Phase 1: Prevention education curriculum in schools

Objective: To have one consistent curriculum in all schools in the locality so all students are educated and safeguarded equally. This will also reduce the potential expense without additional customization by an education provider.

The Rotary Club should vet the provider and their curriculum’s effectiveness in reaching students in a language they will understand and be compelled to engage.

The curriculum is best delivered by a regular teacher as it proves more effective than a one-off guest speaker and/or video which only allows for those in attendance that one day to hear.

• This is especially important because the content can be startling, so the teacher needs to be able to deal with fight or flight reactions

• A regular teacher is also with the students for the entire semester and in the school, so they are more likely to cue in to signs of trafficking and will have a relationship to address the student if suspected as a possible victim

Hold an “Education Summit” inviting all public, private schools and higher education (university and/or community college) in the locality to meet the preferred provider, review curriculum, discuss roadblocks and how to overcome them.

• Perceived roadblocks will likely be:

  • District Time – Make it easy on the schools, stakeholders can do their homework and recommend a specific curriculum to take the pressure off of the schools 

  • Classroom Time – recommend partnering with an educational curriculum that ties directly to one or more educational standards so it finds a place in the school (typically in Health, Social Sciences or Family Life Education)

  • Financial – offer for the Club to partner with schools and curriculum provider to write grants and/or fundraise to cover the cost

  • Age Appropriateness – some schools are concerned about teaching this anti-trafficking content to younger students; however data shows that the average age of a trafficker approaching a potential victim is 12 years old. That means traffickers are approaching much younger students, as well as older students to get to that average. The earlier it is addressed, the more protected your community will be. Age appropriate curriculum which addresses some of the periphery issues that surround trafficking such as bullying, healthy relationships, mental health, appropriate online contact, drug abuse and more starting in elementary school gives the building blocks necessary to protect communities.

  • Perceived Parental Pushback – gain parental buy-in with a second round of Community Conversations with an invitation from the Principal and PTA/ PTO to attend and gain an understanding of how vulnerable students are and how to protect them through education

• Use stakeholder and Rotary influence in the community with media and personal conversations to build consensus and community support for the curriculum

Phase 2: Community education partnerships

Objective: To safeguard the community by increasing industry-specific training, leveraging NGO partnerships to provide the training and education for each group so their entire staff is trained.

Educate community members through one-day identification and response training (could be offered multiple times throughout the community)

• Health care (ER, mental health providers, pregnancy centers, OB/ GYN, addiction centers)

• Fire & Rescue

• Law Enforcement

• Prosecutor’s office

• Department of Social Services

• Places of worship

• NGOs and community with youth in their mission such as youth service organizations, sports leagues, etc.

• Hotel/ motel staff

• Trades industries (plumbing, electrical, cabling, heating/ air-conditioning, etc.)

• Transportation (Bus, Train, Airports, Ferry, Shipping Port, etc.)

Create “Safe Zones” where youth can get help free of judgment with confidence that employees and staff within those facilities will understand what they are talking about and know how to quickly get help.

• Hospitals

• Schools

• Recreational centers

• Community centers

• Places of worship

• Fire departments

• Hotels

• Malls / shopping centers

• Transportation Hubs

Rotary Clubs can write grants and fundraise to cover the costs of these types of trainings if there is a shortfall.

RAGAS does not endorse specific service providers: that choice falls on the local Rotary club in the context of its goals, local context, and the community needs. This section describes a range of possible organisations who claim to support CAPE programs.

Service providers whose primary focus is the USA

Service providers *outside* the USA - Note that some of these organizations also provide services within the USA even though they are based outside the USA.

Updating service provider information

If you represent a service provider that Rotary clubs could draw on for their community awareness and/or prevention education programs, you can request that we add your organization to the list or update existing details by filling in this online form.

National

1. US Department of Education provides plenty of relevant information

   • Their National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE) has detailed guides on school-based awareness and prevention programs.

2. The Blue Campaign is a Department of Homeland Security initiative to educate the public, law enforcement, and other industry partners to recognize the indicators of human trafficking, and how to appropriately respond to possible cases. 

By State

1. Georgia

   • The Statewide Human Trafficking Task Force, led by the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, published The Child Sexual Abuse, Exploitation & Trafficking Prevention Technical Assistance Resource Guide (TARG) to guide schools and organizations on educating youth. The guide lists a dozen possible educational programs.

   • If the link above does not work, search through the web site of the Georgia Center for Child Advocacy.

2. Texas: see the Texas Education Agency (TEA) page on Human Trafficking of School-aged Children

3. Florida Department of Education, as part of their Healthy Schools focus

4. Iowa Office to Combat Human Trafficking

5. Colorado Human Trafficking Council - under the Colorado Department of Public Safety, Division of Criminal Justice, and the Office for Victims Programs

There is no way RAGAS can list or evaluate all the prevention education materials available. So the following is just a list of suggestions of free materials to help you get started.

1. National Educators to Stop Trafficking (NEST) seeks to empower and equip youth in America with the knowledge and skills to stand up against sex trafficking. Although they do not provide educational services themselves, they maintain a catalog of educational resources and organizations in the USA that includes summaries of curriculum and curriculum comparison charts.

2. The US National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments has resources to introduce educators to human trafficking prevention in schools

3. A set of three lesson plans from Generation Global introduces the core ideas of human trafficking for ages 13-17

4. The Brave Series is a set of four books for teenage girls, focussed on character development and leading to protection from pornography, sexual abuse and sex trafficking. There is a version drawing on Christian faith and another with no faith presumptions. They are in the process of developing a similar series for teenage boys.

5. The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) maintains a list of abuse prevention education materials, especially: curriculum guidelines.