Human

Trafficking

Prevention

Strategies for Runaway and Homeless Youth Settings 

ISSUE BRIEF

NOVEMBER 2020
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Executive Summary

This Issue Brief explores strategies to integrate human trafficking (HT) prevention into Runaway 

and Homeless Youth (RHY) programs. These strategies emphasize the vital role that RHY 

programs can play in the prevention of sex and labor trafficking among runaway and homeless 

youth. It also highlights the importance of integrating public health, trauma-informed, and 

positive youth development principles in the development and implementation of HT prevention 

interventions. 

Key highlights of this Issue Brief include: 

• Integrating sex and labor trafficking prevention strategies based on the unique

experiences, needs, and strengths of RHY.

• Building local capacity in HT prevention efforts by educating community stakeholders on

the intersection of HT, runaway incidents, and youth homelessness.

• Using existing programmatic frameworks to incorporate HT prevention components into

RHY settings.

• Addressing the root causes and social conditions in which RHY become vulnerable to

exploitation, violence, and HT.
Issue Brief: Human Trafficking Prevention – Strategies for Runaway and Homeless Youth Settings

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Introduction

I. Human Trafficking Among Runaway and Homeless Youth

Human trafficking victimization can happen to anyone — 

persons of any race, age, gender, socioeconomic 

background, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, or 

nationality. However, some people are more vulnerable to 

trafficking than others. While data are lacking on the 

prevalence of trafficking in the U.S. population in general, 

research suggests that runaway and homeless youth (RHY) 

populations are at a particularly high risk of becoming 

trafficking victims.1 In two separate studies, nearly all 

trafficked youth surveyed had experienced homelessness 

or significant housing instability, and their exploitation 

occurred while they were homeless.2 One recent study 

found that as many as 20% of sheltered homeless youth 

had experienced trafficking victimization in their lifetimes.3

RHY are particularly vulnerable to trafficking because they 

often lack stable incomes, secure housing, and the strong 

support networks that would help them be resilient to the 

manipulation of traffickers. 

Even within the RHY community, some youth experience 

particularly heightened risk. For instance, youth who have 

been involved with the child welfare system are at high risk 

of trafficking.

4 Additionally, several studies have shown that 

a disproportionate number of homeless trafficking victims 

are youth from vulnerable populations.

5 One report on 

suspected HT incidents between 2008 and 2010 indicated 

that people of color were significantly more likely to be 

trafficking victims than Whites.6 Arrest reports suggest that more than half of all minor 

trafficking victims are African American.

7 Youth from vulnerable populations are also highly 

impacted by running away episodes. In 2005, Black and Latino youth were found to be more 

likely to run away than White youth.

8 According to the National Runaway Safeline (NRS), which is 

the federally funded National RHY Hotline, youth who reach out to their crisis services are

disproportionately African American and Latino, when compared to the nation’s general 

population. NRS also found an increase in the number of Native American youth reaching out 

regarding running away or experiencing homelessness. Between April 2015 and March 2019, 

NRS received 883 crisis contacts (via hotline, chat, email, or online forum) from youth who 

identified as American Indian or Alaska Native. Youth who run away and live on the streets will 

likely become prey to multiple victimizations, including HT. 

Human Trafficking Definition

The Trafficking Victims Protection 

Act (TVPA) of 2000, as amended, 

defines “severe forms of trafficking 

in persons” in 22 U.S.C. § 7102 

(11) as:

Sex Trafficking: The recruitment, 

harboring, transportation, 

provision, obtaining, patronizing, 

or soliciting of a person for the 

purpose of a commercial sex act in 

which the commercial sex act is 

induced by force, fraud, or 

coercion, or in which the person 

induced to perform such act has 

not attained 18 years of age. 

Labor Trafficking: The recruitment, 

harboring, transportation, 

provision, or obtaining of a person 

for labor or services through the 

use of force, fraud, or coercion, for 

the purposes of subjection to

involuntary servitude, peonage, 

debt bondage or slavery.
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Labor and sex trafficking prevention programs should be tailored to RHY populations and 

designed to be culturally relevant and culturally competent. Furthermore, HT prevention 

interventions targeting RHY should be based on trauma-informed and positive youth 

development principles. 

