people can call, and the difference between our hotline
and, for example, the national human trafficking hotline is that our hotline is completely
confidential. No information is shared with anybody about what they say, or the
survivors, or what they tell us. So, it’s not reported back to other organizations or law
enforcement or the government or anything else.
Amanda’s FBO also provided a safe environment for survivors to build trust:
We build a relationship to form trust. Our different volunteers work with rescued victims
to gain that trust. So, continuing those conversations day by day, maybe providing small
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things like Uber deliveries or food deliveries or electric payments or whatever, to start the
sort of cycle of trust, so eventually, they will choose to join the program permanently.
ii. Shelter and safe housing
Shelter and safe housing services for trafficking survivors were reported as a major area
of work for five of the 14 FBOs in the study. Describing her FBO’s successful shelter program
dedicated to trafficking survivors nationwide, Nadine said: “I would say one success is that we
have established ourselves as one of the best resources for who’s out there doing shelter work for
victims of trafficking.” Research that her FBO conducted shows that six out of every ten shelters
for trafficking victims in the U.S. were owned by FBOs. As she explained,
As of today, there are two hundred shelters in the United States; 135 of them are FBOs,
so that is, 59 percent of the shelter community is faith-based. If you go to our website and
look under ‘National impact,’ there's a shelter map we update every couple of months,
and that's everybody that's out there that's open and serving survivors.
Safe housing was the major service of the FBOs of three participants (e.g., Amanda, Julie, and
Nadine). Describing her organization’s long-term transitional safe housing program for sex
trafficking survivors, Julie said:
We have to house these women somehow. We would go out on Friday nights in the wee
hours of 9:00 PM to 1:00 AM. We would rescue some women. Others would call us back
as we provided them with resources for our hotline program. Once they call us, once they
do the interview, and once they get processed, then we go ahead and take them to our
safe house program. The key strength that I would say is that our safe house program is a
one-year program outside of the city, which is outside of the distractions, outside of all
that memorabilia that they're able to see and what they've experienced. Survivors are able
to get that recovery, restoration, and that renewed life. We've had over 150 women
graduate from this program since the start. I myself am a 2019 graduate of this program,
so I speak from experience of what this program can do.
Amanda’s safe house program has a distinctive characteristic: it was specialized in preserving
family units by keeping women survivors together not only with their children but also with their
pets. Explaining the rationale for housing women with children and pets, Amanda said,
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Many of us have families, so we understand what it’s like to need to keep the family
together and the fact that you’ll do what you gotta do to keep your family safe. And so,
we’re able to relate to that, and survivors appreciate that.
iii. Rehabilitation and reintegration services
One of the key service goals described by participants is rehabilitating and reintegrating
trafficking survivors into a community they decide to live and thrive in. Some of the FBOs,
especially those with a housing program, have rehabilitation and reintegration services as part of
their key areas of service.
Other services that we offer are obviously rehabilitation and reintegration. We have
programs that we offer, like Ending the Game and Father Fracture, and other classes that
we offer. We use media to provide online therapies. They have a case manager assigned
to them so that they basically get what we call a dream plan. And for every 90 days, they
worked through one or two of the things on the Arizona Self-Sufficiency to move them
forward because our end goal is to take them to reintegration, which is independence.
(Amanda)
Part of some FBOs’ efforts of rehabilitation and reintegration of trafficking survivors was
to make their housing program graduates accountable to one another and give them a second
chance for restoration. However, rehabilitation does not occur in the same way or for the same
length of time for survivors. Survivors’ self-determination is key to how they overcome obstacles
to restoration. Learning from one another is also an important strategy that contributes to
survivors’ ability to improve their situations. Julie described how her organization supports
survivors in their process of restoration:
Once survivors graduate from our program, there have been some moments in their life
where they do take a couple of steps back. However, in our program, we are family, so
once you're in our program, you develop a sisterhood of alumni. So, we stay accountable
to each other as much as we can. We let these women graduate only when we know that
they're ready for success and going to go out there and pretty much spread their wings.
But there have been some women who have fallen a couple of steps back, but we
definitely do reach out. We do our best to provide help and that second chance letting
them know that ‘Hey, you're not alone in this walk.’ We still follow up and build a
relationship with them.
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iv. Referrals
All the respondents reported referral as an important aspect of service provision for trafficking
survivors. The latter had too many service needs that could not be addressed by a single
organization, even those that claimed they had comprehensive services. Isaac, whose
organization dealt only with male survivors of sex trafficking, said,
We don't say no to male victims of labor trafficking; we don't turn anyone involved in
labor trafficking away. We sit on the State of Illinois Trafficking task force. We sit on the
Cook County human trafficking task force as well as the city of Chicago’s gender-based
violence task force. And so, if someone is in need or someone has been impacted by labor
trafficking, we then have all the connections and resources to others in the community,
where we would then provide referrals. Thus, if things are more specifically regarding
labor trafficking, we would then refer out.
Kathy’s policy advocacy organization, apart from referring trafficking cases to other agencies for
direct services, was the only FBO in this study to report that it provided small grants to some of
these agencies:
In the area of restoration, we partner with 11 different domestic organizations that are
providing restoration services in some form, either housing or other services, outreach or
counseling, and sometimes combinations of all those things. Our organization can't do it
directly ourselves. So, we rely on providing small grants to these organizations that are
doing the street kind of work.
v. Capitalizing on the competencies and diversity of staff and volunteers
For all services they provided, participant FBOs relied not only on a diverse staff but also on a
diverse pool of volunteers with varied expertise. Volunteers were primarily congregation
members, program survivor graduates, and community members who wanted to help address the
problem of trafficking in their communities. Jenna’s description of how her organization
capitalized on volunteers gives an idea about the great asset volunteers represented in the
implementation of many FBOs with limited access to funding for services to trafficking
survivors:
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The way that our program has used volunteers is through a 24-hour hotline. What is so
great now is that they have developed a really incredible volunteer base where almost
volunteers cover all of the shifts. So, we always have staff as a backup. We have
volunteers who are able to engage in that kind of emergency triage phone call, a resource
connection, helping people find emergency housing and all of that. So, we've used
volunteers in that manner. And one of the things that Stop It does well with the support of
volunteers is that we have a drop-in space for female-identified youth and young adults
who've engaged in commercial sex. It's really important for us as a church to do this; the
staff and volunteers are trained really extensively.
The idea of including survivors in the core leadership or program staff of an organization
dealing with social problems has been traditionally used by some participant FBOs. At least
three of the leaders of FBOs in the study were trafficking survivors, who founded their own
organizations or came through the ranks to become agency leaders. Respondents believed that
relying on survivor-led teamwork was an excellent strategy for working with trafficking
survivors. For instance, Amanda argued that having survivors at the core of their program staff
explained most of her agency’s successes:
Our other greatest strength is our team. We have an amazing team of people, many of
whom are survivors of sexual trauma or human trafficking, or domestic violence
themselves. And so, because of that, they themselves have the resilience to them that
helps us to serve our girls as fellow survivors. We have a Moms Against Trafficking that's
run by a mom whose daughter was trafficked. We have a psychotherapist; his daughter
was a victim of human trafficking. Our executive director was a victim of domestic
violence. So, everybody's been through something. They understand what it's like to
come out on the other side. And so, they have lived experience of what it takes to start
over and make a difference.
vi. Research activities
The findings show that three of the 14 participant FBOs had research as a secondary activity they
conducted about human trafficking. The research topics explored by participant FBOs include:
analysis of federal policies, especially those addressing sex trafficking of children and women;
care needs assessment or quality of care at the national level; forms of resources accessible to
trafficking survivors, etc. As Nadine said:
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From a mission perspective, we want to improve access to care and the quality of care.
This is still a relatively young field; there's not much research; there's not much data;
there are no standards. So, we want to help to establish standards and to help
organizations meet those standards, if not exceed those standards, for the good of
survivor care. Parallel to that, we continue to do a tremendous amount of research
nationally, whether they are studies on changes in the victim population over time or key
issues of care that we want to make decisions based on better data.
c. Prosecution
FBOs do not have any input in investigations of human trafficking cases. Yet, some FBOs in this
study reported having contributed to the prosecution of trafficking cases in ways or areas of
assistance law enforcement are unable to help. Not only did Lisa’s FBO often assist the police
during rescue operations, but also it collaborated with other major criminal justice stakeholders
such as the Department of Homeland Security, the Attorney General's Office, etc., in the process
of court cases in which trafficking victims are key witnesses. Lisa said:
We do several things with Homeland security, and the person we worked with is
specifically their victim assistance person. A couple of things that they do like a raid, and
they know that they're going to find human trafficking victims, they will contact us in
advance and say, ‘Do you have any backpacks? We're going to need those backpacks to
get to these victims because when we pick them up, they're not going to have clothes or
hygiene products or anything.’ Probably the bigger thing is when they are handling cases
through the Attorney General's Office; they will prosecute those cases, usually in Los
Angeles, but the victims will be kept in hotels in Long Beach or some other areas.
Lisa’s organization would provide the victim-witnesses things such as clothes that might be more
appropriate to wear to court, and even tickets to go to the aquarium or movies because human
trafficking trials could go on for weeks. As she explained,
We even gave survivors suitcases when they were leaving because they had accumulated
things while they were here, but they had nothing to take their things home. So, it is
really anything on the victim assistance side of things.
Lisa’s FBO also provided translation support services for victim-witnesses in court cases. She
observed that,
There are cases where people come in, and they may need translators. We were able to
find translators that speak their language to help in court and really help them gain their
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trust to get them through this process. So, we really view ourselves as a conduit; we’re a
collaborator and a conduit. That's what we do.
2. Funding for FBOs’ human trafficking work
Three subthemes are identified regarding funding for participant FBOs’ anti-trafficking services,
including issues with public funding, prioritizing private funding, and ethical issues in funding
for services.
a. Issues with public funding
The findings highlight not only challenges for FBOs to access and apply for public funding but
also some strong reluctance among FBOs to seek public grants for any of their services for
varied reasons. Only one of the 14 FBOs in the study reported relying primarily on public grants
for their human trafficking services. As Jenna explained,
Our program is primarily funded through federal grants through the Office for Victims of
Crime; they've had some grants through the Administration of Children and Families.
And almost all of those grants have some match components, but the majority of funding
for the Salvation Army's formal anti-trafficking programs has largely come from federal
grants.
Another FBO had received public grants in its early years before it turned permanently to private
funding. As Nicole stated,
Since 2009, we have not received any federal dollars or any state dollars. It’s all been
privately funded, through individuals or foundations or through some companies. Before
2009, we had received some federal funding for conferences and summits for advancing
legislation and advancing knowledge and for research.
b. Challenges in accessing public funding
Even though FBOs have often played an important part in the federal human trafficking policy
development, respondents concurred that there are too many obstacles for any FBOs to access
and get any public funding resources for their human trafficking work. The data highlight
subthemes that stress substantial hurdles in getting federal grants: too much work and restrictions
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in federal grants; difficulty accessing public funding; federal funding not worth pursuing; and
controversies about public funding.
Respondents reported that there are too many requirements and restrictions in federal
funding, which makes it hard for FBOs or any other NGOs that do not have an appropriate grants
development team in place to pursue public grants. Summarizing this point, Megan stated,
When you do apply for federal funding, there are a lot of restrictions on how to use the
money and a lot of reporting. And within the state of Pennsylvania where we are, a lot of
the grant money that's available is in small numbers. So, it'll be like $5,000 or $10,000.
But the problem is that the requirements that they have can easily cost $5,000. You have
to have a specific person that's tracking everything, annotating everything, and managing
everything with those funds. And so, it just doesn't make it efficient, and it doesn't make
it easily attainable because even some of those grants, you apply for them, and they can
take six to eight months to find out. And by then, we've moved on because we can't wait
six to eight months. We need the funding now. So, we work more with local foundations
and state foundations who have the funding and have it immediately so that we apply,
and within two or three weeks or within a month, we have the funding ready and
available. And the restrictions are not as much as the federal ones.
Participants reported that their FBOs found it very difficult to access public funding. Thus, most
argued that such a funding stream was not worth pursuing. Discussing the reality of accessing
federal funding for the work about trafficking, Nadine reported that her organization conducted a
study that showed that very few FBOs have ever received federal funding for their trafficking-
related work. As she observed,
We just did a study that’s published on our website about the funding stream. Very few
of these agencies have received federal funding, and some of them have chosen not to
pursue it for the same reason, but some of them also have been ineligible because
oftentimes the federal funding requires an infrastructure that these small organizations
don’t have….These are small entities that often can’t take on the management of larger
grants, or they just are not deemed eligible.
Nadine reported having had several conversations with Congress leaders about the way federal
appropriations have been written, making it challenging for FBOs to successfully apply for
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federal funding. Unfortunately, efforts being made during the previous administration to bring
some change to the funding stream have not been carried over. As Nadine further elaborated,
In the previous administration in D.C., there was an Office of Domestic Policy for anti-
trafficking programs. There was a designated person who was working with community
service providers to change how funding was happening. There was a tremendous effort
across the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Labor, Department
of Justice to build up their office faith-based and community partnerships. That is not true
in this current administration. It’s very hard to say that those efforts would be fruitful
right now.
Describing reasons why her national FBO avoided public grants, Kathy stated:
We did prefer to operate without federal funding. It’s very, very top-heavy logistical
management, and also, just frankly, a lot of time invested in, get it in, in applying for it.
And the funding just wasn't that much; anti-trafficking funding is still incredibly small
compared to other types of funding streams. The amount of effort to get it did not equate
to the amount you get. And then, when you get it, it's a lot of work. And so, we just found
that the equation didn't work for us.
c. Prioritizing private funding
Due to issues with access to public funding, all the participant FBOs, except one, prioritized
seeking private funding for their human trafficking work. Private funding sources described by
respondents include foundation money, funding support from corporate businesses, fund-raising,
charitable donations, funding support from churches; individual donations; member dues; etc.
