The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) in partnership with OTIP, funded the evaluation of the Demonstration Grants to Strengthen the Response to Victims of Human Trafficking in Native Communities (VHT-NC) Program. The goal of the VHT-NC Program is to fund projects that build, expand, and sustain organizational and local capacity to provide direct services, assistance, and referrals to Native Americans (i.e., American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and/or Pacific Islanders) who experience human trafficking.
The overarching goals of the evaluation are to understand the context in which the VHT-NC projects are implemented, examine their goals, and explore the strategies they use to achieve those goals. A key objective is to conduct a participatory and culturally responsive evaluation that respects and is informed by the knowledge, values, and traditions of the communities implementing the VHT-NC projects.
Recently, OPRE published three new documents associated with the evaluation:
Demonstration Grants to Strengthen the Response to Victims of Human Trafficking in Native Communities (VHT-NC) Program: Final Report of the Formative Evaluation — This report provides key findings and highlights from the VHT-NC Program’s formative evaluation.
Culturally Responsive Approaches to Anti-Human Trafficking Programming in Native Communities — This publication explores the various culturally responsive approaches implemented through the VHT-NC Program, including outreach and case management services.
Conducting Culturally Responsive Evaluation Engagement with Tribal and Native Communities — This document provides important considerations for planning evaluations involving Native communities, based on findings from the VHT-NC Program evaluation.
The Office on Trafficking in Persons established the VHT-NC Program in 2020. Six VHT-NC projects received three-year awards to enhance the response to human trafficking in Native American communities by offering culturally responsive, trauma-informed services, including participant outreach and identification, comprehensive case management and service provision, and community training.
Access all reports from the VHT-NC Program evaluation on OPRE’s Human Trafficking Policy and Research Analyses Project webpage.