II. Risks and Protective Factors

Recent research among homeless youth identified 10 distinct, but intersecting, risk factors for HT

within this population: sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, history of arrest, foster 

care involvement, disabling conditions, mental health issues, witnessing violence in the home, 

family legal problems, and suicidality. 

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have a significant impact on future violence victimization 

and perpetration, and lifelong health and opportunity.9 The Adverse Childhood Experiences 

(ACEs) survey measures 10 types of childhood trauma. Five items are focused on abuse and 

neglect: physical abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect, and emotional neglect. The 

five additional items are related to household challenges: a parent who is an alcoholic, a mother 

who is a victim of domestic violence, a family member in jail, a family member diagnosed with a 

mental illness, and the disappearance of a parent through divorce, death, or abandonment. Each 

type of childhood trauma counts as one score point; with scores ranging from 0 to 10. The higher 

the ACE score, the higher the risk for chronic disease, mental illness, and becoming a victim of 

violence.10

Results of one ACE survey showed that trafficked homeless youth were far more likely to have a 

high number of ACEs. In fact, 94% of trafficked youth had ACE scores of six or higher, compared 

to 43% of youth who had not been trafficked. In addition, 61% of trafficked youth reported an 

extraordinary 9 out of 10 adverse childhood experiences.11 In another study, 66% of trafficked 

respondents had ACE scores of four or more.12 Other risk factors include having an individualized 

education program (IEP) or 504 plan.

13 A study of youth experiencing homelessness found that 

previous substance abuse, self-harm behaviors, and suicide attempts were prevalent among 

youth who were later trafficked.14 Numerous studies confirm these behaviors as risk factors in 

addition to poverty, unstable living environments,

15 and other socioeconomic factors. 

Although few studies have been conducted on specific interventions to prevent HT among RHY, 

research has demonstrated the importance of social connections, emotional competence, and 

nurturing relationships as protective factors to prevent or reduce the likelihood of vulnerable 

youth being trafficked. The most significant factor in reducing the recruitment of RHY into 

trafficking situations was having a supportive adult in their lives. Mentoring programs within RHY 

settings can provide the social, emotional, and nurturing relationships that can help youth build 

their self-confidence and connect them with community resources to increase support and 

opportunities for RHY.16 

More importantly, these protective factors extend beyond the experiences and competencies of 

the affected youth to the familial and societal relationships that support them — including 

parental knowledge of parenting skills, parental resilience, and concrete support for families.17
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This suggests a need for RHY programs to help build resilient communities of connectedness 

around youth to resist trafficking and create opportunities for RHY to reach their full potential. 

Creating connections — with families, parents, or other caring adults — can be a protective 

factor for youth receiving services in RHY programs.

III. The Importance of Prevention

Deliberate efforts to prevent HT are critical within RHY settings to reduce the likelihood of

exploitation. Prevention means building individual skills and knowledge and creating an 

environment in which RHY are bolstered by protective factors. These efforts help youth learn to 

be resilient against exploitation and risk in their lives at home, school, work, and the community. 

Public health researchers have developed a three-tiered system of prevention to inform our 

understanding of prevention of HT among RHY.

1. Primary prevention stops the violence before it occurs. Primary prevention strategies 

include strengthening and creating healthy relationships, reducing risks within the 

individual’s environment, and increasing protective factors. 

2. Secondary prevention provides an immediate response to violence as it occurs. These 

services include first responses, such as basic services and emergency and medical 

care that address short-term consequences. 

3. Tertiary prevention activities are long-term responses that occur in the aftermath of 

violence, such as rehabilitative services (e.g., long-term housing, job training, 

therapeutic counseling, and other supportive services) that seek to prevent 

revictimization.18

Comprehensive HT prevention requires communities to attend to all three levels of prevention

described above. The recommendations provided in this Issue Brief focus on the efforts that RHY 

service providers can consider to address trafficking before it actually occurs to youth in crisis, 

runaway youth, and youth experiencing homelessness. The recommendations also highlight

prevention education, awareness, risk reduction, resilience building, and community support 

systems development. These approaches may apply to individual youth, community 

stakeholders, and RHY service providers. 