Annie stated that,
We have only private funding. We don't have any federal or state funding. We get grants,
membership contributions, anywhere from people who sign up to give every month to
one-time donations, but it's all private.
Amanda’s FBO relied entirely on private funding to avoid survivors the difficult experience of
having to testify for investigations or prosecutions of trafficking cases:
We’re entirely privately funded so that we don't have to worry about forcing trafficking
survivors to testify with the DOJ or anything like that; we don't take the funding so that
we have those choices. So, that has helped us because we rely on our community to fund
us. Our community knows our duty of care is 100% to the survivor.
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At least three of the participant FBOs successfully secured multi-year, stable, private funding
support. As Lisa stated,
We do have a parishioner who has a foundation whose purpose is consistent with what
we're doing. It helps organizations working with women and children. So, that foundation
gives us a grant every year. The Los Angeles Archdiocese provides us with a grant every
year for what we're doing. And then we have individual donors who are either
parishioners or friends or community members who want to support us.
Describing her FBO’s funding sources, Kathy said:
Our funding sources are long-time donors who feel more comfortable contributing to an
anti-trafficking effort that a faith-based organization leads. Or maybe they continue to
donate to S.H. because we are constant in our mission. We've got 23 years of history of
working toward the same end over and over and over again. And maybe some of them
give because they trust that we will walk within the same path that they would want to
step in to fight this. A couple of our largest donors are not people of faith, but they know
they can count on our ethics, and that's tied to our faith. So, that's where that trust factor
comes in.
Nevertheless, substantial funding for half of the participant FBOs primarily came from
fundraising, charitable donations, members’ dues, and community contributions. Daniel, the
participant from an FBO consisting of Christian business shareholders and investors, said that
most of the organization’s funding came from its members and foundations. As he explained,
For trafficking work primarily, first of all, over 50% of our budget is member dues. And
that's based on the assets, investments, and assets under management. So, if you're a
small religious organization, maybe with $2 million invested, you would pay very little.
If you're a big investor, then you would pay more. But we also got supplemented by
Humanity United, which has funded much work against human trafficking. And they're
still funding us. There's another foundation, the Open Society Foundation, which
supported us. And then there is also another called CORTICUS, affiliated with the family
that owns CNA Foundation. But the majority of funding sources are still our members.
Individual donations are central to the financial resources of Sara’s FBOs for human trafficking
work. As Sara observed,
Individual donors are the ones that mostly support the work. There have been some small
grants in the past, especially at the beginning of the program to help get it on its feet, to
help get our organization going, but we are funded as part of our NCJW section budget.
So, it's individual donors.
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i. Congregation member contributions, church sponsoring, and income-generating activities
Respondents reported that financial contributions from congregation members were important
for their work. That source of resources allowed FBOs to sustain their work when small grants
dry up or are not renewed. As Julie explained,
The budget for my organization is donation-based and from people from church. My
team and I spread the word around, letting them know, ‘Hey, this is the ministry that we
do. We need donations.’ Sometimes we get donations of money, or we get actual
donations for the care packages that we provide to the women survivors. This year we
will reach out to some organizations and do some grant funding. But as of right now, it's
pretty much church, regular people. (Julie)
The findings show that some Catholic FBOs, especially those established and led by Catholic
sisters, were financially stable and did not often need further funding from other sources.
Describing the unique case of her FBO’s funding stability, Hannah explained,
They are just very financially well off. They have had many people who give them
donations. There may not have been specific donations made just to the anti-trafficking
work. Donors trusted the sisters to allocate the money where they felt it was necessary.
Thus, sisters allocated substantial resources to anti-trafficking work. Money was never an
issue for us. I know it is for so many, 99%, but it was never an issue. I was never
questioned about the money I spent. So, we're financially able to do these things without
asking for help from other entities.
Like Hannah’s FBO, Stacey’s organization relied on a steady funding source from a religious
order of sisters in the Catholic Church. As she said,
We have not done much work in the grants, mainly because our office is so small, and we
don't have the capacity for that. We’re incredibly grateful to the sisters of the G.S. [name
retained] in the United States because they fund us. I think the sisters have an excellent
reputation worldwide and are known for their dedication to addressing human trafficking.
Yet, despite issues described by respondents for access to public funding, the findings
show that some FBOs were contemplating diversifying their funding sources by applying for
grants at the city, county, state, and federal levels. As Isaac stated, “We are definitely looking to
diversify that and begin seeking more local, state, and federal funding opportunities. We recently
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received a grant from the city of Chicago to provide rapid rehousing services. But again, that's
the first.”
One of the FBOs in the study, in addition to private grants, individual donors, business
donors, and church funding, conducted income-generating activities, with the participation of
survivors, to increase its financial resources for human trafficking work. Megan stated,
We actually have shops as well. So, what we do is we have items made by survivors. We
roast our coffee, make clothing, and design apparel. And then, we partner with other anti-
trafficking organizations with items made by survivors. And we sell those items in
different stores throughout our region. We do pop-up shops, and we actually have the
survivors help us too, helping with making the coffee, helping with all of our tagging and
labeling, and taking things to the shops. And that gives them job skill training, as well as
being able to put something on their resume, and the net profits all go back into our
organization.
Nicole’s FBO offered small grants to partner organizations to which it referred survivors for
direct services. As she said,
Some of the partners we are funding through our small grants program are not necessarily
faith-based organizations at all, but they're doing pieces of the work. And so, as an
umbrella organization or one that is helping fund and move things along, we are
supporting them because they are playing into the whole solution in the bigger picture.
d. Funding challenges for human trafficking work
Respondents agreed that human trafficking services are costly because it is difficult to put on a
time frame for when survivors will get back on their feet after experiencing trauma during their
trafficking situations and to estimate ahead of time the cost of care survivors need. Respondents
also pointed out that their FBOs sometimes faced financial woes in providing human trafficking-
related services. Subthemes that highlight these challenges include: funding instability; funding
limitations impacting the work; service provision being expensive; and competing for funding.
Care and aftercare for human trafficking victims are costly but particularly important to avoid
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survivors falling back into their initial exploitative situations. Reflecting on this concern, Jenna
observed,
The other side is that it's expensive to provide support, right? If funders want to look at
the most impact for their money, we can't necessarily show the same success or impact as
with some other things. But we know if we're not investing financially in survivors, we
know traffickers are willing to invest.
i. Instability of funding
There are concerns about organizations running out of funds for the work while survivors need
more care, and the agency needs more qualified staff for programming and trauma-informed
services. Jenna explained that,
Funding for any anti-trafficking work is hard for programming in general and to have
consistent long-term services. If you are talking about relying on federal funding, those
funding cycles are about every three years. So, you get two years in, and you're already
thinking about what grants you can apply for. What does staffing look like? We get really
incredible staff who are super motivated and do great work, but we don't want them to get
burned if we don't get refunded. So, funding is always a challenge.
We do want to raise the fact that funding is also a challenge. We need funding like we
just had an intern here serving with us and just helped us to develop a marketing strategy
that would be helpful to put information within the community. And so, funding is a huge
gap. (Isaac)
ii. Competing for funding
Another issue identified by participants, which deepened funding concerns, was that
organizations doing the same work in the same city or state would compete for funding from the
same funders or partners, instead of collaborating for coordinated efforts.
Because you're a faith-centered nonprofit, and you're raising all your funds, and there are
other organizations within the same town or in the same region, you're all competing for
the same funding from the same churches and the same foundations, same business
owners. So, what you're doing is you're competing. And instead, we need to be working
better together. But sometimes that's really hard when somebody says, ‘Well, this is our
lane; stay out of the way. This is my territory. Don't be taking our donor dollars away.
(Megan)
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However, while funding instability does impact the work of most FBOs in this study,
they continue to serve survivors.
It does give us that type of feeling where we do get limited sometimes. But because we
have been a growing ministry since 2002, that says a lot about where we put our faith in
and whom we put our faith in. So that's the difference between being a secular
organization and a faith-based organization. We've been faithful to continue doing this
ministry, despite the limited donations we receive. The purpose of this ministry is to
rescue these women from our farm program.
iii. Relying on volunteers to address funding challenges
Many FBOs often need to sustain their activities by relying on volunteers and being inspired by
their faith. Amanda explained,
Our funding goes up and down all the time, but we are heavily volunteer-run in all our
places. We're lucky to have a team of amazing volunteers who are the backbone of our
organization. And then obviously, yes, our funding goes up and down, but our faith
carries us through.
Relying primarily on volunteers often helped organizations offset limited financial resources for
human trafficking work. As Sara, the participant from the only Jewish FBO in the study, said,
We have individual donors and some grants, but again very few and far between, much
fewer over the last few years, supported by a national organization and membership dues.
I do everything I do; no one's paying me for this. So, we're volunteers; we don't have that
budget. Very little budget. Our membership in Chicago North Shore is about 650/700
active volunteers. There are about eighteen of us who are volunteers on the board. So,
you have a couple of hundred enthusiastic volunteers in and out at any time.
Respondents concurred that FBOs are not the only NGOs in the field of human
trafficking work that face challenges in securing funding in public funding. Funders always have
requirements or conditions that grantseekers, whatever their field, have to meet or follow. Many
of the requirements imposed for funding hinder the ability of FBOs to work with survivors in a
way to address most of their needs.
Well, I think any organization that takes any sort of funding has that issue; faith or no
faith, there's always the potential for a dedicated or focused grant. And so, if you go
ahead and say, ‘I'm going to take this grant, you have to follow the rules of the grant.
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However, I don't think we would go with any sort of grant that sets requirements after the
quality of care we provide to survivors. (Amanda)
iv. Faith ethics and funding constraints
FBOs have faith principles or practice ethics that they pride themselves on when rejecting
funding with too many strings attached or not aligned with their faith. For instance, Nadine said
her FBO would not accept any funding support from businesses such as Amazon because it was
claimed that Amazon allows companies that thrive on the sexual exploitation of children to use
its online platform. Also, her FBO would not accept a grant from any entity that intended to put
too many restrictions on how to use the funding to assist survivors. As she explained,
We have taken a position that we will not accept funding from entities that want to
impose on how we do the work. So, for example, if the federal government has a grant
program that says that we have to do things in a particular way that would violate our
faith, we're not going to take advantage of that funding. So, there are occasions when we
are precluded from specific funding streams. But on the flip side, some funders are very
passionate about their faith. So, they are very generous in that regard. So, we have been
well supported by organizations that want to see Christians doing this work, and they
want to fund Christians doing this work.
Amanda said her organization would accept grants only if the requirements did not hamper how
it implemented its victim’s services or delivered its curriculums. Kathy said her FBO declined
grants for reasons other than just faith “because it didn't align with our mission or took us too far
out of our lane. But to my knowledge, I don't believe we've ever declined funding based on our
faith.”
However, due to false assumptions, private funders sometimes discriminate against FBOs
of specific faith denominations in awarding grants for human trafficking work. According to
Sara, for unsupported reasons, some funders presumed that organizations of the Jewish faith
denomination did not need financial support for their work with vulnerable groups. Sometimes,
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this misperception has negatively impacted the ability of some FBOs to raise funding for their
trafficking related services. As she explained,
I had numerous funders who would come back to me and say, ‘The Jewish community
doesn't need more money. You're a Jewish organization.’ I worked for Jewish Child and
Family Services, and they said, ‘You're a Jewish agency. You have plenty of money.’
3. Major challenges faced by FBOs in anti-human trafficking work
The subthemes identified in the findings about other difficulties than financial challenges, which
participant agencies faced in human trafficking work, include the following: gaps in victims’
service resources; misperception about FBOs’ active engagement in human trafficking; and gaps
in program evaluation and training among FBOs.
a. Gaps in victim service and resources
Respondents identified several challenges in victim services and resources, including the
following: addressing issues linked to trafficking; difficulty providing mental health services for
survivors; difficulty in sustaining and expanding trauma-informed services; gaps in services for
male survivors; difficulty in providing shelters and housing for survivors.
Respondents believed that human trafficking is about addressing multiple needs. Yet,
since no agency could have enough resources to provide comprehensive services, it is important
for agencies to determine areas of service they could focus on with their limited resources. As
Sara said,
I think that the main challenge is just finding our place and making sure that it's a good
place where we are advancing the conversation, where we dedicate our resources, limited
as they are, and those resources are being used in the best, most impactful way. But it's
figuring out, like I said, how we best use our platform at this point.
Reinforcing this perception, Annie, another respondent, wondered,
How do you authentically address human trafficking and ensure that you are also
addressing the root causes? How do you deal with the various ways human trafficking
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intersects with so many different things? You have migration, child abuse; you have all
the various causes you can look at and link into. It's huge and how you figure out what
you focus on is an important thing.
Access to mental health services was found to be problematic because of not only the limited
availability but also because of the issue of lengthy delays for mental health services. Amanda
explained,
Our biggest challenges are access to good mental health care at the scale we need. I think
that's one of the most challenging things we face. Unless the person is acutely suicidal, it
can take six to eight weeks to get into the rotation for care from a psychiatrist. Sometimes
that wait is too long. But the vast majority of the population we work with is uninsured or
under-insured. So, it is much more difficult. Right. Access to more mental health care is
probably the biggest thing we face.
Related to mental health services is the difficulty in sustaining and expanding trauma-informed
services because of issues of time necessary to help survivors recover from the trauma they have
experienced. According to Megan,
Many times, people will say, ‘Well, how many survivors are you providing services to
right now?.’ They don't realize that when it's trauma, you have to have smaller amounts
of individuals because it's a one-on-one basis. So, when you're matching somebody, that's
a minimum of a year.
While most respondents discussed challenges for services for female survivors, three
specifically described challenges for serving male trafficking survivors. Isaac, whose FBO
served male survivors, said that service providers have difficulty acknowledging that boys and
men are victims of human trafficking. Likewise, the latter had difficulty viewing themselves as
victims because of the stigma they may experience.
