Since the beginning of modern efforts in the United States to address human trafficking around 25 years ago, child welfare agencies have played some role in responding to youth who have or may have experienced human trafficking. In more recent years, federal law has significantly reshaped the way child welfare agencies approach identification and service responses to children who have experienced human trafficking, but with a heavy emphasis on addressing sex trafficking. While a handful of states simultaneously added sex trafficking and labor trafficking to their state definitions of child abuse and neglect, as a whole, systems-based responses to labor trafficking lag significantly behind. Why is it important for child-serving agencies to have responses to labor trafficking? What are some of the considerations and complexities in developing these responses?
This session will consider each of these questions. It will cover key information about child labor trafficking in the United States, including recent research on venues in which it is occurring and how labor trafficking intersects with child abuse and neglect. It will address recent changes to federal law that have catalyzed many states to develop or enhance responses within their child welfare systems to labor trafficking involving children and examples of those responses. It will also address the complexity of trying to build just systems-based responses to labor trafficking. Participants will learn about key aspects of a systems-based and broader multidisciplinary response and be challenged to consider their roles in these responses and how they can use that role to ensure children and youth who have experienced labor trafficking are met with youth-centered and trauma-responsive practices.