In developing prevention efforts, RHY providers and their partners are encouraged to consider

the social and economic factors in their communities that may contribute to the trafficking of 

RHY. These factors, often referred to as the social determinants of health, are defined as the 

“conditions (i.e., social, economic, and physical) in the environment in which people are born, 

live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and 

quality-of-life outcomes and risks.”19 It is essential to understand and identify the root causes 

and social conditions in which RHY become vulnerable to exploitation, violence, and HT. 

Understanding these factors can ensure that prevention interventions are effective and 

sustainable. Communities should also proactively confront the economic factors and social 

conditions that make RHY vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation.20 RHY programs can address 
Issue Brief: Human Trafficking Prevention – Strategies for Runaway and Homeless Youth Settings

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these community protective factors as well as build resilience within individual youth. This 

means encouraging RHY programs to consider the following three approaches: 

1. Educating and engaging individual RHY. 

2. Engaging with key stakeholders. 

3. Building local capacity on the intersections of HT and RHY. 

IV. Human Trafficking Prevention for Runaway and Homeless 

Youth Settings 

Educating and Engaging Individual RHY 

Prevention efforts within programs serving runaway and homeless youth should be based on 

public health, trauma-informed, and positive youth development approaches. RHY programs 

must recognize the strengths and resilience that runaway and homeless youth already have and 

leverage these skills to reduce or eliminate the possibility that they will be trafficked (or retrafficked). 

RHY service providers can use the following recommendations to integrate or enhance HT 

prevention efforts within their existing programs. Many of the proposed strategies below are 

designed to build preventive skills and support.

1. Flexible, Client-First, “Non-Linear” Programs

RHY programs recognize that youth, especially those who are at the highest risk of 

victimization, do not move linearly from vulnerability to resilience. Instead, they are likely 

to grow in spurts, at times seeking support and services and at other times refusing it 

altogether. Social work researchers have developed and applied a model for shared 

decision making for youth victims of sex trafficking that provides them with agency in 

determining their course of action.21 Research suggests that building flexibility into 

trafficking prevention programming is important because it recognizes that youth may 

return to unsafe situations while still participating in RHY programs. RHY programs should 

utilize trauma-informed and evidence-based models to understand these behaviors and 

use prevention interventions that prepare staff and youth for these eventual situations. 

Low-barrier, or “high-threshold” programs, that do not turn away youth even when they 

engage in undesirable behaviors may work best in terms of prevention. Flexible 

programming allows youth to go through the stages of change that are typically found in

youth who have run away or are experiencing homelessness. It also allows youth to 

prioritize their own needs when they feel they need support and build life skills that will 

allow them to thrive when they feel less vulnerable.22 

2. Job Skills Training

Job skills training programs should be at the forefront of trafficking prevention strategies. 

RHY who were exploited by traffickers report being unable to differentiate between a 

legitimate work opportunity and one that was exploitative.23 They also struggle to locate 
Issue Brief: Human Trafficking Prevention – Strategies for Runaway and Homeless Youth Settings

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work in the formal economy that would support their basic needs. Providing youth with 

opportunities to complete their General Education Diploma (GED), enroll in college, or 

complete technical training, will help them build skills and have better job opportunities

that will lead to reasonable standards of living and a safer transition into adulthood. RHY 

programs could integrate an HT perspective to their job skills training to educate youth 

about labor exploitation and trafficking. For example, RHY providers can build youth 

knowledge to help them recognize employee’s rights and how to identify false job ads on 

social media that may result in HT victimization. These types of skills may help RHY build 

resilience against potential labor exploitation and trafficking situations. Collaborations 

with local youth workforce programs are also important to bring a trafficking-prevention 

perspective to community-wide job skills training and prioritize programs to help RHY 

gain the skills and knowledge to enter the workforce safely. 

3. Healthy and Unhealthy Relationships Curriculum 

It is crucial for RHY to understand how to engage in healthy relationships and identify 

unhealthy ones. Most RHY lack support networks that model healthy relationships. They 

may have experienced multiple traumas and adversity throughout their lives. 

Consequently, they may not have a clear understanding of what constitutes exploitative 

behavior, coercion or force, grooming, or outright abuse, and they may struggle with the 

concept of consent. They may not be able to discern the characteristics of healthy 

relationships that include mutual support, respect, honesty, and trust. Having practical 

discussions on healthy and unhealthy relationships, dating violence, and intimate partner 

violence with youth in RHY settings will help build resilience against potential trafficking 

situations and may also prevent youth from becoming a victim or a perpetrator. These

discussions should include topics such as coercive relationships and grooming tactics 

used by potential traffickers and how RHY can seek help and support. 

