Responding to Suspected and Confirmed Cases of Sex Trafficked Children & Youth
To address sex trafficking in Wisconsin, recent state legislation (Wisconsin Act 367) now mandates child welfare agencies to investigate allegations of sex trafficking. As children and youth are identified, they may be referred to social services for care. In order to better serve this at-risk population, this project 1) disseminated knowledge and provided recommendations to social service organizations on relevant evidence-based/informed practice strategies, and 2) conducted a community-based research study to understand whether and how such evidence-based/informed practice strategies and models in services were being appropriately used and identify challenges/gaps in service provision.
Outcomes
Project leader provided comprehensive sex trafficking trainings were provided to 29 social workers representing the counties of Outagamie, Brown, and Winnebago in Wisconsin. She also consulted with community providers who also provided six additional trainings on trauma-informed care to 120 youth service providers and approximately 100 behavioral health providers across 11 Wisconsin counties. Findings from the research study suggest that further training needs for staff members are required to enhance inclusivity of social services, strengthen the implementation of evidence-based strategies and create rigorous evaluation protocols to understand whether such programs are effective. Ongoing work will address these findings.
Focus Areas
Project Leader
Lara Gerassi
Assistant Professor
- Department/Unit
- Social Work
- School or College
- College of Letters & Science