One of the major challenges is that people still do not recognize the need to provide
service to men. So that is a huge challenge because men don't know that services are
available. Ninety percent of the time, if you see anything regarding human trafficking or
sex trafficking, there are always images of girls or women. Therefore, men do not see
themselves in the literature, they don't see themselves in the advertising, and then because
we're living in a culture where there's this toxic masculinity, people do not believe that
men can be victimized in this way.
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According to Amanda, a key challenge for male survivors to access services is the stigmatization
most males endure when trying to access services. As she explained,
So, one of the greatest barriers is to overcome the stigma associated with men being
targeted and impacted by sex trafficking. Many people think that if men are involved, it is
because they’re homosexual, because they must enjoy it, or because they have some
agency, which would exclude them from being a part of this type of abuse. (NICOLE)
Another challenge identified from the findings is the difficulty for FBOs to provide shelters and
housing for trafficking survivors. According to Megan, a lack of housing services could be
problematic because some people, especially funders, believed, that housing accommodation was
central to any human trafficking work. As Megan explained,
When you are an organization that provides services, but not housing, you may have
difficulty finding housing support for survivors you served. My organization has often
partnered with those that are doing restoration homes. But sometimes funding people will
say, ‘You're not a home. How do your services matter?’ Because they think home is the
bottom line.
While shelter services are available, especially for women and girls, there is a significant need
for safe houses for trafficking survivors who need long-term services. Amanda explained this
issue,
The second one is housing. Not just accommodation, like it's very easy to put people into
independent care accommodation where we rent an apartment, or we put them up in a
hotel or whatever, but what is difficult is when they are not ready for independence, and
that 24/7 care has to happen. That type of housing is much harder to fund, to keep going,
and all of those things. That's probably the other thing that's so very difficult.
Lack of management experience was problematic because it affected the quality of services some
FBOs could provide regarding the complex needs of survivors. Thus, despite the genuine
motivation of many FBOs to contribute to the fight against human trafficking, they lacked the
professionalism needed in areas such as grant-seeking, trauma-informed services, etc. According
to Kathy,
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One of our biggest challenges is the delicate path we have to walk in working with
survivors and allies. That's the scenario where we are working with other organizations to
the same end. And sometimes, we don't see things the same way. We have a lot of
survivor-led organizations that we try to come alongside and help move forward. But,
very frankly, while survivors have life experience, sometimes they don't have sufficient
organizational experience. We need to be able to support the work they’re doing and the
whole relationship thing to try and be comrades, colleagues, and advisers without
stepping on toes or overstepping our bounds.
b. Issues of misperception about FBOs’ engagement in human trafficking work
All the respondents described experiences of suspicion, distrust, or rejection their FBOs
sometimes had during interactions with people, groups, or organizations not part of the faith
communities. Highlights from the findings include: distrust in interactions and communication
between FBOs and others; suspicion about FBOs’ actual motivation in doing human trafficking
work; credibility challenges in doing the work; and communication challenges around human
trafficking.
Respondents concurred that people outside the faith communities sometimes fear that
FBOs have a religious agenda in doing human trafficking work. Lisa explained,
Whenever you're a religious organization, people are worried that you have a religious
agenda, that you're either going to force conversion on people, or you're going to make it
conditional for purposes of receiving help. And we had to make it clear that we have no
agenda like that. We're just living out our mission. We're not looking to convert people.
So those are probably the credibility and the fear of conversion.
Respondents reported that their FBOs, in addition to serving trafficking survivors, had to defend
or protect their legitimacy and credibility for doing that work. Sometimes, they were not taken
seriously despite the efforts they put into the work. Describing the early experiences of her
organization in the field, Lisa further argued that,
The first challenge in doing human trafficking work is credibility. Initially, we were
called the church ladies. That's how we were identified. It's like, ‘oh, here's the church
ladies now.’ Well, that doesn't give us much credibility. That doesn't say much about
what we're doing, but we went along with it because we thought it was fine. However,
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they identified us, it was a start. But then they came to realize what we can do. And so,
they don't call us the church ladies anymore, except in a fond memory kind of way, like,
‘Remember when we used to call you the church ladies.’
Participants reported that their FBOs often had to defend their credibility and motivation in doing
the work, which sometimes can be frustrating. Jenna explained this constant defense:
Sometimes people make assumptions that we would require certain participation of
survivors in whatever faith-based programming. I think it takes a long time to build
relationships with community partners so that they can see what our intentions are, and
what our program is. It takes time. We don't want to tell people, ‘Just trust me.’ If we
expect to build rapport and trust with partners and survivors, we should also be willing
and able to do that. So, I think that's an important kind of barrier that we're always
working to overcome.
Amanda further elaborated on the recurrent challenge FBOs faced, having to provide reasons at
every step of their endeavor in the human trafficking movement:
Increasing the legitimacy of FBOs in the anti-trafficking movement with policymakers
and funders is the biggest challenge. At the end of the day, we've got some pretty crazy
faith-based organizations out there doing some pretty crazy stuff. I would know this
because I have met them, and they make it difficult for the others striving to do it right.
And there is much distrust. There is presently a lot of distrust out there between the
federal and state organizations and the FBOs. The only way to combat that is for the state
and federal organizations to actually see and experience what's going on in the FBOs.
c. Ethical considerations in providing service
Ethical considerations in providing trafficking-related services highlighted in the findings
include: non-discrimination in service provision; prioritizing victim self-determination in care;
issue of victim re-traumatization through faith; and diversity in care approaches.
i. Non-discrimination in service provision
All the respondents indicated that their organizations had an anti-discriminatory policy, which
demanded that all people accessing their services be treated with dignity and respect and without
consideration of their faith. Faith was not a condition for service access and benefits.
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For instance, discussing the anti-discrimination policy of her FBO, Jenna said, “The S.A.’s
international police position statement says that we provide services without discrimination.
That's not to say we never make mistakes. Right. But we, as a Christian organization and
Church, should not be creating any barriers for folks.” She explained that people seeking
services and support from any FBOs should be offered the same services and support, regardless
of whether they are interested in discussing faith. She also clarified,
Even when I mentioned our drop-in space, it's for females identified. We're not talking
about only cis women or cis girls; we're talking about trans women as well. And under
the broader case management, we serve anyone who's experienced trafficking. All
genders. All religions. And we do not have a requirement that someone believes what we
do. And there's no obligation to go to church; there's no obligation to engage in faith-
based programming.
Isaac explained that faith is the motivator for service provision and not an incentive or condition
for access to services free of charge. As he explained,
We don't expect the people that we serve that they have to be Christians. And they do not
have to ascribe to any form of Christianity or Bible studies; we're not trying to proselytize
anyone. It is due to our faith that we serve, and due to our faith, we serve anyone who is
in need. That does not go contrary to any funder that may be out there. But we hope
funders will realize that we are not a Christian-based organization that requires people to
accept our faith in order to receive our support.
Using quotes from their Sacred Scriptures, especially the Bible, respondents reported that their
agencies were called to support anyone, regardless of whether they shared the faith of the FBO.
There should not be any tension, conflict, or dilemma in choosing to serve and provide support to
people in need. Isaac said,
Our approach to working with anyone is to serve whoever's in the seat. And that way, we
look at people, and serve them based on their humanity. We're not concerned if someone
may be in the LGBTQ community; we will serve them. If the person is transgender, we
will serve them, however that person views themselves, however they view their gender
or their sex, or whatever. None of those things should impact our ability to serve. We
don't see those as they relate to our work; we don't see those as issues or ethical
dilemmas.
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Like Isaac, Sara argued that discriminating against survivors based on faith or other values
disrespects human dignity. Doing so is unethical and unhelpful for survivors. Discussing this
issue further, Sara said,
Every human being is due basic dignity. Part of that basic dignity is not being treated like
a piece of property. And so, we don't agree with programs that say things like ‘Okay,
you've got to go to Bible study if you want our services.’
As she explained, a key principle of her organization was to meet people where they were and
not put any faith agenda first. Thus, survivors should not feel as if they were being confronted
about their religious beliefs or anything else.
ii. Prioritizing victim self-determination in services provision
Respondents repeatedly mentioned survivor self-determination when discussing considerations
of faith in human trafficking-related services their agencies provided. Survivors’ self-
determination was reported as crucial in deciding when or whether they needed faith-related
services. They had to choose how and when they wanted spiritual support or guidance. What is
more important in the short term would be to meet their first needs after being rescued. One
respondent said her FBO used the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs approach in its work with
survivors. Discussing her agency prioritized survivors’ self-determination in their needs, Lisa
explained,
Basically, we meet people where they're at, rather than talk about where they've been, and
look at how we can help these people get out of the exploitation aspect of their situation
and how we might be able to support them so that they can make better choices or lead a
more fulfilling life, and really just not focus on those things that could be controversial
issues like that.
According to Jenna, whose agency operates with federal grants, faith topics are discussed only
when and if survivors raise them and wish for related resources.
For us, the way that federal funding works, where we're limited as a faith-based
organization is that we can't initiate the conversation about faith. But if someone is
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seeking to connect with whatever their faith community is, we can ensure they're
connected to the right resource. We can have those conversations. And from a trauma-
informed perspective, we want to ensure that people's needs are met and that they're
ready to have conversations anyway. So, it doesn’t feel like a conflict there.
On the same point of discussing any question of faith only when a trafficking survivor asks for it,
Megan observed that,
If somebody comes to us and says, ‘I want a faith-centered approach,’ then we will do
that. But that is not what we offer from the beginning. We literally say, ‘We're here just
to do life with you, and we each have different worldviews, and that's okay. And we're
going to hear each other out, and we're going to walk alongside one another so we can
learn from one another.’
Julie described steps that her agency follows to get victims to decide when they needed
assistance. First, agency staff doing night outreach would encounter women out in the streets,
provide them with resources and contact information, let them know about their services, and ask
them to ‘give us a call when you're ready for a fresh start.’ At the initial encounter, for personal
reasons, survivors would reject any offer of assistance. Client self-determination in requesting
and accepting assistance is valued. As Julie explained,
The only way that we get the women rescued and the only way we can bring them in is if
they reach out to us. They have to want it more than what we want for their life. We just
want their heart to want it more than we want it for them.
Second, the women would give the staff a call once they hit rock bottom. At this point, the staff
would offer to take them to the organization’s safe house for accommodations.
Agency
4
is important for survivors in finding their faith or spiritual path. Using their
interfaith networking resources, some FBOs would orient survivors in their search for faith
guidance. Amanda described how her FBO accommodated the faith needs of survivors they
served:
4
Houston (2010) defines human agency as an individual's ability to determine and make meaning from their environment
through purposive consciousness and reflective and creative action.
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We have a policy that whatever your faith is, we will work with it. We have relationships
with the local communities of other faiths. And we sit on an interfaith panel to help
people get access to the faith they mostly work with that works for them. Because while
we have our faith, it is not for us to force it upon someone else. We'll help them to
manage their faith. And we'll find them mentors in the community who have that faith
that can be there for them. So, we partner with folks from the Hindu temple, with people
from the mosque, with the Jewish Women’s Federation. We're able to help find people
who believe in different things.
Yet, Amanda was among the few respondents who believed that, in the long term, finding
their own way into a faith could be helpful for survivors in the process of rehabilitation from the
exploitation they had endured, which might have hurt their humanity. As she explained,
If they have no faith or believe in nothing presently, they could explore different faiths
and test things out because we think that part of the healing process is the ability to
forgive yourself and those who harmed you along the way and to get to full healing.
Otherwise, the root of bitterness takes place. And when people get bitter, they become
very insular and find it difficult to move forward. So, the issue is that it doesn't matter
what your faith is. Are you able to forgive? Some faiths have edicts within them that
make it harder.
iii. Issue of victim re-traumatization through faith
Prioritizing self-determination could help prevent or limit survivors’ perception of unending
control over their life, starting with traffickers and moving to those who claimed to help recover
from the trauma they had experienced. That is the point Jenna summarized by arguing,
I do want to say very carefully, and I'm trying to be very sensitive to programs and values
of programs. I think we have to be really careful in any anti-trafficking efforts so that we
are intentionally replicating the power dynamics that were present during the exploitation
and trafficking. And so, when you talk about a trafficker who may be used faith as an
active component of the exploitation and trafficking, who maybe read from the same
Bible that we use in our church, like who perhaps was a pastor at a church, it can be
really dangerous for an individual to require participation, to require engagement in faith-
based programs. And so, I think that's something that we have to be really aware of and
sensitive to, because if our priority is not to cause additional harm, we have to be
sensitive to that.
Likewise, Megan observed that, if FBOs are not clear about separating assistance services and
faith, that will pose certain limitations on survivors who don't want that. As she explained,
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There are organizations in our community that do impose those things. And because they
do that, then some of these survivors feel like nobody out there wants to help them. And
the ones that do want to help them have an agenda….. and they're not looking for that.
So, they walk away without getting services. So, we don't do that, and we’re clear to
them upfront.
iv. Diversity in care approaches
Not all respondents agreed that self-determination should be prioritized as much as possible.
Nadine was among the few respondents that there is a challenge in relying on a survivor-centered
perspective or a clinical approach in providing services to trafficking survivors. She
perceived that using a survivor-centered or clinical approach depends on the specific situation of
a survivor. She stated that,
There are different schools of thought about how care is done. So, for example, some
come from a very victim-centered approach where they believe that the victim makes all
of his or her own decisions about the care they need. Now that's very different
philosophically from a highly clinical approach. In clinical practice, you're going to have
a professional saying, ‘These are the issues; this is how we do care; this is what the
survivor needs.’ so that's other-directed versus survivor directed.
Explaining further her FBO’s philosophy of care that blends a survivor-centered approach with a
clinical one, Nadine stated,
One where we understand through our experience and research that at different phases of
recovery, the survivor is more empowered. In the initial stages of recovery, the survivor
has fewer resources, is aware of fewer options, has a history of making bad decisions. So,
there needs to be a more structured approach in the beginning. But certainly,
aspirationally, we want to move in the direction of the survivor being his or her own
agent.