4. Integrating Discussions about Social Media 

Social media platforms provide RHY with the opportunity to build supportive networks, 

connect with families, reach out to service providers, and find assistance when needed. 

The lack of housing does not mean that youth experiencing homelessness lack access to 

cell phones or other means of online communication. They may use their personal cell 

phones or public library computers, or they may borrow a device to get online. 

Unfortunately, traffickers use social media to connect, groom, and recruit RHY into 

trafficking situations. They manipulate the youth’s desire to have meaningful 

relationships (i.e., a sense of belonging, feeling wanted, or being safe) or the need to find 

a job. RHY service providers can build safe online behaviors among RHY by integrating 

harm-reduction approaches that are internet affirmative, strengths based, trauma

informed, and youth oriented as part of their HT prevention efforts. RHY settings can 

create opportunities to discuss social media and HT recruitment with RHY from a positive 

youth development perspective. 
Issue Brief: Human Trafficking Prevention – Strategies for Runaway and Homeless Youth Settings

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5. Safety Planning and Harm Reduction

RHY often need a set of practical strategies and skills they can use to prevent harm when 

engaging in work in both the formal and informal sectors. RHY should understand the 

risks they take when accepting new jobs, including workplace safety and workers’ rights. 

Principles of harm reduction, including the acceptance that some RHY sometimes engage 

in harmful behaviors as a result of their traumatic experiences, can be instructive in 

trafficking prevention efforts. Teaching youth about prophylaxis, safety planning, 

substance abuse, sexually transmitted infections, and signs of exploitation are themselves 

forms of HT prevention that are important for youth living on the streets. 

Harm reduction and safety planning efforts must focus on helping RHY identify how to 

increase their safety in the present moment and teaching them skills for maintaining 

safety in the future. Generally, safety planning refers to formal or informal risk 

assessments, preparations, and contingency plans designed to increase the safety of 

youth at risk for HT. 

The following strategies may be considered by RHY programs when developing safety 

plans:

• Identify support sources. 

• Recognize, develop, and practice coping strategies. 

• Create detailed plans to respond to, or plan for, dangerous situations. 

• Identify safer strategies for youth who are still being trafficked. 

• Develop short- and long-term plans, with conversations and role-playing 

opportunities. 

Safety planning components include:

• Potential red flags of sex trafficking and labor trafficking. 

• Description of concerns surrounding trafficking, such as isolation and fear for safety. 

• Tips for youth when exploring “too good to be true” employment offers. 

• Tips for youth who are traveling out of state. 

• Ways to escape traffickers who use physical violence or coercion. 

• Places to call for assistance (i.e., hotlines). 

• Learning how to use social media from a positive youth development perspective. 

• Recognizing the danger signals in relationships and what to do when threats occur. 
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• Identifying available resources for emergency shelter and basic needs, such as youth 

hotlines. 

6. Support Network Building

Trafficked RHY consistently report they lacked the support system they needed to 

prevent them from engaging in illicit activities, falling for schemes that were too good to 

be true, or being vulnerable to the coercion and deceit of traffickers. Researchers

recommend that RHY programs create strategic, family-focused plans to reunite youth 

with their families, when possible, and to build trust that would lead to support network 

expansion.24 Parents and family members of trafficked as well as at-risk youth can be 

engaged as stakeholders in the prevention process through family counseling. Peer-topeer programs offer opportunities for youth to assist each other in building protective 

resilience by supporting one another in times of crisis and building a trusted support 

network. Social network interventions can also assist in creating supportive environments 

to successfully create opportunities for RHY in local communities. 

7. Street Outreach and Drop-in Center Interventions 

Street outreach strategies identify homeless youth and provide them with information 

regarding shelter and service options should incorporate raising awareness of sex and 

labor trafficking. Unstably housed or unsheltered youth may not be in a shelter program 

precisely because they are engaged in illicit work or coercive situations.25 Educating 

youth about potential recruiting incidents, including their rights regarding work or tactics 

used by traffickers, can help them avoid risky situations and provide them with 

knowledge of available support systems if they encounter any type of exploitation or 

victimization. 

