FY 17 ACF Budget Briefing Call
Wednesday, March 9th 3:00pm-4:30pm

>>Katherine Chon: Thank you Emily. Welcome everyone to the fiscal year 2017 national briefing call on the budget on anti-trafficking initiatives here at the Administration for Children and Families – part of the Department of Health and Human Services. We look forward to sharing information about what is in the fiscal year 17 budget along with other programmatic updates that may be of interest to our colleagues and stakeholders in the anti-trafficking field. The structure of our call today: shortly, I will introduce you to our other colleagues here at the Administration for Children and Families who will be participating at presenters for this briefing call. We will provide a summary overview of the fiscal year 2017 budget request on human trafficking and provide a context of overall anti-trafficking efforts. Then, we will go into a question and answer period responding to a number of questions that were pre-submitted along with registration. Pending time at the end, we will open up the line for any additional questions that participants may have on the fiscal year 17 budget. So to get us started again, this is Katherine Chon, Director of the Office on Trafficking in Persons at the Administration for Children and Families. I am in the joined in the room and on the phone with some other colleagues and I will turn it over starting with those in the room.

>>Rosie Gomez: Good afternoon everybody, this is Rosie Gomez. I’m a Senior Policy Advisor on Trafficking Prevention and representing the Children’s Bureau today.

>>Chris Holloway: Hello this is Chris Holloway with the Family and Youth Services Bureau. I am a Program Manager for the Runaway and Homeless Youth Program.

>>Katherine Chon: And on the phone we have a colleague from OLAB, Office of Legislative Affairs and Budget.

>>Robin Jones: Hi, this is Robin Jones. I am a Budget Analyst with the Administration for Children and Families.

>>Katherine Chon: So to dive straight in, along with the invitation to this briefing call, we provided a series of resources on the Administration’s Fiscal Year 17 Budget, materials from the Department of Health and Human Services, along with a narrative description from the Administration for Children and Families. We also provided links to 2 blog articles about the budget; one from our Acting Assistant Secretary, Mark Greenberg and another one specifically focused on the budget for our Anti-trafficking Initiative. So, I just want to walk through a summary of what this fiscal year 17 budget intel’s, and provide some additional context for this budget request.

>>First, I wanted to start off with a funding proposal of a total of $22 million dollars for our anti-trafficking in persons program that includes programs and services for foreign national victims of trafficking as well as domestic victims of trafficking meaning US citizens and lawful permanent residents. The main change in the fiscal year 17 budget from our fiscal year 16 budget is a $3.245 million dollar increase request for the services for domestic victims of trafficking to bring the domestic programming up to a total of $9 million dollars. The foreign national victims program is staying the same at $13 million dollars so that all totals up to $22 million. In addition to our anti-trafficking in person program, there is an $11 million dollar funding proposal under the child abuse discretionary activities to support grants to states and tribes, to implement the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act of 2014. Throughout the Budget Proposal that the Administration for Children and Families put forward, there are various places where we integrate anti-trafficking responses into existing programs, including the street outreach program for runaway homeless youth operated through the Family and Youth Services Bureau and we can talk a little bit more about that during later portions of this call. So, you will see in the budget, it reflects an ongoing commitment to the current programs that we run in addition to strengthening our capacity to serve domestic victims of trafficking, and then also mainly the fiscal year 17 budget reflects new authorities and responsibilities that we have to implement those that Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act of 2014 and the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act for 2015. So with that, I will turn it over to our colleague Robin Jones, from the Office of Legislative Affairs and Budget.

>>Robin Jones: Thank you Katherine. So again my name is Robin Jones and I am a Budget Analyst for the Administration for Children and Families and just to help put where we are in context of the budget world – On February 9th, the President introduced what’s known as the President’s budget. On the ACF website, you will see it as the Congressional Justification and that is the 2017 proposed budget that the President of the Administration sends to the hill and it’s almost always the first week of February. It lays out the agenda and request for the next fiscal year. So we are going into Fiscal year 17, which will begin on October 1st. And at this time, Congress takes the budget and there is usually a series of hearings and briefings, our Secretary has been to the hill, a couple times Mark Greenberg, our Acting Assistant Secretary will also go to the hill and testify on the request. It’s important to note that it is just a request at this point. If you read it, you will see that some parts of the budget that are maintaining current services and current law, and then there are some areas as Katherine has mentioned are expansion of services, expansion of law, and expansion of authorities and appropriations. So, we are in this process right now, where we are just starting our hill outreach and testimony hearings providing more technical assistance on the budget. We then look to Congress to ask and they will raise markups and a series of other briefings and other meetings as they move to actually start the budget process, and from this point as we mentioned our fiscal year ends September 30th. So between now and September 30th, we hope to see some action such as usually top dollar marks, or you might hear about a budget deal where they decided the federal budget will be at this level. Just in case you do want to look around and explore a little, we’ve parted the labor health and human services and education often referred to as HHS appropriations sub-committee, so that’s where our bill originates. According to the calendar, on October 1, we would have a new bill. We don’t anticipate at this time that we will have the new budget by October 1, so we’ll likely start fiscal year 17 as we have in previous fiscal years under what’s called a continuing resolution and that means that we act on the same as the prior year. We’ll start 17 looking like 16, but if Congress has passed the budget; they certainly will look at our request and use our request to determine what they ultimately put into it and as Katherine mentioned, the trafficking programs includes expansion and expansion of monies and initiatives. So that’s just a little bit of an overview of what happened again; the budget was introduced and made public on February 9th so we’re about a month out and again that is the proposed budget, the President’s budget. So I am happy to take any questions at the end or follow up as needed. Thanks Katherine.