Nadine used a metaphor of a football player to illustrate her agency’s approach to caring for
trafficking survivors. Suppose a football player’s leg is broken. A structure needs to be put
around that broken leg for it to heal because it can't stand on its own right away. Over time, the
structure comes off. Then, there is a need for physical therapy for the leg to be whole again.
Thus, applying this metaphor to care in a human trafficking case, the question is to know what an
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agency will do in a case in which they have a survivor, who, at the beginning of the care they
receive, would like to smoke “weed” every day, and that's what they want. For Nadine, such a
choice does not move anyone in a healthy or helpful direction. Thus, FBOs will always face
challenges in accommodating some choices made by trafficking survivors, especially those
dealing with addiction. As Nadine suggested,
For those types of policies, the decisions are made by each agency. Some agencies may
allow a more extensive grace period. Some agencies may say, ‘Well, you only have to
have thirty days clean or fifty days clean;’ other agencies might say, ‘Well, if you relapse
three times, three strikes, you're out.’ Most agencies will put survivors on sobriety
programs to give them the support to live a sober life. I would say that ninety percent of
the programs have something to offer for sobriety support because it's very common.
E. FBOs’ Interagency Collaboration for Human Trafficking Work
Findings on participant organizations’ use of interagency collaboration for human trafficking
work highlight four themes: FBOs’ interagency collaboration efforts and successes; categories of
FBOs’ interagency collaboration partners; and ways faith impacts interagency collaboration
about human trafficking work.
1. FBOs’ efforts and successes in interagency collaboration
Two subthemes highlight the efforts and successes of FBOs in this study for human trafficking
work using interagency collaboration, including FBOs’ ability to capitalize on interagency
collaboration for comprehensive services; and FBOs’ leadership and active membership input in
partnership building.
a. Capitalizing on interagency collaboration for comprehensive services
All the respondents agreed that interagency collaboration was crucial for their agencies to ensure
that trafficking survivors’ complex service needs are addressed comprehensively. The following
points were drawn from the data about FBOs’ partnership efforts and successes: partnering for
services for comprehensive services; referral for services; partnership for policy advocacy;
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ability to network nationwide for assistance to trafficking victims; and strategic networking for
services.
i. Partnering for comprehensive services
Respondents discussed how collaboration was crucial in human trafficking work and described
many instances of partnership their FBOs had in their trafficking work. Describing her FBO’s
experience of successfully partnering for services, Amanda said,
Throughout the year, we have a handful of organizations that we collaborate with. The
strategies we use are to figure out how we align and avoid duplication of services. My
organization works with moms, children, and their pets and keeps them together as a unit.
So, it’s easy for me to collaborate with organizations that only work with children or only
with adult women because we're not in competition with each other; we're in
collaboration and can refer to each other.
Discussing a successful case of an interstate partnership, Amanda explained,
We have partnered with an amazing organization in Wisconsin. We have worked together
closely for probably five years now and support each other in many ways. Sometimes we
teach them ways to do things, and sometimes they teach us ways to do things right that
are entirely different from what we might've done. And they've trained us on, for
example, how to work with parents of children who have been trafficked. And we've
taught them how to do phone outreach and how to use technology to help make this more
efficient.
Isaac described how his FBO serving male survivors collaborated with agencies serving female
survivors:
At our drop-in center, we work with an organization called Naomi's House, and they
work with women. So, we allow them to come into our space three days a week to
provide services to women because it is our philosophy not to say no to anyone. So, if a
woman or girl comes in, they will still be received here at our center, and once they come
in, we have the ability to refer them to Naomi’s House then. So, we pride ourselves on
partnering and working in a spirit of just collaboration.
Providing a rationale for the importance of collaboration for trafficking-related services that her
FBO provided, Jenna said,
One of the reasons why our program has continued to exist is because of collaboration.
We're not seeking to be the be-all-end-all resource. We know we aren't the perfect
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resource for everyone, but we need to work together. And a huge piece of why the
program has been so successful is because it's not just about what we can do in-house; it's
about whom we can collaborate with in the process. Our local sites have many
community relationships, even when resources are stretched thin. We have much
experience in just working with other community partners. And I think that a really
crucial piece of our response to trafficking is doing that collaboration, having options and
resources for folks.
Discussing an instance of interagency collaboration her agency successfully had, Julie said,
We have partnered with an organization that provides mobile showers. So, they join us
while we conduct outreach to girls and women on the streets, feeding them, and blessing
them with donations. So, partners like that, we bring them along under our wing. They
have that one purpose of helping out those who are unsheltered, and we build
relationships with them.
Megan described another example of a partnership for services:
We have hubs in different regions. So, when we get calls from victim services or the
DA's office, they say, ‘Hey, we have a survivor.’ We want to make sure we have regions
where we can get support for the girls throughout Pennsylvania. So that means we need
to partner with other homes and other agencies.
ii. Referral services
Partnerships described by participants occurred through referrals and based on memorandums of
understanding (MOU). Explaining the importance of referrals in collaboration for services, Isaac
said,
We don't do employment training here, but if an organization offers employment services
or provides training, then we enter into a relationship with them, and can refer our clients
for employment services. We don't do substance abuse services here, but right around the
corner, there's an organization called Haymarket. They provide substance abuse
treatment. We have an MOU with them. So, if anyone that comes to our center needs
substance abuse treatment, we will refer them to that organization.
Stressing the importance of self-determination, even in service referrals, Julie said her agency
often did its best to find other types of services or centers survivors preferred. As she said,
We have other organizations that we work with. So, if a survivor does not want to come
to our program, that's fine. We're not going to give up on her. Let's look for another
program that we can be at peace with for her to enter. So, we look at other places and
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resources of those other places that we can think of off the top of our heads. We reach out
to transitional living programs that are around this area. (Julie)
iii. Partnering for advocacy and awareness raising
All the respondents reported that their agencies often partnered with other organizations for
awareness or policy advocacy campaigns. Discussing how her FBO capitalized on collaboration
for its policy advocacy campaigns, Stacey stated,
We do most of our policy advocacy in a coalition with other faith-based organizations.
There's the Washington Interfaith Staff Committee. So, we see them as critical partners.
And we see more in common between our denominations, and we may work together to
make strides.
Lisa described a case of an anti-trafficking awareness campaign that her FBO collaborated on
and contributed to during a Super Bowl event:
One most recent case of collaboration was the Superbowl. The Superbowl was in Los
Angeles this year. A group was put together and called themselves the Los Angeles anti-
trafficking committee to work on the Super Bowl. And so, they reached out to
organizations that they thought might be able to help, including mine. We were able to
gather a lot of the supplies they needed to do outreach out on the street approaching
trafficked women they knew would be out there. We were able to give them a lot of PPEs
[i.e., personal protective equipment], masks, tan sanitizer, things that they would need
now because of COVID as well as humanitarian items, toiletries, etc. And the women
were really shocked that they were being approached, but they were appreciative. So that
was a considerable effort during the Super Bowl.
iv. Ability to network nationwide for assistance to trafficking victims
Respondents described cases of partnerships at the national level that their FBOs established for
human trafficking activities. FBOs that did not provide direct services relied on strong, national
networks for service referrals. Annie described how nationally connected her FBO was in
different areas of services related to trafficking, saying,
Our strength is in the fact that someone from Missouri can call me up and say, ‘Okay, we
have someone who needs help. How can I hook them into the system?’ Or I can have
someone who works with a variety of organizations in Washington, DC, say, ‘Okay, we
have this bill; we need help getting it in front of our legislators; how can we do that?
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With a click of a mouse button, I can send it out to various people across the country.
And that is a huge strength that there is a central organizing piece in an extensive, robust
network.
v. Strategic networking for services
Building partnership also depends on developing strategic networking for services. As Jenna
illustrated,
We've had to strategically connect with entities based on the resources we need for
comprehensive service. Some of the networking has been intentional through the formal
task force. We have subcommittees that focus on different areas of responsibility, and
that's where we increase our connections and relationships. So, it's about that individual
relationship, collaboration over time, that's built up; being so well-established really
increases the ability to continue collaborating.
b. Leadership roles and active input in partnership-building
The findings show that FBOs in the study developed and enhanced partnerships for human
trafficking work through three key leadership strategies, including collaborating through task
forces, coalitions, and conferences; coordinating or having input in human task forces or
coalitions; and establishing national networks of stakeholder organizations for policy advocacy.
Three of the FBOs in the study had experience coordinating or being in decision-making
committees in human trafficking coalitions or task forces at the city or county level.
Jenna described the enormous success of her FBO in managing a county-level human
trafficking task force for years. As she said,
I think a huge success of our program is the C. C. (name retained) Human Trafficking
Task Force. It remains one of the longest-funded task forces in partnership with the C.C.
State's Attorney's Office. I think that is a huge success because the relationship between
many different entities with different priorities in responding to trafficking has improved.
Through COVID, people are still engaged and still collaborating. So, that's a huge
success that our program has been privileged to be a part of.
Isaac’s FBO, which served male sex trafficking survivors, was actively involved in a few major
human trafficking coalitions or task forces at the state, city, or county levels. Nicole’s FBO
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initiated and maintained collaboration with other anti-trafficking organizations at the national
through a policy group that focused on the issue of domestic minor sex trafficking.
2. Categories of FBOs’ interagency collaboration
The findings show four broad interagency collaboration categories: inter-FBO collaboration;
interagency collaboration with secular organizations; partnering with public and criminal justice
stakeholders; and international partnership.
a. Inter-FBO collaboration
Data on interagency collaboration among FBOs highlights two subthemes: distinctive aspects of
collaboration between FBOs; and interagency collaboration between FBOs driven by a shared
value system. According to Annie, FBOs tend to naturally network with each other and rely on
each other for services. Thus, FBOs in a city will work together to provide most services
survivors need. So, they lend themselves already to a network. Nadine’s organization, ISC,
collaborated with all 135 FBOs providing shelter services in the United States. Respondents
concurred that FBOs’ human trafficking work is based on a shared value system. As Amanda
explained,
I think what faith-based organizations have, which is special, is that all of them have a
value system that they adhere to that makes sure that their work has that value system
driving it. Also, when you have a community of people who have the same values that
they are living their life from, it makes it easier to work together because there's more
cooperation; there's more consensus; and there are fewer arguments.
Arguing in the same direction, Julie stated,
Regardless of our different religions, we get to communicate with other people. We get to
spread the word because we all want the same thing. We all have that same compassion
regardless of if that person's Muslim or if that person's Jehovah’s witness. It doesn't
matter.
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b. Interagency collaboration with secular organizations
Not only did the participants report on collaboration inside their groups, but they also discussed
interagency partnerships with secular organizations, meaning organizations that are not faith-
based. Findings related to collaboration with secular organizations highlight the following key
points: importance of collaboration with secular organizations; issues with collaboration with
secular organizations; partnering with academic institutions for research; and collaborating with
funders.
i. Importance of partnering with secular organizations
Respondents concurred that partnering with secular NGOs is necessary because, as Julie argued,
They have resources we don’t have, and they know people we don't. We definitely
partner with other organizations that are not faith-based because we may not have the
education, or we may not provide housing requirements or properties, but they do.
Stressing the importance of reaching out to organizations outside the narrow circle of FBOs for
the most competent partners in some service areas, Kathy argued,
We don't necessarily focus on collaboration with other faith-based organizations; that is
not our driving goal. We're looking to collaborate with other organizations that are
contributing significantly to the same direction we are. And so that would be the basis of
our JuST Response Council, which is made up of 20 different organizations.
Likewise, Sara noted that collaboration with organizations other than FBOs is important to all
the work that FBOs do. As she further explained,
We don't believe in going in alone; we want the best organization to be doing its best
work to have the best impact on the community. Our strategy is to always look for
collaboration and to realize that everyone is a potential partner, even though there may be
reasons why you might not be able to work with them in other places. Everyone, public
agencies and NGOs, and faith-based organizations, I would just say we are always open
on all projects to working with all partners.
ii. Challenges to collaboration with secular organizations
FBOs have more than one reason to actively seek collaboration with secular organizations. Thus,
beyond seeking the best resources for some specific areas of services, FBOs tried to address
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some misconceptions many organizations have, implying that FBOs care more about
proselytizing and expanding their faith than minding the welfare of vulnerable groups they serve.
Distrust they continuously experience with secular agencies leads FBOs to do their best to
connect with their secular counterparts, even when doing so can sometimes be frustrating. As
Fred, the chief financial officer of Megan’s FBO, observed,
Part of the strategy on not just our end, but a lot of other faith-based organizations are
working with these agencies to help break down the barrier to say, ‘Look, we're not just
about faith. Faith is our foundation, but we have a valuable service to provide.’ Because
some of these agencies that are not faith-based just automatically think like, ‘’Oh, you're
faith-based; we don't want to work with you,’ and without even learning about that
organization, just automatically say ‘No.’
As Fred further elaborated,
Once you create those collaborations, you’re strategizing to say, ‘Hey, let's start a
conversation. Let's get to know each other. And once we get to know each other, you can
say, ‘do we want to work together or not?’ Instead of automatically saying, ‘Oh, we don't
want to work with a faith-based organization.’
Besides, FBOs in this study also collaborated with funders. As Nadine said, “We've also worked
with some funders that are specifically faith-based to help connect those funders to the agencies
that are looking for funding.”
c. Partnership with academic institutions for research
Three of the FBOs in this study reported having partnered with academic institutions for research
purposes. Nicole and Kathy’s policy advocacy-focused FBO and Nadine’s direct service-focused
FBO not only conducted nationwide research to inform policy and services, but they also
collaborated with university centers to assess the quality and value of their human trafficking
work and contribute to the knowledge about the resources and education of other stakeholders.
As Nadine explained,
We've done research projects with a couple of universities and were about to form an
MOU with Texas Christian University in Fort Worth and Southern Methodist University
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in Texas. We've done research with Regent University in Virginia Beach, so these are
entities that are not anti-trafficking agencies, but they are research agencies, and so we
are trying to bring them into the work based on their competency.
