Call for Applications: Improving Outcomes for Child and Youth Victims of Human Trafficking in the US

The goal of the program is to improve responses for child and youth victims of trafficking with a focus on collaboration at the statewide or Tribal jurisdiction level to create effective change across systems. Recognizing that each jurisdiction is unique, applicants should identify the state or Tribe’s greatest barriers to identifying and assisting child and youth victims of sex and labor trafficking and/or investigating and prosecuting these trafficking cases, and propose a program to systematically address those barriers.

An applicant should address all the objectives listed in the Goals, Objectives, Deliverables and Timeline web-based form. All objectives should include how the project will respond to both sex and labor trafficking. This includes the following:

• Develop and implement a state or Tribal jurisdiction-wide strategy to combat the greatest challenges in addressing child and youth sex and labor trafficking within the state or Tribe.
• Develop protocols and procedures to make sure child and youth victims receive appropriate services, including developmentally and age-appropriate and culturally specific referrals and/or services in their own language or with access to interpretation and translation, and strengthening data collection across multiple systems that work with and provide services to youth.
• Develop a unified strategy to provide training to professionals throughout the jurisdiction, including, but not limited to, law enforcement officers, first responders such as hospital workers or paramedics, victim service providers, mental health care professionals, educators, child welfare or social workers, juvenile justice personnel, prosecutors, and other court personnel.
• Fill gaps in services and coordinate responses in existing anti-trafficking and youth-serving efforts, including those related to victim assistance, law enforcement, child welfare, runaway and homeless youth, and juvenile justice, among others. Using online directories available from OVC and the Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP), applicants should determine if there is an existing federally funded trafficking victim service provider within their jurisdiction, and work to make sure that an application under this program does not duplicate existing services currently funded by OVC or OTIP.
• Collect data and engage in performance measurement activities to determine if the program is meeting its stated goals and objectives (e.g., if there has been improved collaboration among systems).

Priority Areas

The Department of Justice is committed to advancing work that promotes civil rights and racial equity, increases access to justice, supports crime victims and individuals impacted by the justice system, strengthens community safety and protects the public from crime and evolving threats, and builds trust between law enforcement and the community.

• Applications that propose project(s) that are designed to promote racial equity and the removal of barriers to access and opportunity for communities that have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by inequality.
  • To receive this consideration, the applicant must describe how the proposed project(s) will address potential racial inequities and contribute to greater access to services and opportunities for communities that have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by inequality, and identify how the project design and implementation will specifically incorporate the input or participation of those communities and populations disproportionately impacted by crime, violence, and the criminal justice system overall.
• Applicants that demonstrate that their capabilities and competencies for implementing their proposed project(s) are enhanced because they (or at least one proposed subrecipient that will receive at least 40% of the requested award funding, as demonstrated in the Budget Web-Based Form) identify as a culturally specific organization.
  • To receive this additional priority consideration, applicants must describe how being a culturally specific organization (or funding the culturally specific subrecipient organization(s)) will enhance their ability to implement the proposed project(s) and should also specify which populations are intended or expected to be served or to have their needs addressed under the proposed project(s).