>>Katherine Chon: Thank you Robin. So at this time before we go into responding to pre-submitted questions, we wanted to give an opportunity to various program offices to share program announcements or grant opportunities with the participants on the call. First I will turn it over to Chris Holloway from the Family Youth Services Bureau.

>>Chris Holloway: Thanks Katherine. Family and Youth Services Bureau has a variety of responsibilities that deal specifically with you issues and over the past several years, we’ve had the opportunity to be involved, and increase our involvement with domestic victims of human trafficking and anti-trafficking work.  In fiscal year 2016, we have 4 funding opportunity announcements that either directly align with anti-trafficking efforts or indirectly align based on the population of youth they serve. So, the two programs that are more indirect is our basic center program – this is our emergency shelter which is up to 21 days for youth under the age of 18. It’s really an opportunity for those young people to find a safe place, decide what the next best step is for them, and in the event that it’s not appropriate to go back to their families’ shelter staff after providing basic needs: food, shelter, clothing – can help the you person make a decision as to where they should go next. Often the basic center programs see human trafficking victims or young people who have been victims of sexual exploitation, commercial exploitation or very frequently labor trafficking victims are coming to the doors of the basic center program. We anticipate that funding opportunity announcement to be released late this month or early April and it is based on a state allocation, so each state gets a percentage of the $53 million dollar appropriation provided to us each year. This year we have about half of that money available to fund new programs whereas the other half will go to support existing basic center programs. What is more specific to human trafficking victim’s services is our street outreach program. In fact, under the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act passed in 2015, Congress actually amended the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act to specifically make note of human trafficking victims – those who have been victimized or are at risk for victimization as a population that was most appropriate for street outreach programs to identify and provide services to. We are looking at roughly $7 million dollars or about 35 to 40 new awards for the fiscal year 16 under the street outreach program and that to should be out in late March early April. Really the effort there of the effort is to engage young people, who are unsafe or are in unstable positions, maybe living on the street or are actively being victimized or at risk for victimization to try and draw them into a safe environment or if it’s appropriate, give them the resources they need to get back home to their families. So those are two programs under the Runaway and Homeless Youth Program. FYSB is also working very closely with the Office on Trafficking in Persons, to put two additional funding opportunities out this year. One is the National Human Trafficking Hotline, so we’re going to make available about $1.5 million dollars to fund the National Human Trafficking Hotline and that funding opportunity will fund one organization and should be out around mid-April. And lastly, direct services come through about $3.6 million dollars’ worth of funding provided in fiscal year 16 to domestic victims of human trafficking which are US citizens, Lawful permanent residents whether they be youth or adults, sex trafficking or labor trafficking, this program covers the entire continuum of victims that are under the domestic category. We are looking at 12 awards with the funding opportunity announcement also coming out in mid-April. Again, these are direct service funding in many ways nearing the foreign victim service grants that will come out through OTIP, but this is on the domestic side. So those are our 4 primary funding opportunities that are going to be made available in 2016 with some indirect or direct relation to human trafficking services.

>>Katherine Chon: Thank you Chris. Now turning it over to Rosie Gomez in the Children’s Bureau.

>>Rosie Gomez: Great! Thank you Katherine. So the funding and the attention has invested in the issue of child trafficking has increased significantly in the past few years. So for those of you that are not aware, back in the fall of 2014, the Children’s Bureau funded the grants to address trafficking within the child welfare population grant program and the purpose of this grant program was to continue the development of child welfare’s system response to human trafficking through infrastructure building and also using a multi-system approach. So they had certain partners that they had to work with including law enforcement, juvenile justice, court systems, runaway homeless youth programs, children’s justice act grantees, and child advocacy centers. They are in their 2nd year of a 5 year grant, we awarded 9 grantees and they received $250,000 each. So again, we have a planned grant opportunity in the funding forecast for a similar purpose, so for grants to continue the development of child welfare’s response to human trafficking, work with specific partners, but then also assist in implementation of the trafficking provisions of the preventing sex trafficking and strengthening families act in their respective states. The full funding opportunity announcement for this opportunity should be available in March or April of this year and you can also go to GrantSolutions.gov to look at the forecast. I also wanted to remind people that we also fund the child welfare capacity building collaborative and within this collaborative, the center for state is supporting states and territory planning and implementation of the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act provision, and the target audiences are State 4B,4A agencies, foreign improvement program agencies, and 4B, 4A tribes. But the resources and tools are available to the public if you go on capacity.childwelfare.gov and the center has developed resources aimed at helping states meet the law’s requirement. They’ve hosted webinars that offer a general overview of the act, but they’ve also developed a list of helpful resources, including a snapshot of youths of run away from foster care, a TIP sheet for collaborating with youth service serving agencies, a sex trafficking streaming protocols directory, and they’ve recently released a training curriculum titled “Child Welfare’s Response” to child and youth sex trafficking and it includes four modules and digital stories. So again, just wanted to share that and let people know the link capacity.childwelfare.gov and you can get additional resources.