Kathy stated that one of the objectives of her FBO, S.H., was,
To provide the best, research-based, data-driven, analytically sound technical assistance
and support to any agency at any level, local state, government, national international,
that seeks it, or who seems like they could benefit from it. Sometimes, we bring it to
them, whether they're seeking it or not. But our objective is that it's sound and not based
on anecdote or outlier cases, but rather a sound policy and principle.
d. Partnering with criminal justice stakeholders
The findings show that at least five of the 14 FBOs in this study collaborated with criminal
justice stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies and court system leaders, in activities
such as investigations, rescue operations, witness testimonies, and services after survivors are
rescued. The following key points were identified enhancing collaboration with public agencies
and departments; collaborating with law enforcement; partnering with other criminal justice
stakeholders; and partnering with lawyers.
i. Collaboration with law enforcement
Law enforcement often reached out to FBOs in this study for help during investigations, rescue
operations, and assistance to survivors involved in prosecution cases. Nadine argued that
partnership with law enforcement is invaluable. She reported witnessing collaboration law
enforcement-FBOs work “extraordinarily well when a law enforcement agency jurisdiction
partners with faith-based organizations to provide the services that law enforcement can’t do or
impedes their progress.” To illustrate her point, she provided reasoning for law enforcement to
reach out to organizations such as hers for recovery operations:
It looks like this: When law enforcement is going to do a sting operation, and they
anticipate that they're going to apprehend thirty victims, they can’t, unless they charge
those individuals; they can't legally hold them. But if they have a partner organization
that can go on that sting operation with them to be that interface with the victim, not have
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the same agenda, not have the same authority, provide for their material needs, offer
resources, then their operation may be successful.
Input of an FBO in a law enforcement’s rescue operation can be crucial for investigations
because, as Nadine went on to clarify,
So, where does that help investigations? If we can get that victim to perceive safety, get
their material needs met, they get out of the situation, but then they also are moved into a
situation that's not jail. That increases the likelihood that that victim will participate in the
investigator process. So, there are models across the United States that are working
extraordinarily well, and could be replicated, but that's up to each jurisdiction and the
faith-based partners in those areas. I would love to see examples like that amplified and
showcased across the United States because we could be more creative about partnering.
Thus, law enforcement understands well the importance of the support of social services
organizations, especially FBOs, during rescue operations and investigations. Nadine explained,
“Since victims do not trust law enforcement for anything, law enforcement likes bringing in
FBOs to assist victims and discuss their needs, something law enforcement cannot do.” In
addition to law enforcement within a human task force, Megan’s FBO often collaborated with
the private police:
We have such favor with private detectives and the human trafficking task force because
the need is so great. And so, it's all about collaboration and being willing to take that call
and help them if you can help them at the moment. So, there's nothing that scares them
about the faith-centered part because they're not seeing that push; they're seeing ‘We're
here to help you.’ Law enforcement wants to work with those that will be willing to help
them as well.
ii. Partnering with other criminal justice stakeholders
FBOs reported collaborating with prosecutors, State Attorney’s Offices, and even the Attorney
General’s Office. Discussing her routine work with prosecutors regarding trafficking cases,
Megan said,
When we work with law enforcement and prosecutors, they will call us in as advocates
because we're not law enforcement. So, they'll tell the girls, ‘Tell them whatever you
want. They're not going to tell us. They are your outlet.’ Doing so allows the survivors to
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feel like they have somebody on their side. But law enforcement trusts us, so they bring
us into work next to them.
Megan’s FBO collaborated with the Attorney General's Office as an advocate for prosecution in
human trafficking cases. She explained, “So, we come into support, not just for the survivor, but
also the prosecutor and her team.” Megan’s FBO also had crucial input in assisting with trials by
being there to help survivors. However, law enforcement rarely considers how or whether getting
survivors to testify affects them psychologically afterward. In such a situation, an organization
such as Megan’s needs to assist survivors after a trial. She illustrated her point by stating,
Two traffickers just got put behind bars for pretty much life. And we were called in to
provide adequacy throughout the whole trial, a two-week trial. And we had a team that
came in and brought in food and coffee, but then what were services for the survivors
once they testified because of the trauma that would have come with that?
FBOs also collaborated with lawyers for legal assistance for human trafficking survivors they
served. As Nadine said,
We have a group of attorneys across the United States. These are individuals who are
practicing law, they're not in anti-trafficking, and some of them are specialists in different
types of law, like non-for-profit law or commercial or real estate or contracts; they
provide their services to trafficking services pro bono, and this certainly helps us from a
resource perspective, but it also helps to bring them into the work even though they're not
technically in the anti-trafficking field.
e. Collaborating with public agencies and departments
As discussed above, FBOs doing policy advocacy work, awareness-raising, or training indicated
having collaborated with policymakers, political leaders, health departments, hospitals, and
schools. However, FBOs in the study had difficulty collaborating with secular organizations and
public stakeholders. Respondents reported that their FBOs would want to have more
collaboration with various stakeholders outside the circle of FBOs. As Annie concluded,
We would like to be more connected with public agencies, anti-trafficking task forces, or
units within law enforcement, state attorneys, and attorneys general. There are things that
I would like to do in my tenure in this role to get us connected to those systems.
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f. International Partnership
The ability of FBOs to network was also shown at the international level in several ways,
including: being part of a global association of FBOs; having partner NGOs at the United
Nations; and FBO business members lobbying global corporates for policies addressing human
trafficking in their companies and supply chains.
Having connections within the UN and other international agencies in Washington, DC,
was another way FBOs expand their input in the human trafficking movement. Stacey’s policy
advocacy organization had a partner NGO at the UN and had connections with other
international secular partners in Washington, D.C., where her FBO was located. Annie’s FBO,
one of the biggest organizations in this study, built connections with other FBOs in other regions
outside the U.S. She stated, “Our greatest strength outside of our belief in human dignity and its
basis in divinity is our ability to network across the country and indeed across the world.”
Daniel’s international FBO, made of Christian shareholders and investors, often advocate
with big corporations they invested in for policies addressing human rights issues, and more
specifically, human trafficking concerns in business companies such as hotels and transportation.
Daniel explained the unique strategy his FBO had often relied on to get big corporates to adopt
anti-human trafficking policies and educate their global staff on the issue.
I think the experience of so many of our members is that, using your leverage as investors
in a given company, once you sit down with some of the top management, you need to
not only, in the first instance, convince them that human trafficking is an issue, but also
it's an issue that impacts them. This is what happened when we met with Marriott
International; they are not in favor of human trafficking. They have never been, but what
about Marriott being used for the sexual exploitation of children in San Jose, Costa Rica?
They need to know and then be shown how. So, I think part of it is to utilize the
knowledge, and also it's kind of head and heart. It’s also self-interest in a way because a
lot of companies’ value is in their reputation, and that can change quickly if there's a
serious allegation in the press and they have no leg to stand on; that’s negative. But I
think, in part, it's the ability to see and get some empathy from leaders within this
structure.
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In addition, Daniel’s FBO collaborated with major international organizations such as the
International Organization for Migration (IOM), ILO, Verite, which is a monitoring and labor
organization, and the Migrant Forum in Asia, which is a coalition of faith and non-faith-based
organizations. As he explained,
We feel like working with those kinds of international institutions makes an enormous
difference. We also have a representative at the IOM. I think that makes an enormous
difference. We've also worked with governments like the Department of Labor.
3. Faith’s impacts on interagency collaboration for human trafficking work
The findings show that faith positively and negatively impacts interagency collaboration about
human trafficking.
a. Positive impacts
As perceived by participants, positive influences of faith in interagency collaboration include the
following: faith being a catalyst for interagency collaboration; faith and survivor trust building
and empowerment; influence of faith in collaborating with criminal justice stakeholders; and
pimps’ attitude toward FBO workers.
i. Faith as a catalyst for interagency collaboration
Faith positively impacts interagency collaboration to assist survivors. As Amanda explained,
We have met with the Muslim community, and when we get a Muslim survivor, which
happens, we work with them to see if we can reintegrate them into the community
together. We've had Hindu victims; we've had Jewish victims. We believe that if you
want to work together, it's possible. But then we also, in Chicagoland, have an interfaith
community that works together. So that, and some other communities don't have that, but
we're lucky that here we do, but it takes tolerance. We are not going to agree on
everything, but the places from which we can collaborate are the areas that we do agree
on. And most of us agree that every survivor should have shelter, water, food, and
clothing. So, when you collaborate in the areas where you 100% agree, it makes
collaboration possible. I think where there's a will, there's a way. And the problem is that
not always is there the will. As long as you're willing to put your hat of humility on and
be ready to let not always have to be right, and to give a little and to have tolerance then,
consensus is possible. It's possible to find a middle ground if you want it.
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Likewise, Isaac argued that faith motivates FBOs to partner, to collaborate to help people:
Our faith motivates us to develop relationships to help people get the help they need. Our
faith is not a requirement for clients, nor is it a requirement for our partners. It motivates
us to be a partner. It motivates us to collaborate all for the intent and purpose of getting
someone the help they need. (Isaac)
Sometimes, FBOs have successfully facilitated and contributed to bi-partisan support for
advocacy about human trafficking issues in legislatures. According to Stacey,
Human trafficking is one of the only bi-partisan issues on the Hill. It's unbelievable. We,
the sisters, are known for four tenants, [inaudible], zeal, compassion, and individual
worth. We work to build bridges, and we've had bipartisan sponsorship at each of our
conferences. So, we work really hard for that. And we've been very blessed. And I would
say again, human trafficking is really one of the few issues that you can find bipartisan
support for.
ii. Influence of faith in collaborating with criminal justice stakeholders
As related to FBOs’ collaboration with criminal justice stakeholders, described above in this
report, faith provides a bridge to connect with judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement, who
might resist interaction with people from faith communities. Megan stated,
A prosecutor now brings me whenever she goes to court or calls me for advice because
we've built a relationship because she sees the difference of our agency when he was
saying, ‘it's about getting the job done,’ but forgetting the people in the process. I feel
that since we've built relationships, we have achieved a lot on behalf of the victims. It's
the ‘Hey, I've seen you show up for this court. I've seen you show up for this survivor.
I'm going to give you a call because we need to meet.’ So, in the beginning, faith was the
issue. Now they're seeing us involved in our community and saying, “We want to work
with you.’
iii. Pimps’ attitude towards FBO workers
Respondents from FBOs doing outreach targeting girls and women being sexually exploited on
the streets reported that very often, pimps do not perceive FBO staff as a threat; thus, thus, not
only do they allow victims under their control to receive anything FBO staff want to hand them
but also some pimps ask for help or prayer for themselves. Illustrating these points, Lisa
explained,
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Pimps can be overly aggressive, but this is where being church ladies come to our
advantage because we are viewed as just that in their eyes. And so, their attitude is, ‘Oh,
if they want to give you a hygiene kit, just fine, take it from them.’ What is especially
important is the fact that they're also being given a phone number, or they're being given
a face, or they're being given a contact that they know is going to be out there, that if they
want to make that connection, they can. So, in some ways, it works to our advantage
because we're less threatening. We're not like the police being on the scene or something
like that.
Yet, respondents were quick to explain that the consideration traffickers sometimes show staff of
FBOs during outreach does not imply that the latter condone the sexual exploitation of girls and
women. Making enemies with pimps will not be helpful to any organizations trying to serve
victims of sex trafficking on the streets.
b. Negative impacts
Despite being in the fight against human trafficking longer than most secular organizations and
public departments, and their capacities to mobilize substantial resources through networking,
FBOs are not often welcomed to a level that matches their contributions to the anti-trafficking
movement. This statement reflects the perception of almost all the respondents in this study.
Ways faith negatively impacts interagency collaboration are highlighted in the following
subthemes from the data: secular organizations’ cautious attitudes toward collaborating with
FBOs; FBOs’ competencies and input in the anti-trafficking movement being overlooked;
difficulty in developing interfaith collaboration; and faith being sometimes a hurdle to
collaboration.
i. Secular organizations’ wariness in collaborating with FBOs
The findings show that, due to their faith background, FBOs struggled to collaborate with secular
organizations. The latter often showed distrust and entitlement in interaction with their faith-
based partners. Instead of focusing on the substance of the work and the overarching purpose of
combining resources to address the pervasive issue of human trafficking, some secular agencies
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would not want to understand what resources FBOs could contribute to help in their joint fight.
Megan summarized well when she argued,
I feel like when I've approached other agencies, the first thing they say is, ‘Oh, you're
faith-centered. Oh, okay.’ And they back off, and I'm like, ‘but you're not hearing me.’
And I feel like they put the wall up, and it hurts. Because I'm like, we could be doing
much greater work together, lose that defining line you think isn't okay where I'm not
asking you about you. I just want to work together.
There is not only a bias against FBOs but also an overlook of their competencies and input in the
anti-trafficking movement. Their capabilities and their network resources are often underrated by
other stakeholder organizations, who might think FBOs always have a hidden agenda in
engaging in human trafficking work. As Annie observed,
FBOs are often overlooked. As much as someone might say that we have a crucial role, I
think we're often put off as ‘Oh, that's all nice and fluffy, and you can go beat your Bible
and whatever, but you're not doing any real work.’ I think that's wrong. And I think that's
what makes us particularly crucial because we are underestimated. But if you look at US
Catholic Sisters, throughout history in this country, there is a real level of trust they enjoy
that maybe others in the Catholic Church do not. People trust nuns. They have a great
history of pastoral and justice work in the Church and this country.
ii. Difficulty in developing and sustaining interfaith collaboration
The findings show that it was not with secular organizations only that FBOs had difficulty for
interagency collaboration about human trafficking work. Instead of being a bridge, faith has
sometimes created misunderstandings and resistance among FBOs from different religious
denominations, which hampers interfaith collaboration around the shared purpose of fighting
human trafficking. According to Nadine, denominational differences constitute a pivotal
challenge to interfaith collaboration. Illustrating this point, she stated,
Let’s say from FBO to FBO, on the positive, we both start out on the same page, and so
there is a community that is immediately formed because we all say we're in it for the
same reasons, and that kind of thing. Where it's problematic is once you get down to
denominational differences and how the Catholics and then the Pentecostals want it. So,
when you get into specifics, that's where I think there's discord. I think that could be a
challenge. (Nadine)
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Illustrating how faith becomes problematic in interfaith partnerships, Lisa said,
I have been with some organizations that are a little over the top when they get together.
