(FY20)

Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services Nebraska Support for Youth Victims of Human Trafficking

Nebraska’s Support for Youth Victims of Human Trafficking project, carried out by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services in partnership with Nebraska Child and Family Foundation, aims to design and implement a statewide collaborative, cross-agency response to child and youth human trafficking. Leveraging strategies used in Nebraska’s Connected Youth Initiative, the project seeks to support survivors of human trafficking who are unconnected or cut off from family, community, and supportive resources. This project also coordinates with additional projects in the state addressing the needs of children and youth. For instance, Project Everlast/The Bridge works to provide access to support in places where individuals already have trusted relationships to identify needs and concerns early on before a young person enters the child welfare or juvenile justice systems. Working together, these projects among others routinely coordinate and strategize on how to improve responses to youth. Additional coordination occurs on an action team consisting of key leaders across the state working to develop statewide model protocols and recommendations for communities, task forces, MDTs, and providers to assure that all are equipped to respond appropriately and consistently to young people experiencing trafficking. The action team membership consists of individuals from law enforcement, prosecution, health, child welfare, social services, and individuals with lived experience. Additionally, the project will build upon existing resources and provide new investment in statewide service providers and tribal/Native communities to provide trauma- informed and developmentally, culturally, and linguistically appropriate services for child and youth victims of sex and labor trafficking up to age 24 in every Nebraska county. One strategy the project uses to improve services is to support the development of local MDTs focused on the sex and labor trafficking of minors. Simultaneously, the project will work to improve identification through expanding the membership of organizations using a screening system called PAVE, Providing Avenues for Victim Empowerment, to create a coordinated, trauma informed, statewide response through screening.