>>Katherine Chon: Thank you Rosie. So, the Office on Trafficking Persons is not planning to issue any new grants ourselves this year, but work with our partner program offices. I did want to bring attention to some other grant opportunities where victims of trafficking or providers serving victims of trafficking may be eligible for these grants as well. Currently there are 2 funding opportunities announcements. One through the Administration for Native Americans – their Social and Economic Development Strategies Grant due on April 6th. So next month, coming right around the corner and victim of trafficking is one of the populations that can be served through that grant funding. Similarly, the Office of Community Services has an open funding opportunity announcement also due in early April, where victims of trafficking or organizations serving victims of trafficking are eligible to apply there. If you look at the HHS funding forecast, there is a upcoming funding opportunity from the Office of Refugee Resettlement in regards for applications from their home study and post release services for Unaccompanied Children, which also integrates trafficking into that funding opportunity. So, there is a mix of various program efforts here where victims of trafficking are integrated into other program services, and specific grant opportunities focused just on victims of trafficking.

>>So with that we are going to start on our question and answer period for the questions that were received during the registration process. We received quite a hefty list of them, but they basically break down into 4 different thematic categories or topical areas that came up. The first series of questions were all around the topic of housing and substance abuse and mental health services for victims of trafficking.

>>The first question “Is there an update on concerted efforts to address state housing needs?” and I will take that on. For those on the call, you may be aware that recently HHS and HUD announced a joint effort to strengthen housing services for victims of trafficking. What that meant for us, practically this month, we held a listening session specifically focused on the needs and challenges for adult survivors of human trafficking and accessing housing services. We had close to 1000 registrants and of so had to divide out those listening sessions into two different calls, and we will be following up on those listening sessions with listening sessions specifically on victims of trafficking and housing needs, so please keep an eye out for that. And the ultimate purpose of these listening sessions is to get a better sense of how HHS and HUD can strengthen policies, guidance, and programmatic strategies to better meet the housing needs for victims of trafficking. So, this is an area we’re we are looking for closely, and not with just HUD but also many of our other federal partners. For those of you aware of the 5 year Federal Strategic Action Plan on Services to Victims of Trafficking in the United States, housing is a major component there of several action steps that federal agencies will take in collaboration. This recent example is an outgrowth of that plan. 

>>So, the second question is this topical area “What is the plan for providing safe houses for child victims of human trafficking in the United States? They need safe homes to be in if going to their parental home is not an option.” So first, I will turn it over to Chris Holloway with the Family Youth Services Bureau.
Chris Holloway: Thanks Katherine. Within the confines of the Runaway and Homeless Youth Programs, there are two realistic options for children and when I say children I use that term to mean someone under the age of 18 and I suspect that’s the tense of this question. The Basic Center Programs that are funded through the Family Youth Services Bureau, of which there’s about 200 across the country are an appropriate place or really an optimal option at this point for children who are facing trafficking victimization. As I noted before the Basic Center Program is an emergency shelter service for children up to the age of 18 for 21 days. During the course of that 21 days, making a determination as to whether or not going back home is or is not an option is one of the first and foremost activities that occur. If going back home to the family is not an option, certainly exploring other family members or friends, or other appropriate placements is the next step in the process. And that step includes some type of assessment and screening that determine where that appropriate placement is. The other option, and we are seeing more and more of this occurring is our transitional living program. Now mind you this is for youth 16 up to 22 but certainly that 16, 17, or 18 year old who is in need of longer term services that can’t go back home because home with family is not an appropriate option, then the transitional living program is there for consideration. This is up to 18 months; this is shelter and services combined. Many of our transitional living programs are in fact focusing almost exclusively on providing services to trafficking victims; to younger aged youth who have experienced trafficking victimization. And particularly amongst youth coming out of the foster care system are LGBTQ youth, we know that there’s a heightened risk of victimization from those young people. Certainly we have funded over the past several years and will continue to fund some domestic victims programs.  There are only a few by the time we’re done in fiscal year 16 we will have just about 18 or 20 active programs in existence that are specific to victims of human trafficking but those do provide services to all victims, whether they be children or adults. Rosie?

>>Rosie Gomez: So from the Children’s Bureau side, we understand that many states have a limited amount of foster homes and even more limits than that of those homes that are adequately trained to support trafficking victims. But with the 9 grants that I mentioned earlier that we are currently funding, many of them are working with child welfare agencies, and other partners in this area to build capacity and infrastructure, so we really hope that we learn a lot from these grantees and that child welfare is starting to build the infrastructure so that they can house trafficking victims appropriately.

>>Katherine Chon: Thank you Rosie. So the next question in this topic, “Many of our youth experience severe mental health and substance abuse. Are there any recommendations for how shelters can get assistance for treatment needs?” and first I will turn it over to Chris.