And sometimes that is not the best way to bring together a spectrum of organizations.
That is their tradition. That's how they evangelize. But when it comes down to what we
are doing, we all need to get into the same wheelbase unit.
Describing the experience of her FBO’s members in trying to partner with other FBOs, Sara
explained it was sometimes challenging for them to develop cross-faith, interfaith work because
of bias and rejection some faith groups often experience without any valid reasons. As she
explained,
In my experience over an extensive career in nonprofit, there were many times when
coalitions would form, networks would form, and they would say we're faith-based, but
faiths were missing from the table. Oftentimes, it was a Jewish voice. And so, I just think
that leaves out a voice that should be there – a voice that can share some critical,
insightful, thoughtful input and ideas. Interfaith conversations are the most robust when
diverse religious voices are around the table.
iii. Faith as a hindrance to collaboration with public stakeholders
The findings also show that beyond challenges related to faith that FBOs face in interagency
collaboration with secular organizations and problems in interfaith partnerships, it is with
governmental agencies that faith becomes a bigger obstacle. Annie described the negative impact
faith has sometimes had when reaching out to public agencies involved in implementing human
trafficking policies. As she said,
In general, faith is a hindrance when it comes to working with governmental bodies,
especially in this country where there is that ideal of the separation of church and state.
The Catholic church has affirmed this ideal. But there is this attitude of ‘We don't want to
mess or mix with you because you’re a church.’ Also, I think it might make people think
that we can’t do any real work.
F. Ways of Enhancing FBOs’ Engagement in the Human Trafficking Movement
The findings identified four subthemes about how FBOs’ contributions to the fight against
human trafficking could be enhanced, including: importance of expanding FBOs’ input in human
trafficking work; addressing misperceptions about FBOs’ competencies for human trafficking
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work; filling the gaps in evaluations of FBOs’ anti-trafficking programs; and advocate against
human trafficking practices in big corporations.
1. Importance of expanding FBOs’ input in human trafficking work
The importance of expanding FBOs was highlighted through several subthemes, including the
following: giving due attention to FBOs’ input; assessing and considering FBOs’ approaches to
addressing human trafficking as a model to use; connecting FBOs to public and criminal justice
stakeholders; need for more outreach to other FBOs still not involved in the human trafficking
movement; harnessing FBOs’ collective capability for policy advocacy and service provision;
allowing stakeholders to use various approaches for reducing human trafficking; need for more
FBOs’ input in task forces, coalitions and decision-making arenas; and seeking active input of
survivors for service
a. Giving due attention to FBOs’ input
Despite the forefront and expanding scope of FBOs’ active contributions to the fight against
human trafficking, their engagement is hardly acknowledged. Thus, respondents suggested ways
other stakeholders should give consideration to the work of FBOs in the field of human
trafficking. In terms of human trafficking policy implementation, using the example of the
government of the state of Texas reaching out to FBOs, Nadine argued that the political
environment and the personalities of the political leaders determined the extent to which FBOs
could contribute to general efforts to address trafficking at state or federal levels:
I think policy is an area that is very dependent unfortunately on the personalities and
politics of a given geography. So, for example, if you take the state of Texas which has
the second largest number of shelters in the United States, they have a tremendously large
traffic problem and it’s getting worse, but their government is very intent on engaging the
faith-based sector, and so they are always invited to the table. So, I think that we’re
gonna see better outcomes in a state like that.
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Consequently, Nadine observed that in jurisdictions where the political leaders were
willing to allow views of stakeholders in the faith-based sector around the table, people would
see how accommodating and generous the faith-based community could be. Otherwise, as this
respondent argued, “I think when you have a jurisdiction where there's an adversarial
relationship between the policy leaders and the faith-based community, sometimes I think that
that divide just deepens.”
Amanda suggested that there should be a key contact person in the public administration
that could inform and advise public stakeholders and decision-makers about the FBOs’ various
efforts in the fight against trafficking and advise the decision makers. As she explained,
I think that today there is a need for a community engagement liaison or someone who
comes out from state and federal trafficking programs to really meet with every single
organization. That doesn't always happen. But if the local, state, and federal governments
want more association with faith-based organizations, then they're going to have to come
out and be open to viewing, learning, and being a part of the programming that's
happening and then deciding whether that fits into their needs as state and governmental
programs.
In relationship with Amanda’s suggestion, Stacey observed that in the recent past, a federal
office for liaising with faith-based communities was closed. Yet, the current U.S. administration
reestablished it as the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. As
Stacey explained,
The last administration closed the Office of Public and Faith Engagement. Now it's
reopened, there are a lot of outreaches from the current administration to ensure that
faith-based organizations are at the table, but that's what needs to happen. Just ensuring
that we have a place at the table that there's dialogue, and that the needs of survivors are
placed at the center.
Respondents reported that it was important to connect FBOs to public and criminal
justice stakeholders. According to Annie, “It could be helpful to connect faith-based
organizations with governmental bodies, to connect faith-based organizations with law
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enforcement, and connect the faith-based organization with any sort of legal body that is working
on human trafficking.”
b. FBOs’ approaches to human trafficking work as a promising model
Respondents believed other stakeholders in the field of human trafficking work could learn from
FBOs’ approaches to advocating for policy change and for providing services. As Leah argued,
Maybe we could be used as a model, if they are seeing success with what we are doing,
not to recreate the wheel, we have so many programs up and running. We'd be glad to
share them. And not all of them are oriented towards faith. We access the guidance of
researchers in statistics, literature, and science, and what's happening in our community.
So, we can't talk about human trafficking without relying on information in the literature.
c. Harnessing FBOs’ collective ability for policy advocacy and service provision
It was argued that FBOs could be given due attention and have a place at the table if they could
harness interfaith collaboration to become a powerful catalyst in the human trafficking
movement:
If faith-based organizations harness their collective power, you are talking about a lot of
people and you are talking about a lot of votes, a lot of clout, and a lot of power. And that
is something that could be harnessed, and a lot can be done with that. (Lisa)
When you have successfully mobilized, it’s a powerful force. I think they have to
recognize that we're key players. Thus, I think faith-based organizations have to be
comfortable that they do have power. I think they feel like power is a bad word and that
they have to be humble, but power for good is a really good thing. I think lawmakers
need to see that we have numbers and can make a difference. (Stacey)
d. Increasing FBOs’ input in task forces, coalitions, and decision-making arenas
For respondents, being represented in the leadership of coalitions and other types of partnership
could be an appropriate strategy for FBOs to further demonstrate their legitimacy in the field of
human trafficking work because they can connect with decision-makers. Talking about the
importance of being part of anti-trafficking coalitions and task forces, Isaac observed,
These are all bodies that are lifting and raising awareness of the needs of people in this
community so that they can access the help and support that they need. So, I think, sitting
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on these task forces and on these boards brings the legitimacy of the work that we do. So,
in such arenas, we want to highlight what we want because these boards have the ear of
the mayor; they have the ear of the County Board commissioner; they have Cook County
Board President; they have the ear of the Governor of the State of Illinois. So, we are
sitting on those task forces to bring awareness, make sure that government is doing what
they need to create policies and develop more resources for people victims of human
trafficking and all of its forms.
e. Need to expand outreach efforts towards other FBOs
Apart from joining and having leadership roles in coalitions, FBOs should increase the visibility
of their human trafficking work by getting more sister organizations to contribute in any way
they deem helpful such as,
Education, reaching out to more faith-based organizations and telling them what they can
do, and trying to convince them that they don't have to take on the whole issue in one
swallow. They can just take a little nibble of it and do something and be very productive,
as Lisa said.
Allowing various approaches to working while focusing on the end goal of ending human
trafficking is what matters most. As Daniel explained,
If you're looking at larger policy issues that need to happen, and I do feel like faith-based
organizations can help with that and keep plugging away and making sure that every
organization has its own ways of operating, but let's keep it to the goal of ending human
trafficking and finding the ways that we can work together to change policies as well as
people.
f. Seeking active input from survivors should be prioritized by FBOs
Respondents stressed not only the importance of survivors’ self-determination in assistance
services they could access but also the importance of survivor-informed services. Emphasizing
the importance of the survivor’s voice in FBOs’ work, Stacey pointed out that,
In any work around anti-trafficking, the importance of bringing the survivor to the table
cannot be stressed enough. It’s a very difficult thing to do because you don't want to
exploit them again, yet their lived experience is crucial to finding solutions and
improvements.
Relating to his over four-decade experience of advocating for anti-trafficking policies within the
corporate world, Daniel said,
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Our work about human trafficking needs to be informed by survivors, not by what we
think. Thus, the strategy we are recommending companies is not to try to do this all but
listen to those that have the life experience, the survivors; but don't just listen to their
stories. They're their strategists. Therefore, we should ensure that they help shape the
movement going forward. Overall, I think companies build trust with faith-based
organizations over time, because they are in it for changing the nature of the exploitation
of some of the most vulnerable people in the world. And it's not to enrich themselves.
2. Addressing the gaps in research on FBOs’ anti-trafficking programs
One theme related to the limitations of FBOs’ contributions to the fight against trafficking that
was identified from the findings is the gaps in knowledge about the effectiveness and impact of
the work in the field. Subthemes highlighted by the findings include: need for evaluation of FBO
work about human trafficking; need for more data than stories to strengthen the legitimacy of
FBOs; and importance of understanding the similarities and differences among FBOs.
a. Need for evaluation of FBOs’ services
Nadine, whose FBO was one of the rare ones to research human trafficking, pointed out that the
lack of research about FBOs’ human trafficking work negatively affects their credibility with
other groups of stakeholders. As she argued,
I would say there is more need for research to improve the legitimacy of FBOs in the
anti-trafficking movement. We have to show the efficacy and the impact of these
agencies across the board, whether they are faith-based or secular; we need to be able to
measure because then we cannot determine whether one model exceeds another. We also
need to behave with more data-driven decision-making. We sometimes operationally do
so much on feelings or will, or these fewer concrete measures. I have always been told
that the faith-based community relies too much on stories and not enough on statistics.
Nadine further stressed her call for research about FBOs’ trafficking work and how helpful
program evaluations could be in improving services provided to survivors when she stated,
We need to get the faith-based sector to communicate outcomes, to measure them, to
track them, to be able to tell stories and spreadsheet, to be able to say, ‘Well, if seventy-
eight percent of our survivors are coming in with addiction issues, what are we doing to
lower that percentage,’ and we can still tell a story, but we need data. I think research
studies like yours [that is, the current study] are very important. So, that's raising
understanding and awareness.
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Like Nadine, Megan thought that the current study is an excellent start to get other stakeholders
and the public to gradually understand and show interest and respect to the FBOs regarding their
various competencies in contributing to the fight against human trafficking. As Megan stated,
I love that you are researching and learning what faith-based organizations are doing and
the why behind it. I hope that you can see the heart behind each one and also learn that
the work you're doing is vital to help continue bringing education to the forefront. So, we
can be at the front end, continuing to provide these services. And the more people are
aware, the more calls we know that we'll receive, and we want to be open, ready, and
available to meet those needs.
b. Need for more data than stories to improve the quality of FBOs’ work
For Amanda, the fact that many FBOs relied more on uncorroborated stories than hard data to
show their programs’ effectiveness was problematic because it hurt the impact of their work. She
illustrated this point, stating,
Let's say that ‘I have a 60% success rate,’ and the next faith-based organization I met said
they had a 95% success rate in anti-human trafficking. It made me laugh because I knew
that was a lie. There is just no way that an anti-human trafficking organization, with the
amount of turmoil, can have that high a level of success in program graduation. So, let's
see if that can be proven.
c. Importance of understanding the similarities and differences among FBOs
Isaac recommended understanding the similarities and differences among FBOs because, as he
explained,
All faith-based organizations are not 100% alike. Therefore, there will take some effort to
get an opportunity to learn and understand the various faith-based organizations and not
just lump them all into one homogeneous group; there's much diversity.
3. Addressing misperceptions about FBOs’ legitimacy and capacity
Respondents’ suggestions about addressing misperceptions about FBOs’ legitimacy and capacity
for human trafficking work are highlighted through five subthemes, including: recognizing
FBOs’ legitimacy; developing and sustaining partnerships; reaching out to more experienced
FBOs to provide training to other FBOs n the anti-trafficking movement; researching strategies
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to capitalize on competencies and resources FBOs can contribute; and addressing difficulties in
developing interfaith collaboration. Two of these subthemes are described below.
a. Reckoning with FBOs’ legitimacy in the fight against trafficking
Some participants argued that FBOs did not need to prove themselves to be considered legitimate
stakeholders in the fight against trafficking. Illustrating this point with her own organization,
Nicole, one of the two participants from a national policy advocacy FBO, said,
We're considered hugely legitimate already. I mean, hugely, for over 10 years, we've
issued report cards to every state on how they're on the impact of their laws against
trafficking and now their policies, and that's like a standard for the entire country.
b. Addressing obstacles to expanding interfaith collaboration
According to Sara, FBOs needed to wade through misperceptions about one another to get to a
point where they could collaborate on a social issue that was important for all of them. Thus,
ideas thrown around such as, as Sara said, “The Jewish community doesn't need any money” or
“What? Why are you here? This doesn't happen in the Jewish community” are not constructive
or helpful for any interfaith partnership. Regardless of their faith denominations, it is important
for FBOs to understand and realize that human trafficking affects every community, even though
there are differences in the extent to which it is experienced. As Sara observed, “having that
respect as you sit around these inter-agency collaboration tables allows us to strengthen our
collaborations. And we have to look at that.” She concluded with how interfaith partnership
could be inclusive:
We’re happy to be a voice sitting around the table because again, I think that the Jewish
voice should always be there. It shouldn't just be Christian focused or whatever. I think
it's really important to have those cross-faith, cross-organizational conversations. So, we
certainly are continuing our work in that regard; our organization is not going away. It's
just really the challenge of figuring out how we best use our time.