Collaborating with Key Stakeholders on Prevention Strategies 

Collaboration is key to any anti-trafficking effort, including prevention initiatives. After assisting 

individual RHY, the goal of RHY programs is to create a trafficking-resilient community and safety 

net that will form the foundation of prevention efforts.26 To recruit the community’s assistance 

in preventing trafficking, RHY providers can share their knowledge on the intersection of HT and 

RHY. RHY providers can also collaborate to influence system change, including implementing 

policies to prevent trafficking among RHY. 

In the last few years, many first responders, medical professionals, law enforcement officers, 

juvenile justice staff, courts, and child welfare officers have received training on identifying and 

responding to cases of HT. However, few of them recognize the role they can play in preventing 

trafficking among RHY. The concept of “planting a seed,” whereby they inform youth of their 

rights as well as the risks of certain behaviors, can successfully be developed within these 

professional circles as well.
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1. Integration of Prevention into Local Coalitions and Taskforces

Task forces and other anti-trafficking alliances produce significant training, but there is 

little effort related to training on HT prevention among RHY. RHY programs can be critical 

in becoming ambassadors for prevention efforts by providing programmatic training that 

contributes to prevent sex and labor trafficking among RHY, such as job training, social 

connections, and life skills. Most awareness campaigns focus on individual-level factors 

that perpetuate trafficking, rather than the importance of intervening more broadly at 

the community level (and beyond) to change environments and systems that perpetuate 

trafficking. RHY programs can encourage task forces and local coalitions to integrate 

comprehensive prevention strategies addressing each level of the social-ecological model 

(individual, relational, community, and societal) that impacts RHY and makes them 

vulnerable to traffickers. 

2. Partnering with Groups Serving RHY Populations 

Runaway and youth homelessness prevention conducted in the community can go handin-hand with trafficking prevention. When building relationships with youth-serving 

organizations, youth job programs, local health care centers, schools, or after-school 

programs, RHY providers can discuss approaches and partnerships to prevent trafficking 

and — potentially — homelessness and runaway incidents. Runaway and homelessness 

prevention play a major role in the prevention of human trafficking among RHY.

Building Local Capacity on the Intersections of Human Trafficking and RHY 

1. Ensuring Prevention Education Materials Are Not Re-Traumatizing or Exploitative

Prevention education materials should be fact-based, survivor-centered, and traumainformed. The materials should tell young peoples’ real stories and the factors that 

influenced and led to their trafficking victimization. RHY are highly impacted by sex and 

labor trafficking; therefore, information and prevention should address both. In addition, 

materials should include images of empowerment and should reflect the diversity of RHY 

from underserved populations affected by trafficking. Prevention materials should assist 

the public in understanding the particular experiences of RHY youth — including the 

reality of RHY trading sex to meet basic needs — the reasons for running away, and how 

RHY over the age of 18 experience labor and sex trafficking. 

2. Court Interventions

Involvement of RHY in the juvenile justice system is considered a risk factor for sex or 

labor trafficking. Judges can play an integral role in preventing trafficking among RHY by 

building their capacity not only to identify victimization, but also to screen RHY who are 

at higher risks for sex or labor trafficking. Judges may also recommend or mandate 

interventions, such as job skills training or self-efficacy programs, which might prevent 

trafficking. These interventions may also assist youth in avoiding future involvement in 

the criminal justice system, especially for RHY between the ages of 18 and 22. 
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3. Promoting Prevention in Rural and Tribal Areas 

There is a perception that trafficking and youth homelessness are problems isolated to 

urban areas and that rural areas are not highly impacted by these issues. In fact, RHY in 

rural areas are exposed to fraudulent labor recruitment and coercive commercial sex. 

Additionally, Native American youth living in rural locations are highly impacted by 

running away episodes and homelessness, which can lead to human trafficking incidents. 

RHY programs can discuss the vulnerabilities to trafficking impacting these youth and 

support the integration of sustainable prevention approaches, which can include early 

identification of high-risk youth and culturally appropriate interventions to reduce

circumstances that may lead youth to running away, becoming homeless, and being 

recruited into sex and labor trafficking. 