>>Chris Holloway: Well this is a very challenging question. I will say that most if not all of our basic center programs do require an initial triage in screening at entry to determine whether or not the mental health of the young person coming into the door is at a place as appropriate and safe not only for that young person but for the other youth that are in the facility. Most of the basic center programs are not licensed or equipped to deal with mental health issues so often times it is critical that assessment is done early, if not immediately to make sure that placement is appropriate in that facility. The requirement of our basic center program is that screening is done, so while we currently face challenges of finding appropriate placement for youth with severe mental health needs, what we also know is that basic center programs are not typically equipped to handle those youths, so turning to hospitals and other clinical settings that have the staff and provisions in place to take care of youths with those severe health needs is a critical need and certainly one that needs to be filled very soon.

>>Katherine Chon: So in addition to that, we recognize housing and substance abuse, and mental health needs tend to be at the top of the unmet needs categories and so one of the efforts under way through HHS is an expansion of our SOAR to Health and Wellness training on human trafficking. It was initially piloted for health care providers and this year we are expanding content to specifically reach social workers, substance abuse, mental health providers, and public health professionals. We are looking at building the capacity of substance abuse and mental health providers who work with victims of trafficking and in addition SAMHSA, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration funds the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and it is a network of providers across the country that are working to address the trauma impact of trafficking of many different issues among children and youth. So we encourage shelters and other service providers to reach out to those network members as one of the steps you can take to address mental health issues.

>>So the next question we have in this same category, “What provisions is there in the budget to address Runaway and homeless youth who are sent out from runaway homeless youth shelters due to severe mental health with residential and timely outpatient programs.

>>Chris Holloway: Thanks Katherine. I think similar to the previous question; the unfortunate position that most basic center programs and runaway homeless youth programs is that they don’t have adequate staff or facility to deal with those that are experiencing severe mental health issues. There is no specific provision in the budget for that purpose. It’s important recognizing those limitations that basic center programs and all of the runaway and homeless youth programs have an adequate triage of screening systems in place to be sure that they are not bringing the young person into their facility that is facing mental health issues that the facility is not equipped to handle. So, the budget while not specifically requiring or giving provisions for dealing with severe mental health service, it does require each of the basic centers receiving grant funds from Family Youth Services Bureau, HHS to have provisions in place to do that necessary triage and screening on the front end so that staff and youth who are living and working there are not put at risk as well as providing appropriate direction to where that young person who does have those mental health needs should go.

>>Katherine Chon: The next question under this topic, “What are the plans for getting counseling for child victims of human trafficking in the United States?” and I will turn it over to Rosie.

>>Rosie Gomez: So again, the 9 child welfare grants that I mentioned before are working with child welfare agencies and other partners to build capacity and infrastructure to be able to provide the appropriate services for child victims. And just a reminder as well, the center for states is continuing to provide technical assistant to all states to ensure that child welfare systems partner with youth serving agencies that provide appropriate services to child victims.

>>Katherine Chon: And in addition to that, there are several grantees funded by the Administration for Children and Families that have been providing training and webinars on trauma-informed care for victims of trafficking and many of those webinars are available online or through the National Human Trafficking Resource Center. In addition to that, just a reminder that many of the grantees that are providing case management services whether it’s for foreign or domestic victims of trafficking, one of the services in the comprehensive care would include counseling and similar types of services so those grantees are posted on the ACF End Trafficking Website and we will follow up to this call with a set of those resources.

>>So the next question in this very popular topic, “Will anti-trafficking efforts specifically be targeted in the new basic center request proposal coming out in April or other Runaway Homeless Youth grants.

>>Chris Holloway: Reflecting back on my opening comments: specific to our up and coming funding opportunity announcements, as I noted the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act passed in 2015 did make specific changes to the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act, more specifically street outreach program where it included notable references to human trafficking as a population of potential victims or victims who are on the streets that are appropriate for street outreach programs to target for assistance. We have recognized the value over the past several years of increasing our footprint in the all the RHY programs and around addressing anti-trafficking and providing services to victims or those who are at risk of being victimized, and so all of our funding opportunity announcements in 2016 will include some provision requiring a program to address the needs for human trafficking victims whether that is specifically related to the statue. The street outreach programs case, by virtue, the fact that most of, if not all of our RHY programs already serve victims and they need to build the capacity and understanding for how to identify and provide necessary services. So, that’s a long of saying yes, we will have specific language in the request for proposals, solicitation, FOA’s, etc. around providing access to resources and identification of victims of human trafficking.

>>Katherine Chon: Thank you Chris. So this next question is also for you: “Will there be specific initiatives to support street outreach, mentoring drop-in centers, and operational support for male servicing outreach organizations?”

>>Chris Holloway: That’s a very good question and I will say directly that there’s no specific initiative on the opportunity announcement to support male serving outreach organizations, however all of our programs do require that an applicant identity the population that they will serve and justify their structure that the and organization that is applying for the funds why that structure is an appropriate and practical structure to meet the needs of the population that is being targeted. So if it is a male serving organization in a community that has the ability to sufficiently identify a population of youth at need and there is strong rationale for why that male serving organization should receive the grant funds then certainly that will be taken into consideration for the grant, however there are no special or target organizations that we intend to focus with any of the funding opportunity announcements in 2016.