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4. Advocating against human trafficking practices in big corporations
Using his extensive experience as a leader of an FBO consisting of Christian investors and
shareholders, Daniel suggested five key strategies to advocate against human trafficking in big
corporations. First, he suggested assessing the content and impacts of companies’ policies on
vulnerable people. As he said,
Our strengths are primarily in the human rights arena. It was not just to meet with
companies and say, “well, good work;” we do look at their labor policies and practices,
how they impact people, what their impacts show, and if what they're doing is abusive.
Second, he suggested using the leverage of faith-connected investors and stakeholders to hold
companies accountable. As he explained,
Then, there's that understanding of the power of leverage-based investors who work with
other investors to get companies’ top management to put in place policies, and then hold
them to account. Faith-based organizations, particularly those working with us are
relentless and persistent.
Third, Daniel said it is important to know the companies before advocating for change;
“A third strength is doing your homework. If you're going to be engaging large companies and
making a change, you get to know what you are talking about.” His last two suggestions have to
do with the importance of faith in collaborating about doing anti-human trafficking advocacy. As
he explained,
The last two pieces are: one is that we are a coalition of faith and socially responsible
investors; two, every single organization that joins us and works on human rights and
human trafficking, no matter how big or how small they are, recognizes that we cannot
do anything without working together. Our faith connection is key; it's not negotiable or
political. It is bedrock.
V. DISCUSSION
The finding that thirteen of the 14 participant organizations were of Christian denominations
reflects a substantial level of Christian groups’ input in the human trafficking movement. It also
reflects the high level of influence they wield in the implementation of human trafficking policy
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in the US, even though very few of them depend upon public funding for their work. This
finding corroborates the literature indicating that most NGOs that have influenced and shaped
the U.S. federal human trafficking policy were of Christian denominations (Gee & Smith, 2014).
The only Jewish FBO in the study is part of a national Jewish association that started
rescuing and assisting immigrant girls and women trafficked on Staten Island (New York) in the
early 1900s. FBOs had been in the field of human trafficking services long before other anti-
trafficking NGOs were created after the U.S. government had enacted its seminal legislation of
TVPA in 2000. The range of 4-24 years of human trafficking work experience of eight of the 14
FBOs suggests that they had a substantial experience in human trafficking work.
A. Faith Factor in Human Trafficking Work
Respondents reported several factors that led their FBOs to engage in human trafficking work.
Still, faith was overwhelmingly highlighted as the primary influence and impetus behind all the
participant organizations’ engagement. The findings show that faith provides FBOs a strong
inspiration for the work despite many challenges agencies face to raise awareness about the
problem, provide services to survivors, and/or advocate for policy reform. Research shows that
the input of FBOs in the field of human trafficking generally has a strong faith rationale
(Barrows, 2017; Gee & Smith, 2014; Purekal, 2012). All the respondents repeatedly cited sacred
scriptures to illustrate their agencies’ work. Most known Christian anti-trafficking organizations,
both within and outside the USA identified their sacred scriptures as the driving force behind
their human trafficking work (Barrows, 2017; Purekal, 2012).
Some respondents in this study were so resolute in their faith that they quit very lucrative
corporate jobs to dedicate their resources and competencies to human trafficking work. The
participation of an FBO made of business shareholders of Christian denominations in this study
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is noteworthy. This FBO leveraged its members’ investment power and roles in the decision-
making circles of corporates to lobby and demand policies addressing human rights in general,
and particularly human trafficking, within big companies and international organizations. Before
the current study, there was a lack of literature on faith-based groups inside the business world
dedicated to advocating for policies and regulations to address trafficking in the for-profit field.
Next to faith, social justice was highlighted as another key source of inspiration for FBOs
engaged in human trafficking work. Social justice is about creating a fair and equal society in
which every individual matters, their rights are recognized and protected, and decisions are made
in ways that are fair and honest (Oxford Reference, n.d.). While social justice could be viewed as
a shared motivation for any organization involved in human trafficking work, faith was
considered the biggest rallying and inspiring influence in many FBOs’ engagement in the field of
human trafficking. Yet, as the findings show, the level of passion and compassion that many
FBOs show in doing human trafficking work is difficult to comprehend, which often leads many
people outside this circle to believe FBOs have hidden agendas to work in such a dangerous field
as human trafficking. This misperception was countered by the findings from the analysis of the
data on FBOs’ distinctive competencies for human trafficking services.
B. FBOs’ Distinctive Competencies
A few salient points from the findings about respondents’ perceptions of the distinctive
competencies of FBOs in the fight against human trafficking are important to highlight. FBOs
have the capability to successfully access and use community resources to mobilize people for
outreach and advocacy. They have traditionally counted on congregations and faith communities
they are tied to, which allows tapping into diverse assets necessary for trafficking-related
services. It was interesting to find that law enforcement agencies value FBOs’ competency for
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outreach and awareness raising. Local police often reached out to FBOs in the study for
assistance in preventing or addressing sex trafficking in their police districts. Reaching out to
FBOs for help indicates an important level of trust that law enforcement agencies appear to have
in FBOs’ capacity to mobilize substantial community support. There is a potential reason for law
enforcement to reach out to FBOs for help in operations linked to human trafficking. When the
police conduct a raid where they are likely to find victims, they need organizations such as FBOs
for support, because rescued victims may trust faith community members, and need basic things
such as clothes, and shelter; the police need FBOs to help interact with victims, which may
prevent a situation in which police will have no other choice than arrest victims and take in
custody as criminals.
FBOs’ human trafficking work appears to have both a theoretical value and a practical
value. First, FBOs believe that their service approach allows increasing hope for survivors.
FBOs’ ability to meet survivors where they are and to provide them the time and space necessary
to build trust instills hope for survivors’ recovery and rehabilitation, contrary to the harm
reduction approach, which is more about alleviating the pains associated with a problem than
addressing it or providing hope for a cure.
Second, FBOs’ services provide an inexpensive way to address human trafficking in a
state. The FBO service approach provides “a state or a nation's cheapest option” of services
because other entities or stakeholders, other than the government, are the primary funders of
FBOs’ human trafficking services. To put the latter point in perspective, if FBOs were to end any
involvement in human trafficking work, it could not be realistically possible for any government
to mobilize enough resources to fill in the gap left. As one respondent observed, “FBOs are able
to do things that the top-down approach can’t get done. So FBOs in this work are providing a
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valuable option.” What this point also implies is that input of FBOs in the fight against human
trafficking is substantial and should be factored into any assessment of cost-effective approaches
to address the problem.
FBOs have shown competency and leadership, not only in awareness raising and victims’
services, but also in policy advocacy and training about human trafficking. FBOs could be
considered the leaders in shelter services, housing, and drop-in services for trafficking in the U.S.
A survey report shows that over 80% of the shelters available for victims of sex trafficking in the
United States are owned by FBOs (Allert, 2017). As one respondent pointed out, “FBOs are the
most robust and active in the victim services…That is everything from running a drop-in center
to street outreaches.”
Respondents stressed the importance of using an approach like Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Needs in providing long-term services for recovery and reintegration for trafficking survivors.
First, the findings show that FBOs understand the importance of helping survivors develop trust
by allowing self-determination in the process. Most respondents said that their agencies liked
meeting survivors where they were, to indicate that they valued survivors’ input in service
provision. Second, the finding about the capacity of FBOs to provide long-term services for
survivor recovery and reintegration, as mentioned by some respondents, shows another aspect of
using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in working with trafficking victims. This also shows that
FBOs avoid putting a time limit, as much as they can, on the services they provide to trafficking
survivors. Considering that many trafficking survivors often experience trauma, recovery
services that are not time-limited could be considered a key aspect of FBOs’ experiences. Very
often, human trafficking programs that depend on public funding are time-limited, which could
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negatively affect the services survivors receive (Clawson & Dutch, 2008; Heffernan & Blythe,
2014).
Part of the staff and volunteers in the participant FBOs were trafficking survivors, which
shows FBOs’ efforts to value survivors’ input in their anti-trafficking services. At least three of
the leaders and founders of FBOs in the study were trafficking survivors. While it was only
during the last ten years that federal agencies started requiring their grantees—mostly secular
organizations--to include survivors’ voices in activities and programs they implement, FBOs
have been taking advantage of the experiences of survivors for a long time.
In addition to highlighting the distinctive and versatile competencies of FBOs for human
trafficking work, the findings contradict issues of misperception and mistrust identified in the
literature, which affect FBOs’ credibility and legitimacy for human trafficking work (Heil, 2017;
Pureskal, 2012; Salvation Army, 2019; US Dept. of Justice, 2021; Weitzer,2007). Allegations of
FBOs using services to convert trafficking victims to religion contribute to rampant criticism
against FBOs in the field of trafficking work (Heil, 2017; Pureskal, 2012; Salvation Army, 2019;
Weitzer,2007). Heil (2017) found that faith facilitates victim coercion into human trafficking
because traffickers utilize religious beliefs to rationalize exploitative actions, especially in
situations where potential victims’ faith is important to them. Contrary to what this literature
indicates, all the participants in this study concurred that efforts to convert trafficking survivors
to one’s religion are counterproductive because such actions hamper survivors’ self-
determination and trust-building and can be re-traumatizing. Situations in which religious leaders
use their position of power to influence and exploit vulnerable individuals (Heil, 2017; Pureskal,
2012; Weitzer, 2007) were perceived by the respondents as unethical and damaging to FBOs that
strive to avoid re-traumatizing survivors.
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Respondents reported efforts their FBOs made to prevent occurrences of proselytizing in
their services for survivors and to denounce such practices in any sister agencies. Before the
current study, Lewis et al. (2020), who conducted a national study on FBOs’ input in the
implementation of human trafficking policy in the UK, did not find any evidence that FBOs
involved in their research “were riddled with direct evangelism, proselytism, and spiritual
abuse… despite some fear that this is the case,” (p. 3). The current study and Lewis et al. could
be the first ones to show the lack of evidence to substantiate the allegations that many FBOs in
human trafficking work used their assistance services to convert survivors. Not only were
respondents’ perceptions of FBOs’ distinctive competencies for human trafficking work
analyzed, but also the experiences of participant organizations, their strengths, funding issues,
and challenges in the work were assessed.
C. Participant FBOs’ Service Responses to Human Trafficking
Respondents discussed diverse contributions their organizations made in the areas of prevention
of human trafficking, protection of survivors, and even prosecution of trafficking cases. While
the literature indicates that FBOs in the field of trafficking overwhelmingly focus on sex
trafficking (Weitzer, 2007), FBOs in the current study focused on broader aspects of human
trafficking than addressing only sex trafficking, including policy advocacy, training, and
awareness raising about different forms of human trafficking, at various levels of intervention.
Prevention services. ICT, training, and policy advocacy were three of the prevention
services participant FBOs focused on most. ICT was used in some FBOs’ efforts to prevent
human trafficking. Three of the organizations reported using ICT tools to monitor sex trafficking
ads online and track transactions about potential victims; they also described their experience of
assisting law enforcement with rescue operations. One of the respondents, an ICT expert,
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reported on how her agency successfully tracked and got help for women and girls being
trafficked on the dark web. Her FBO was experienced at screening, analyzing online data on sex
trade ads, and running algorithms to locate geographic locations where sex trafficking was taking
place. ICT also played a key part in the efforts of one FBO to connect with and assist survivors
of male trafficking.
Human trafficking-related training was not only the most frequent activity reported by ten
of the 14 FBOs in the current study, but also the training activities targeted diverse groups of
stakeholders who could have a key role in the prevention of human trafficking, including health
agencies, schools, religious congregations, businesses, and ethnic associations. Respondents
stressed training of staff and volunteers as crucial to increasing the latter’s skills in awareness
and outreach services. Training activities were conducted, not only on behalf of communities,
other organizations, or groups but also for increasing the level of competencies of FBOs’ staff
and volunteers for their awareness and outreach services and direct services provided to
survivors.
Policy advocacy. Barrows (2017) and Gee and Smith (2014) reported that FBOs in the
U.S. engage in human trafficking services through policy advocacy at the local, state, and federal
levels, with some FBOs concentrating on a specific issue to enhance their advocacy campaigns.
Yet, there was a lack of research that has explored strategies that FBOs use to shape the anti-
trafficking policy and the outcomes of their policy advocacy contributions. The findings about
the policy advocacy activities of participant organizations not only corroborate the literature but
described distinctive strategies FBOs in this study used for their policy advocacy activities. Two
FBOs had prominent input in policy advocacy, focused each on a specific issue to improve their
campaigns: one primarily focused on domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) while the other
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concentrated on bringing about anti-trafficking policy reform in international for-profit
companies. One of the two policy-advocacy-focused FBOs in the current study played a
substantial part in influencing policy reform during the last ten years to address the problem of
domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) in the U.S. Through national conferences, interfaith
committees, and policy development and implementation monitoring at both the federal and state
levels, Kathy’s FBO was successful in influencing the development of new policies such as Safe
Harbor policies in many states. This FBO developed a policy assessment tool that it uses to grade
the efforts of each of the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia to address DMST. The
second FBO was operating from within the for-profit arena. Beyond successful policy reforms it
contributed to in three U.S. states, Daniel’s FBO—consisting of business shareholders and
investors--was successful in advocating for anti-trafficking policy reforms against human
trafficking in big, for-profit companies around the world, such as Marriott Hotels. Other policy
advocacy activities FBOs in this study contributed to or organized included major conferences at
state or federal levels, coordinating task forces or coalitions, and engaging in policy development
at the state level.
