Introduction
The 2016—2021 evaluation of the National Human Trafficking Hotline (NHTH) was conducted by RTI International through a contract from the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in collaboration with ACF’s Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP).
This report describes the history and purpose of the NHTH as well as a synthesis of the organization’s structure, operating procedures, and training mechanisms.
Purpose and Research Questions
The overall purpose of this project was to develop and execute an evaluation of the NHTH, with the following specific objectives of the evaluation:
- Describe the activities, procedures, and organization of the NHTH, including staff training, staff capacity, and service delivery.
- Describe the customer service of the NHTH.
- Describe the immediate outcomes of the NHTH, specifically regarding experiences of contactors.
Key Findings and Highlights
Overall, the NHTH seeks to be responsive to the needs of contactors by hiring high quality staff, continually assessing their performance, processing contacts efficiently, and documenting information perceived to be critical for referral and reporting purposes. Hotline staff described approaches they are taking to improve service delivery.
The NHTH processes more types of contacts than other similar national hotlines, which may impact its ability to efficiently triage contacts and quickly respond to all contactors’ needs.
The NHTH may seek to increase its efficiency in processing contacts, by further delineating services for those reaching out to the hotline for themselves or someone they know personally versus those reaching out to the hotline to provide a tip or to report suspected trafficking and by continuing to streamline data collection activities.
Methods
All evaluation data were collected by or in collaboration with the NHTH from 2016 through 2021. Eight data collection methods were used to inform the findings of the evaluation. Data collection methods, presented in the order in which they were collected, include:
- Review of NHTH database records
- Interviews with NHTH staff
- Interviews and focus groups with key NHTH partners
- Observational listening of NHTH contacts
- Case study interviews with law enforcement agencies receiving tips from the NHTH
- Assessment of the NHTH’s referral directory
- Case study of other similar national hotlines
- Follow-up survey with individuals contacting the NHTH
The primary data sources for this brief include NHTH staff interviews (N=2 leaders, 13 staff), partner interviews and focus groups (N= 8 service providers and 8 individuals who have experienced trafficking), observational listening (N=301 calls observed), and an assessment of the NHTH referral directory.
Appendix
Appendix
| File Type | File Name | File Size | Appendix for Evaluation of the National Human Trafficking Hotline: Internal Operations, Protocols, and Training Report | 918.95 KB |
|---|
Citation
Feeney, Hannah, Charm, Samantha, Hardison-Walters, Jennifer, and Kathleen Krieger (2023). Evaluation of the National Human Trafficking Hotline: Internal Operations, Protocols, and Training Report. OPRE Report # 2023-160. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Glossary
- NHTH:
- National Human Trafficking Hotline
- Individuals who have experienced trafficking/survivor:
- These phrases will be used interchangeably to refer to individuals who are experiencing or have experienced human trafficking. At the time of data collection, the NHTH used the term “potential victim of trafficking” and thus, this phrasing may be present throughout the reports and briefs.
- Contactors:
- Individuals who have accessed the NHTH via phone, text, webchat, or email. Contactors may or may not be survivors of human trafficking. At times, when specifying contactors who connected with the NHTH via phone, the word “callers” may be used. The NHTH refers to contactors as signalers but endorsed the use of contactors for the purposes of this report for increased clarity.
- Contacts:
- Contacts are the individual level calls, texts, webchats, or emails received by the NHTH.
- Cases:
- Contacts are stored at the case level, whereby a case represents all calls, texts, webchats, and emails received regarding a particular circumstance of sex or labor trafficking. For example, if two independent community members contact the NHTH with two separate tips regarding the same potential victim, both contacts will be placed in the same case.