>>Katherine Chon: Thank you Chris. And the final question in this topical area, “Will there be funding for specialized training with the survivors to cope with their trauma in a safe environment, at their own place?”

>>Rosie Gomez:  So in regards this question, I would answer that the center for states will continue to provide technical assistance to the states system to best assist them and how they assist survivors that they’ve processed through their trauma. So again we are continuing to see what states need and I think this will be a need that they will be asking for more technical assistance on.

>>Chris Holloway: I’ll just offer that through funding to our Runaway and Homeless Youth Technical Assistance Center, RHYTAC is what it is commonly referred to over the past 2 years we have provided specific funding to RHYTAC to develop training resources to RHYTAC to develop training resources for all of our Runaway and Homeless Youth programs, not only in the identification and intervention services but also finding ways to work appropriately with survivors. That provision should be, and for all of our programs is required to be trauma-informed and victim-centered. In addition to that, the domestic victim of human trafficking programs that we funded in 2014, 2015, and this year do have victim-centered focus, trauma-informed and services are a key element. We recognize that assisting survivors, making decisions that are based on their safety and cognate of the trauma they have faced are critical components of any provision of care for those programs that we fund.

>>Katherine Chon: So now we are going onto our second theme of questions that came in through the registration process and this set of questions is all around eligibility for funding. So the first question, “Who is eligible for funding and what is the application process?” and Chris we’ll start with you.

>>Chris Holloway: Eligibility for all of the Family and Youth Services Bureau programs under the Runaway and Homeless Youth program are spelled out in our funding opportunity announcements, however generally it is non-profit organizations, community based organization, non-governmental organizations, and really is quite a broad spectrum of organizations that are eligible to apply and depending on the announcement, some local governments and local government service organizations are eligible but I would encourage interested applicants to look up the funding opportunity announcements that spell out more detail like who’s eligible to apply for the funding.

>>Rosie Gomez: I would say the same for the Children’s Bureau. So with the new grants that are going to be published soon, we were very intentional that we wanted to open it up beyond child welfare agencies that might be able to help. So you can see on the forecast now, but once the full funding opportunity announcement becomes available, you will see the list. As far as the application process goes, same thing. So there’s a due date, applications provide to that, we provide a set time for them to reply, the applications are peer reviewed, and then we make awards based on the highest scoring applications.

>>Katherine Chon: The second question on this topic, “Are there any funding opportunities specific to federally qualified health centers?”

>>So to the extent to which federally qualified health centers are one of the eligible entities that are listed in specific funding opportunity announcements, they are certainly welcome to apply. From a broader perspective, HHS has a Task Force to prevent and end human trafficking and HRSA which is the HHS division that funds these federally qualified health centers is a partner member on that task force and there are many community health centers and programs that are already serving victims of trafficking. Mainly one of the networks, the Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organization has been actively engaged in anti-trafficking initiatives and that’s one of many examples of how federally qualified health centers have been engaged. We encourage service providers to certainly reach out to the health care providers in your local communities. 

>>The next question in this topic is “Can grants of smaller magnitude be offered for smaller research projects?”

>>If you look at the budget request for fy17, there are references to strengthen data around evaluation of grant programs, and in regards to standalone research projects, the Administration for Children and Families currently does not have specific funding for trafficking related research outside of what was proposed in the fy16 budget and since we’re talking about fy17, there are data collection and evaluation efforts that are listed in the budget, but any funding for those projects would be subject to the availability of federal funds.

>>The next question on here is specifically from the Memphis area, experiencing increase in human trafficking, “How can an agency get more involved in supporting and working with this population?” and I think this can be applicable to any local community.

>>Chris Holloway: Interestingly enough, the Regional Administrator’s office for region 4, a couple of years ago held a special meeting in the Memphis area to talk about this specific topic. There is clearly a very active task force and group of service organizations involved to address the issues of human trafficking in the Memphis area. I would certainly encourage the individual who asked this question to reach out to the local runaway and homeless youth program, or local law enforcement/Memphis Police to determine who the principal agencies are that are running the task force efforts if you have an interest in getting involved.
Rosie Gomez: I would also encourage agencies to task forces and see who’s on the group. The other thing is, all states are responsible for implementing provisions in the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families legislation so any of the 4B and 4E state agencies which are the child welfare agencies would probably be looking to partner with outside agencies to help with their efforts.

>>Katherine Chon: The other response I will provide for Memphis or any local communities looking to get engaged on working with this population, just reach out to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center. There are a number of referrals that they can provide for you and connections to local providers, task forces, and other resources. The website for that is www.traffickingresourcecenter.org and the phone number is 1-888-373-7888.

>>Going on to our next question on this topic, “When you do expect the domestic victims trafficking fund authorized by the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act will be utilized for victim services?”

>>So this is a fund that is implemented by our colleagues at the Department of Justice and we are working closely with them as it’s laid out in the Federal Legislation. Stakeholders and participants on this call should be hearing shortly in terms of any public announcements of how the funds will be executed in its first year.

>>The next question in this topic, “How do we apply for funding for healthy family curriculums that we run in New York City and Maine?”

