Preventing and Responding to Human Trafficking

Today is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. Many people aren’t aware that human trafficking is a problem in the U.S. That’s why we love Freedom Network USA and its members who work tirelessly to end human trafficking and ensure that survivors have access to supportive services.

Get to know

The Issue

Every year, millions of people are trafficked and forced to work against their will, including within the United States.  Human trafficking includes child labor, child marriage, child trafficking, domestic servitude, forced labor, labor trafficking, and sex trafficking.

Human trafficking doesn’t often look like the sensationalized stories of sex slaves popularized by the media, tv shows, and movies.  It rarely involves kidnapping.  And a large portion of trafficked people are forced to work in industries such as agriculture, construction, domestic work, hospitality, and manufacturing.  People of all ages, nationalities, and gender identities are trafficked. 

As a result of sensationalized stereotypes that focus on sex trafficking, we don’t often hear about other forms of human trafficking.  These real cases include the farmworkers growing and picking our food,  immigrant women providing house cleaning and childcare services, and restaurant workers forced to work for little-to-no pay.  

When we don’t hear about these stories, the people who find themselves in these situations may not identify themselves as victims of human trafficking or know how to seek help.  It also means that the criminal justice system is less equipped to handle their cases, prevention efforts don’t always get to the root cause of what makes people vulnerable to trafficking, and funding for services to prevent and respond to these forms of trafficking don’t always get the same priority as sex trafficking.  

A comprehensive focus on preventing and responding to all forms of human trafficking is necessary.

That’s where Freedom Network USA comes in.

Who is Freedom Network USA?

Freedom Network USA is a national coalition of trafficking survivors, legal and social services providers, researchers, advocacy organizations, and expert consultants. It is committed to creating an anti-trafficking movement that supports all survivors.  And it promotes effective prevention efforts to end human trafficking in the United States. 

It was formed in 2001 when a handful of organizations from across the country — some of the first to work on the issue — came together to figure out how to better support survivors’ access to justice, safety, and opportunity.  At the time, it was particularly focused on how to support survivors who were participating in prosecution cases against their traffickers and who were often retraumatized by the criminal justice system. 

Today, Freedom Network USA has almost 80 members from 26 states.  Its work is shaped by members’ wide experience and diverse expertise.  Members work with people who have been trafficked into all types of work situations across rural and urban America.  They provide direct services to survivors, research the most effective prevention and response efforts, address root causes to prevent human trafficking, and advocate for long-term systems change to end human trafficking.

When talking about human trafficking, you’ll often hear the terms “victim” and “survivor.”  Neither word is better or worse, and no term adequately identifies the experiences of every person who has been trafficked.  We tend to use survivor to affirm the ability of people to recover and heal from traumatic events.

What Freedom Network USA does

Lift up the voices and vision of survivors

Survivors of violence, including survivors of human trafficking, are rarely seen as active participants in shaping the policies and programs created to support them.  Historically, when survivors were included, it was usually a token gesture.  They were often asked to share their trauma story to pull at an audience’s heartstrings but rarely asked to provide input into concrete policy and program decisions.

Freedom Network USA’s approach has always been rooted in the experience of survivors and respect for their individual agency.  It believes the anti-trafficking movement is strongest when survivors have a seat at the leadership table.  And that survivors’ voices must be represented when fighting for effective and just policies and legislation.  That’s why Freedom Network USA has a survivor leadership program.  The program provides training and one-on-one support to explore diverse ways for survivors to participate in the movement, cultivate survivors’ leadership and professional advocacy skills, and offer peer support from seasoned survivor leaders. 

Influence policy to be more survivor-centered

Laws and policies, even those meant to protect survivors, often have unintended consequences.  Anti-immigrant sentiments can weaken immigration protections for people from other countries trafficked into the United States, including access to housing and healthcare benefits.  A focus on sex trafficking can lead to unequal resource distribution.  A gag rule can prevent providers who access federal funding from talking to trafficking survivors who have been raped about the option of abortion. 

Because Freedom Network USA is comprised of both survivors of trafficking and the people who deliver services to them, it knows how policies, laws, and programs affect survivors’ everyday lives.  Freedom Network USA uses this knowledge to advocate for comprehensive services, effective prevention efforts, responsive federal programs, and survivor-centered laws that combat all forms of human trafficking and protect the rights and dignity of survivors while doing so. 

Build collective capacity to end human trafficking

The Freedom Network Training Institute (FNTI) is the go-to resource for professionals working in the anti-trafficking movement. Freedom Network USA provides training and technical assistance to improve the prevention of and response to human trafficking across a range of sectors and settings. The combined expertise of the network’s members allows it to share best practices and model the most innovative programs. 

Members are the cornerstone of Freedom Network USA – their collective expertise builds the framework that drives Freedom Network USA’s work.  In turn, the network provides various opportunities to help members and allies strengthen their work.  It convenes and supports members and allies to build an anti-trafficking movement grounded in survivors’ experience and rooted in a human-rights-based approach. 

Why we love Freedom Network USA

It focuses on all forms of human trafficking

Human trafficking is often framed as a crime that only impacts women and girls who are forced into prostitution.  We rarely hear about people being forced to work against their will in homes, factories, and farms across the U.S.  This results in solutions that leave out many who need help.  Freedom Network USA helps shine a light on all types of trafficking and to make sure that all survivors have access to the same types of support. 

It does not conflate sex work with sex trafficking

Freedom Network USA supports sex workers, and works in allyship with them, instead of judging or stigmatizing them.  It recognizes that people get involved in sex work by choice, circumstance, or coercion.  It understands that the best way to prevent sex trafficking is to strengthen protections for sex workers by choice, create alternatives for sex workers by circumstance, and eliminate forced labor which leads to sex work by coercion (aka sex trafficking). 

It takes a human-rights based approach

Human trafficking violates an individual’s basic rights and personal freedom.  Successful approaches to address trafficking must protect all the rights of survivors and respect their individual agency.  That means respecting the rights of survivors who decide to return to sex work after safely exiting a trafficking situation.  It also means that law enforcement should not coerce survivors into cooperating in investigations and prosecutions against traffickers in order to receive immigration benefits or other protections (currently, they must).  

Approaches without a rights-based focus may overlook certain populations who experience trafficking.  Further, they may use prevention strategies that don’t get to the root of what makes people vulnerable or may not respect the individual agency of survivors.  Since its inception, Freedom Network USA has focused on policy solutions and services that support every survivor of trafficking as a whole person.

How you can help Freedom Network USA

Learn more

Visit FreedomNetworkUSA.org

Donate

Your donation makes it possible for Freedom Network USA to train professionals across the country, advocate for effective and just policies and legislation, strengthen survivor leadership, and support rights-based practitioners and advocates.  Donate today.

Follow and Amplify

Follow @FreedomNetworkUSA on Facebook and Instagram, and @FreedomNetUSA on Twitter.  Sign up for their newsletter to stay up-to-date on anti-trafficking efforts in the U.S.  Become an ambassador by using your voice or your platform to spread awareness and share their calls to action.  Encourage your friends and family to join you.

Take Action

• Read our End Human Trafficking Guide for concrete actions you can take to help end human trafficking.

• Raise awareness about all forms of human trafficking, learn the signs of trafficking, and what to do if you suspect someone is being trafficked.

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Originally published January 11, 2022.

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