Survivor protection services. Research shows the importance of a trauma-informed
approach in service provided to trafficking survivors (Clawson & Dutch, 2008). The finding that
all the FBOs in this study providing victims’ services reported prioritizing the use of trauma-
informed and survivor-centered approaches is important because it substantiates respondents’
reports that the self-determination of survivors was stressed in services FBOs provided. Yet,
little information was provided on specific ways FBOs implemented such approaches in their
services.
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Shelter and safe housing. Shelter and housing services are vital to victim services in the
field of human trafficking. The findings about the work experiences of two FBOs in this study
are notable. One FBO in this study conducted a comprehensive survey on shelters available for
trafficking victims in the USA. The distinctive aspect of another FBO was that it was uniquely
specialized in preserving family units by keeping women survivors not only with their children
but also their pets, if applicable. The distinctive capacities of these FBOs for housing services for
trafficking survivors provide a glimpse of the leading experience of FBOs in this specific area.
Input in prosecution of human trafficking cases. One key aspect of the findings about
the contributions FBOs made to investigations and prosecution of human trafficking cases was
that not only law enforcement but also judges and prosecutors have reached out to FBOs in this
study for help. FBOs worked with other major criminal justice stakeholders such as the
Department of Homeland Security, the Attorney General's Office, etc., in the process of court
cases in which trafficking victims are key witnesses. Barrows (2027) reported that, to a limited
extent, FBOs in the US participate in investigations of human trafficking cases. For instance,
Hope for Justice USA, an FBO that was not able to participate in this study, often assists regional
law enforcement agencies with investigations of human trafficking cases (Barrows, 2017).
Funding in FBOs’ trafficking work. Knowledge about funding for FBOs gathered
through this study allows us to better understand their strengths and challenges in human
trafficking work. The findings show a lot of issues with FBOs’ access to the public for human
trafficking work. It was interesting to find that FBOs rarely apply for or receive public grants for
their human trafficking services. Only one of the 14 participants FBOs reported relying only on
federal funding for its work at a county level. Four of the FBOs that had leading national roles
for specific human trafficking services (policy advocacy, shelter, direct services) reported not
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targeting federal or state funding for their work due to a few reasons. The public grant
application process is considered tedious, time-consuming, and not substantial compared to the
financial needs of FBOs for their services. Also, all respondents reported that there are too many
hurdles for FBOs to secure public grants. For instance, public grants have too many restrictions
(i.e., time limits, invasive processes, too much paperwork, etc.) that can affect the quality of
work needed for effective services for survivors.
Very few FBOs ever received federal funding for their trafficking-related work. Issues of
misperception around faith considerations further affect the chances for FBOs to apply for public
funding and get it. In addition to faith principles or practice ethics that they pride themselves on,
FBOs make it a choice to reject any funding, public or private, that does not align with their
mission or faith. Considering all the challenges involved in public grants, thirteen out of the 14
FBOs prioritized private funding for their work. Private funding is accessible, simpler to manage,
and report. In this study, private funding sources for FBOs were diverse, including philanthropic
sources, corporate contributions, fund-raising, individual and group donations, church-sponsored
funding, membership dues, and other sources. Operating outside public funding allows FBOs to
develop services they believe will help them assist survivors using an approach like Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs and without any time limits. It is challenging for any agency to estimate the
length of time necessary for recovery for survivors who experience trauma during their
trafficking situations and to assess ahead of time the cost of care survivors needed.
D. Gaps in FBOs’ Human Trafficking Work
Access to specialized services requested through referrals was often impossible because of the
lack of enough specialists anywhere, which put too much stress on participant FBOs trying to
find appropriate help for survivors, especially for mental health services. The finding about
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respondents reporting trauma-informed services as a key challenge contradicts a preceding
finding in which many respondents reported that their FBOs used a trauma-informed care
approach.
The issue of the gap in services for male survivors of sex trafficking is not limited to
FBOs. The most concerning challenge the FBOs faced relates to the misunderstanding,
suspicion, or rejection they experienced from people, groups, or organizations that are not part of
the faith communities. However, two key findings that challenged the misperceptions most
people had about FBOs are the use of a non-discriminatory approach and survivor self-
determination in their service delivery. All the FBOs had an anti-discriminatory policy, which
requires that all service recipients be treated with dignity and respect, and without consideration
of their faith.
Respondents acknowledged that faith support can be vital to survivors’ recovery and
restoration, as illustrated in the literature (Lewis et al., 2020; Pertek, 2022; Schmitt, 2017). FBOs
prioritized survivor self-determination as a key principle governing the service they provided.
Survivors’ self-determination is helpful in avoiding a situation of power and control of service
providers over survivors. Survivors should decide when they wanted any spiritual support. Faith
questions should be discussed only if survivors raised them and wished for faith resources. Thus,
survivor self-determination helps prevent or limit survivors’ perception of unending control over
their life, from traffickers to service providers.
E. Issues of Partnership in Human Trafficking Work
One area in which faith has been found to be an asset is interagency collaboration. Interagency
collaboration of the participant FBOs is important in addressing gaps in services, challenges in
funding, and increasing access to resources needed for comprehensive services. Faith was
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perceived as a catalyst for interagency collaboration. Interagency collaboration was also reported
as crucial for policy advocacy, networking, and referrals. Participant FBOs not only had active
participation in interagency collaboration but also, some of them were leaders of such
partnerships developed for effective service delivery.
Yet, any type of collaboration between FBOs and other stakeholder organizations was not
without challenges. Although acknowledged as particularly important, collaboration with secular
organizations was difficult because of the mindset of secular partners that all FBOs had a
religious agenda and would be the wrong partners to work with. Bias, suspicion, misperceptions,
and lack of consideration by secular organizations could be perceived as the biggest obstacle
FBO in the study faced in their efforts to develop a successful partnership.
The pervasiveness of misperceptions was also present in interagency collaboration with
public stakeholders. This finding about the cautious behavior of public partners is intriguing
when one considers that FBOs are known to influence the development of human trafficking
policy in the U.S. FBOs appear to have substantial influence in the policymaking sphere
regarding human trafficking, because religious groups wield more power than in the policy
implementation arena dominated by bureaucracy, where church-state separation and freedom for
people of all faiths must be protected.
However, FBOs faced limited obstacles in interagency collaboration with criminal justice
system stakeholders such as law enforcement departments, prosecutors, judges, State Attorney’s
Offices, etc. At least five of the 14 FBOs in this study reported having extensive collaboration
experience with various criminal justice systems stakeholders. Law enforcement often reached
out to FBOs in their districts for help. A rationale to explain the good collaboration between
FBOs and criminal justice stakeholders could be that faith provides a bridge built on trust.
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It is surprising to find that interfaith collaboration was problematic. Thus, while
interfaith collaboration was often successful among FBOs sharing specific belief systems, it is
often very contentious between FBOs with different belief systems because of denominational
differences. As the findings show, even though they may share denominations, some FBOs have
difficulty collaborating because of minor differences in faith. Also surprising was the finding that
FBOs of Christian denominations would not accept collaboration with Jewish FBOs because the
former group believed that the latter had nothing to do in the field of human trafficking or did not
need any financial resources for their work. Such misperceptions limit the partnership of
Christian FBOs and other FBOs of different faith denominations such as Judaist, Muslim,
Baha’í, etc. This is an important matter that affects the relationship among FBOs doing human
trafficking.
VI. IMPLICATIONS and LIMITATIONS
A. Implications for Practice, Policy, and Research
The study has implications for practice, policy, and research. Part of the implications are based
on the recommendations respondents made about improving FBOs’ engagement in the human
trafficking field.
The study has important implications for various stakeholders, including FBOs, secular
NGOs, criminal justice system leaders, and public administration leaders. It is important to
assess and consider FBOs’ approaches to addressing human trafficking in more organized efforts
to address human trafficking. Efforts should be made to connect FBOs with public and criminal
justice stakeholders while respecting the separation of religion and state.
Secular NGOs should avoid discriminating against FBOs doing human trafficking work
and, instead, take interest in learning about contributions FBOs have made to the field of human
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trafficking for many decades of work. The author believes that secular NGOs in the field of
human trafficking work could learn from FBOs’ approaches to advocating for policy change and
for providing services
It is important to develop interfaith ethical guidelines and a code of conduct to be used by
all FBOs engaged in human trafficking. Doing so could address issues of misperception many
FBOs in the field of human trafficking face. There is a need for more outreach to other FBOs
still not involved in the human trafficking movement. Strategies should be developed to harness
FBOs’ collective capability for policy advocacy and service provision, which could result in
more FBOs’ input in task forces, coalitions, and decision-making arenas. Finally, addressing
difficulties in developing interfaith collaboration is crucial to strengthen the effectiveness of
FBOs’ input in the human trafficking field.
On February 14, 2021, President Biden signed an Executive Order re-establishing the
White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, to promote partnerships
with religious and secular organizations to better serve people in need. Recently, in partnership
with the President’s Interagency Task Force, Senior Policy Operating Group on Public
Awareness and Outreach on Trafficking in Persons, and Blue Campaign, the Office invited more
than 3,500 faith-based and community organizations to get involved in combating human
trafficking, by adopting practices highlighted in the Blue Campaign faith-based and community
toolkit.
5
In line with the purpose of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood
Partnerships, seven federal departments established their Centers for Faith-Based and
Neighborhood Partnerships. These centers aim to foster partnerships between government and
5
https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/2020-03/fema_faith-communities_community-toolkit-eng.pdf
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faith-based organizations (FBOs) to increase the nation’s resilience by creating trust and
developing relationships.
Building on the information above, the White House Office of Faith-Based and
Neighborhood Partnerships and the U.S. Centers for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships
should consider assessing how to develop collaboration with FBOs for strategies to address
human trafficking. Despite the traditional policy of separation between state and religion, FBOs’
influence on human trafficking policymaking cannot be denied. Likewise, their input in human
trafficking policy implementation, with limited access to public funding, is documented. There is
a need for policymakers at the federal and state to formalize collaboration with FBOs to enhance
the outcomes of various anti-trafficking programs.
The lack of research about FBOs’ human trafficking negatively affects their credibility
and ability to collaborate with other groups of stakeholders who still have misperceptions and
misunderstandings about FBOs’ competencies and motivation in the field of human trafficking.
There is a need for evaluation of FBO work about human trafficking. There is a need for more
data than stories on services that FBOs provide regarding human trafficking to strengthen their
legitimacy for the work. It is important to understand the similarities and differences among
FBOs engaged in the field of human trafficking work. It is also crucial to conduct comparative
research on the human trafficking work of FBOs, secular NGOs, and other community
organizations to improve the contributions of each of these groups in the implementation of
human trafficking policies.
B. Limitations of the Study
The study findings cannot be generalized to other populations of FBOs with experience doing
human trafficking work in the United States because, first, the study involved purposive
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sampling; second, a qualitative method was utilized to collect the data. The overrepresentation of
FBOs of Christian denominations among the respondents can be considered another limitation.
Yet, the input of a single participant from an FBO of the Jewish denomination was substantial
and eye-opening about interagency collaboration, as the findings show. Since the interviews
were conducted by Zoom online video, the effects of online technology and issues of social
desirability might have influenced the quality of the collected data in ways not fully known. The
researcher’s direct involvement in all the stages of the research process may have influenced the
findings. Likewise, it is difficult to know to what extent the researcher’s expertise in human
trafficking and his personal biases have impacted the interpretation of the data. However, the use
of member-checking and peer debriefing strategies helped limit the potential threats to the
credibility and confirmability of the findings in this study.
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APPENDIX
Interview Guide
Participant Demographics
Gender:…………………………………
Organization Name:………………………..
Organization’s faith denomination:…………………………….
Specific trafficking-related services:………………………………
Participant’s profession and key role in the organization:……………………………
Motivation and engagement of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in human trafficking
work
1. How long has your organization been providing human trafficking work?
2. Please describe how your organization became interested and engaged in human
trafficking work?
3. How does your organization’s faith denomination influence or connect with its
motivation to be involved in the human trafficking work?
Characteristics and competencies of FBOs stakeholders in the fight against human
trafficking
1. Many people believe that faith communities have a crucial role in the anti-trafficking
field. To what extent do you share that perception?
2. What are the characteristics of FBOs engaged in human trafficking work?
3. What distinctive competencies do you perceive FBOs bring to the fight against human
trafficking (advocacy, assistance to victims, research, investigations, outreach, etc.)?
4. How have many FBOs managed to become service providers for human trafficking
cases?
5. In what ways can FBOs play a significant role in advancing anti-trafficking efforts?
6. It is often argued FBOs have an unrivaled ability to build trust with survivors and to
provide care and rehabilitation. To what extent do you share that perception?
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Experience and challenges of FBOs in providing services to human trafficking survivors
1. Can you describe in detail the human trafficking-related services that your organization
provides? What specific types of human trafficking do you focus on (sex trafficking,
labor trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation of children, child trafficking, etc.)?
2. What have been your strengths and successes in doing human trafficking work? What
contributes to these strengths and successes?
3. Do you think that many FBOs are experienced in doing this work?
4. Can you describe the challenges and obstacles your organizations face in doing human
trafficking work?
5. To what extent does faith impact the quality of services your organization provides about
human trafficking for client populations from different faiths?
6. How does your organization deal with funding requirements that prevent any
discrimination in the service provided?
Interagency collaboration with other stakeholders for human trafficking work
1.
Identify strategies for collaboration among faith-based communities to support
survivors/victims of human trafficking.
2. Could you describe two of the interagency collaboration activities you have had with
other organizations to address human trafficking?
3. To what extent, faith denomination could be a significant issue to account for in
interagency collaboration?
4. What needs to be done to increase the competence and legitimacy of FBOs in human
trafficking policy implementation?