>>Rosie Gomez: So I’d late to take the opportunity to tell you all about the community based child abuse prevention program or CBCAPP if you haven’t heard about it. So it’s a formula grant program in which funding is given to all 50 states including Puerto Rico for child abuse prevention efforts and this can including human trafficking prevention efforts if the state says in their needs assessment that they do and the purpose of the program is to support community based efforts, to develop, operate, expand, and coordinate initiatives to prevent child abuse and neglect and also to caution understanding and knowledge of diverse populations. So, every year the governor of the state designates a state mediation speech to receive the funding and then lead the prevention effort in the state and the lead agencies differ depending on the state, so some may be the state child welfare agencies, some may be the state health department, the children’s trust fund, or the non-profit agencies. And because it is a formula grant program, the funding that the agencies receive differ mostly based on the number of children under the age of 18, so smaller populated states may receive around $200,000 while larger populated states received closer to $2.5 million and other states are in between, so not all states receive the same amount of money. But I bring this up because, for Maine or New York, you can always reach out to your CBCAPP state lead and see if they are providing any funding opportunities because they usually give small sub-grants. So if you go on the www.friendsNRC.org website or you just google “community based child abuse prevention”, there’s a map and you can view who your state lead agency is. So for example, in New York, the state lead agency for CBCAPP is the New York Office of Children and Family Services. I just wanted to provide that as a possible opportunity or at least a connection to a partnership.

>>Katherine Chon:  And the final question in this topical area, “What is the vehicle by which states can garnish funding?”

>>Rosie Gomez: So I think the one vehicle is to apply for any of the discretionary programs that we have available. I know I mentioned one and Chris mentioned it to you, so again if we publish the funding opportunity announcement, you will have an opportunity to apply if you are eligible, then we will fund certain grants.

>>Katherine Chon: So the third schematic set of questions is around training and collaboration. So the first question, “What/If any training will be available and/or possibly mandatory for ACF grantees, for example the BCS grantee regarding SAMHSA, strategic prevention frameworks training?” 

>>That’s very specific and technical, but just in case the questioner is on the line, Rosie do you have any response to that?

>>Rosie Gomez: So in regards to the Children’s Bureau grants, we are not requiring that any of them be training in any specific framework such as the SAMHSA strategic prevention framework. We do have annual meetings that the grantees have to come to where we provide in these meetings, opportunities for peer sharing and mutual beneficial resources, but we don’t have anything that’s mandatory.

>>Katherine Chon: And the final question under this topic is, “How can non-profits collaborate better through these initiatives given how trafficking victims cross state lines and require multi-faceted services to address the issue, is there a funding for coordination?”

>>Chris Holloway: To answer this question as directly as I can, funding that was made available the last 2 years through the Family and Youth Services Bureau specific to domestic victims of human trafficking did require collaboration and coordination through multi-service agencies. We have the expectation that the new funding available in 2016 will continue to reflect that mandate. Realty is that no one organization can do this alone and it’s in the best interest of all service providers, law enforcement, and community leaders to develop a collaborative approach that identifies strengths of each of the partners in that collaboration and allows the community to make decisions on need and not necessarily where the money is. Even if money is not available and I know of a couple of very good examples where the community came together, did an analysis of the problem independent of any actual money, but made decisions based on their young people and victims who came into the system and the decisions were made whether to move them through the system or provide services based on what was in the best interest – not responding to a specific funding opportunity announcement or solicitation. So, certainly there are minimal opportunities, whether they come from ACF funds or trafficking funds that come out of the Department of Justice, but I think all of us who have worked in this field for any period of time would strongly encourage any community to build that collaborative response, independent of dollars following behind it.

>>Rosie Gomez: I think that Chris did a great job of answering that, so exactly what I would have said as well.

>>Katherine Chon: So we had a final category, a miscellaneous category which three pre-submitted questions. The first one is, “How is the faith community assisting in this area?”

>>So, faith-based and other community-based organizations are grantees of many ACF programs serving victims of human trafficking and those grants may be for providing comprehensive case management services, training & technical assistance, public outreach training and then there are many other non-grantee based and community based organizations that are partnering with federally funded programs on task forces and coalitions. So they are an active part of the anti-trafficking field.

>>The second question in this category is, “Will there be support for evidence-based curriculums that can be used as preventative tools to middle and high school students?”

>>Rosie Gomez: So one of the ways that there could be some support is through our upcoming grant announcement. I think that once the full opportunity announcement is available, this is one way to help build the response to trafficking within the child welfare population.

>>Chris Holloway: For the domestic victims programs and the runaway homeless youth programs, there’s no specific support that’s been set aside for the development of evidence-based curriculums, however for many of you who are not aware of national runaway safe line, it’s our national human trafficking hotline but specific runaway homeless youth populations and they often cross over. We receive calls from individuals who are experience trafficking - the two systems talk to each other regularly. I raise that because the national runaway safe line did this last year revise its “Let’s talk runaway prevention” curriculum. Part of that update included a specific module geared towards middle school and high school aged youth around trafficking prevention. Not necessarily evidence-based per se, but given that there’s not a lot out in the greater field that is evidence-based around trafficking prevention, this is a good start and it’s a free curriculum. The national runaway safe line is in the process of announcing soon, the curriculum in Spanish as well. I would encourage you that if you are interested in a curriculum that has a prevention aspect, then go to national runaway safe line and look up “Let’s Talk”.

>>Katherine Chon: And from a broader HHS perspective, the HHS Task Force to prevent and end human trafficking recognizes that prevention is a key element of anti-trafficking responses and that’s why it’s written into the name of the task force. And so, what we are doing department-wide is seeing how we can integrate human trafficking and anti-trafficking initiatives into other existing prevention strategies and programs & initiatives across the department as an effort to address this problem in a comprehensive way.

>>The final pre-submitted question in this final topic, “Is there any expectation that this funding will continue in future budgets?”

>>So any future grant funding is subject to the availability at federal funds and we can keep it at that right now. 

>>Emily at this point, we have concluded our question and answers for the pre-submitted questions and we’ll be able to open up the line for additional questions the participants may have.

>>Question and Answer Portion:

>>Moderator: If you would like to ask a question at this time, please press * then 1. You will be prompted to record your first and last name and to withdraw your question please press * then 2.

>>Dominique Roe-Sepowitz: Hi there, I have a specific question about a single point of contact for funding for states. We are having a tough time in Arizona collecting accurate data on the prevalence of our problem as well as finding appropriate services for kids who maybe don’t get into systems. Our child protective services don’t take them as a client because it’s not a parent or a guardian and law enforcement won’t speak to them. So we are having about 80% of the people we think are being trafficked are sort of falling between the systems that provide services. It’s been very difficult to try to find a way to connect them to services as well as account for them. So is there any conversation? I know there are about 8 states you have currently that have some sort of single point of contact that’s different from the Polaris hotline that it’s a sort of post identification: how do I get this kid services, what are they eligible for, who in your community is trained (victim-centered, trauma-focused)? How do we do that?

>>Chris Holloway: So, Dominique, this is Chris, and I’ll jump in to start.  Tumbleweed in Phoenix…

>>Dominique Roe-Sepowitz: Yes, we are partners with them..

>>Chris Holloway: Ok, so then you’ve answered..

>>Dominique Roe-Sepowitz: Well they are not a single point of contact.  They are a great agency that does wonderful things and they are one provider in our state and we work very very closely with them but people can’t call them and say “I have a kid on my caseload who just got out of detention.  He’s been trafficked, where can we get services for him?”  That is not what they are for and they can’t, they don’t have that capacity and they don’t have that knowledge.   

>>Chris Holloway: Well I can say that as part of their domestic victims program funding, they are in fact supposed to be a coordinating case management epicenter in Phoenix and Tucson and so… 

>>Dominique Rosepelous: They are indeed doing that but these are kids who are eligible for their services so think about other kids who aren’t homeless, who aren’t at risk for homelessness, who are identified at a school or a detention program or some other program or on probation, that wouldn’t be eligible for them.   So Tumbleweed serves about, and our Family Services serve about 5% of the young people who are eligible.  So I’m thinking that our governor’s office or someone in our community needs to have a place where people can call and get those services.   I’m hoping that there is some sort of funding that comes for each state as an opportunity to create that single point of contact that can do some of the data collection that we are doing such a bad job at and that also helps find connectivity to those services.  Is that something that something that’s in any of the grants that you already identified that isn’t currently being provided?

>>Katherine Chon: Dominique, on the data collection effort, you’ll see in the FY17 budget, as it was in the FY16, there are many references to strengthening data collection on human trafficking.  We are finding from a federal perspective that most states do not have a single point of contact when it comes to data collection.  There are multiple systems of care that are collecting data and it is a challenge that we are seeing nationally.  In regards to a single point of contact for connection to services, it really is up to the state/local/county level to figure out what that on-the-ground mechanism of protocols, procedures, and referral mechanisms will be.  From a funding perspective, FYSB, Children’s Bureau, OTIP grant opportunities, all reference the importance of coordination and collaboration.   Then it is up to the grantees to then use it however they will locally.  I’m not sure beyond that.  We can’t really dictate what happens at a state or local level but we would encourage those themes to be implemented and if that is the need in Arizona, whether it is with the governor’s office or at a county level or broader regional level, that really would be up to the local level.  

>>Jan Miller: Yes, we were wondering, we service women, trafficking, and women who are in trouble and are on drugs.  Is there anything in these documentations or funding for those types of women?  (Off the streets?)

>>Katherine Chon:  So funding for services to adult women victims of trafficking with substance abuse?

>>Jan Miller:  Mostly, yes.

>>Katherine Chon:  I will refer that to Chris in terms of, I don’t know if there is much you would be able to say in terms of upcoming funding?

>>Chris Holloway:  I think all that I can offer is the  domestic victims of human trafficking program that was funded in 14, 15, and will again be funded in 16, generally has flexibility for interested organizations to provide for substance abuse or domestic violence, or runaway and homeless youth.  Really the focus in the past and will be going forward is to move beyond traditional human trafficking epicenter and  that program that may be the traditional epicenter of trafficking or anti trafficking efforts and start to include those certainly overlapping advocacy and service-based organizations like sexual assault, like substance abuse, like domestic violence.  So I will offer to be on the lookout for that, I can’t give a lot of specificity at this time because we are still in the development phase of that announcement.  But staying consistent with what we have put out in the past two years that flexibility is certainly there.

>>Jan Miller:  Where would we look?  Where would we be on the lookout?

>>Chris Holloway: Sure so, the funding opportunity announcement should be coming out in mid- to late-April so if you go to ACF funding,  Administration for Children and Families there’s an option there to identify up and coming funding opportunity announcements.  Or you can also go to grants.gov and type in domestic trafficking and it will alert you to any announcements that are due to come out or are currently out on the street related to human trafficking funding.

>>Katherine Chon:  And you may want to do a broader search as well whether it’s in the funding forecast or grants.gov, any opportunities under the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration or the Health Resources Services Administration, there are other parts of HHS that may not be specifically funding trafficking-only services but do address health care needs and substance abuse and mental health needs.  So please look out at the broader HHS funding landscape as well.  

>>Chris Holloway:  One last piece on this topic, often we don’t do an adequate job of discussing the resources that are available across the federal government and I know each state is different on this particular topic but victim compensation systems, money that comes through from the Office for Victims of Crime at the Department of Justice, there’s quite a bit of money that goes to state victim compensation and assistance offices that can be used to support trafficking victims if they have been identified as victims.  Recently, a lot of states have changed their victim comp and assistance regulations to allow more broadly for trafficking victims to access those resources so I would encourage anybody on the line to take a look at those resources as an option.  

>>Jan Miller: Thank you.

>>Perla Flores:   Yes, good afternoon, my question is kind of two-fold and the first piece is around quality assurance because I heard during the introduction of the call there was a comment that the service providers that are funded to provide support to commercially sexually exploited children in particular, have to work with organizations that are trauma-informed and victim-centered but are there going to be guidelines that are established to really measure whether or not an organization is trauma-informed and victim-centered?  And the second piece is what type of importance is going to be given to the issue around confidentiality so that we’re not connecting survivors to individuals that cannot keep communication confidential between the two of them?

>>Chris Holloway:  So I’ll address the first part of the question.  All of the runaway and homeless youth programs that the Family and Youth Services Bureau funds are required to have a milieu that is trauma-informed and victim-centered. Obviously, they don’t fund or provide direct services across the spectrum of service needs, so they’re not medical or mental health providers, they are not necessarily providing the job training or many of the other counseling services that young victim may need but the milieu that they exist in, that basic center shelter or that transitional living shelter does have to be trauma-informed and victim-centered.  So the hope would be that the partner organizations that they work with also use those approaches in providing services but the shelters themselves are required to use the trauma-informed approach.  

>>Perla Flores:   I think the challenge that has come up recently is that there are different interpretations of what trauma-informed and victim-centered mean so we need to have a collective, one definition that everybody can agree upon.  There are a lot of organizations that claim to have different definitions of what that means and that could be detrimental to the survivors that we are working with.  We need language that specifies “this is what trauma-informed means; this is what victim-centered means.” 

>>Katherine Chon:  So we do, we meaning the federal interagency body, in the Federal Strategic Action Plan on Services to Victims of Trafficking in the United States, includes the principles around trauma-informed and victim-centered and those terms are defined in that particular plan but your comment is helpful to inform what more the Administration for Children and Families can do to have some uniform definitions that we can share among programs and grantees.  So thank you for that.

>>Kelly Cruise:  Thank you.  I’m curious about becoming a grantee.  Would an organization be required to work with all types of human trafficking victims: labor and sex trafficking for example?

>>Rosie Gomez:  This is Rosie Gomez and I can answer that.  For the nine grantees that we funded back in 2014, we left it open so they could serve labor and sex trafficking victims and some states do.  So one of the grantees that we funded is in California they are looking at the labor trafficking piece of that.  And once the full funding opportunity announcement comes out for this next grant I think that you’ll see that there is a possibility for that as well. 

>>Chris Holloway:  For the domestic victims of human trafficking funding put out in 2014 and again in 2015:  We do note the distinction between sex and labor trafficking victims and a requirement was that the program had to have the capacity to address the needs of all victims or at a minimum had to have an ability to make referrals for a specific subset of victims.  So the example I used with Dominique who just asked question a few minutes ago, we mentioned Tumbleweed.  Tumbleweed is traditionally a runaway and homeless youth program based in Phoenix.  But part of the requirements for the domestic victims of human trafficking funding they received was that they had to have the capacity to make referrals for adult victims both labor and sex trafficking victims regardless of whether or not they themselves would be providing direct services to those victims.   I know that that will stay consistent in the upcoming funding opportunity announcement for 2016.

>>Katherine Chon:  From the OTIP perspective, if you look at the FY17 budget narrative, it addresses services for victims of all forms of trafficking and then in regards to the specific case management grantee serving foreign victims, it is very similar to what Chris just said, they can be serving sex trafficking, labor trafficking, and those that have experienced both types of trafficking and then have a referral mechanism in place if they come across domestic victims of trafficking, how they would connect that person to services.

>>I think we have time for one more question if there are any other questions.  

>>Alright, well, thank you all for participating on this call. As mentioned earlier, it is recorded so we will post this on our website and send around a link to all registered participants in case you had any