4. Increasing Awareness of Runaway Incidents 

Youth who have reached out for help before running away have identified family 

dynamics (i.e., child abuse and neglect, a death in the family, family conflict, domestic 

violence, teen parenting, family homelessness); peer pressure (i.e., bullying, 

cyberbullying, isolation); and mental health (i.e., depression, thoughts of suicide, eating 

disorders, physiological or behavioral problems) as the main reasons for running away.27

Clearly, running away is a coping mechanism used by youth to deal with these 

overwhelming life situations. Youth run away to escape their situations without knowing 

that they may be putting themselves at risk to traffickers who may prey on their 

vulnerabilities. Reducing runaway incidents by building youth life skills, understanding 

their experiences, and providing alternatives to running away is an effective intervention 

to prevent HT among youth at risk and runaway and homeless youth. 

RHY programs can integrate prevention counseling services and life skills activities into 

their programs to help reduce chronic runaway situations. RHY providers can also be

instrumental in educating the public on the intersection of running away and HT. These 

efforts should shine a light on the factors contributing to youth running away and 

becoming homeless, and how these factors impact non-system-involved youth (i.e., 

youth not involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems), youth between 18 

and 22 years old, and RHY from vulnerable populations.
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Additional Resources 

In addition to the research cited in this Issue Brief, the following resources provide information 

about trafficking prevention among RHY. 

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Technical Packages for Violence Prevention: 

Using Evidence-based Strategies in Your Violence Prevention Efforts” can be useful for 

thinking about how to plot a data-based change in anti-trafficking programs. 

https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pub/technical-packages.html

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Adolescent and School Health, 

“Why Schools?” may be useful for informing school-based interventions about trafficking. 

https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/about/why_schools.htm

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Understanding Sex Trafficking,” provides 

information about sex trafficking including definitions, risk and impact, and what states 

and communities need to know. 

https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/sexualviolence/trafficking.html

• Human Trafficking for Runaway and Homeless Youth Serving Programs: A Resource Guide 

is a comprehensive introduction about the intersection of RHY programs and HT. This 

resource discusses the role of RHY programs in preventing, identifying, and serving 

trafficked youth along with program models and fundamental information for RHY 

program staff. 

https://www.rhyttac.net/assets/docs/Resources/HumanTraffickingResourceGuide508.pdf

• Human Trafficking in Youth-Serving Programs: A Blueprint for Organizations Working with 

Street Youth, Homeless Youth, and Youth at Risk serves as an introduction to important 

information for any youth-serving organization considering providing services to 

homeless youth who have been trafficked. 

https://www.rhyttac.net/assets/docs/Resources/HumanTraffickingBlueprint-508.pdf

• Let’s Talk Curriculum: Runaway Prevention is a free, evidence-based, interactive, 14-

module curriculum intended to educate young people about alternatives to running away 

as well as to build life skills so that youth can resolve problems without resorting to 

running away or unsafe behavior. This resource is available in both English and Spanish

https://www.1800runaway.org/runaway-prevention-curriculum-sign-up/

• Online Recruitment of Youth via Social Media and Internet. This tip sheet discusses the 

recruitment of youth through social media platforms and highlights strategies to assist 

grantees in discussing this topic with youth. 

https://www.rhyttac.net/human-trafficking-resources-and-factsheets

• The infographic, Sex and Labor Trafficking Among Runaway and Homeless Youth, 

provides key statistics and findings from a study conducted by Covenant House and the 
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University of Loyola, New Orleans in 10 major cities in the U.S. and Canada on trafficking 

among RHY. This resource can be easily downloaded, shared, and used to discuss the 

impact of sex and labor trafficking on RHY.

https://www.rhyttac.net/assets/docs/Resources/Trafficking_Infograph_012418.pdf

• We Think Twice is a youth-centered social media campaign designed for U.S. teens ages 

13–19. The campaign promotes healthy decisions and behaviors that help teens achieve 

optimal health and successfully transition to adulthood.

https://www.wethinktwice.acf.hhs.gov/

 
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Acknowledgements 

The Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) would like to thank those who contributed to the 

vision of this Issue Brief for RHY settings. FYSB is grateful for the following individuals sharing 

their knowledge and expertise to support the development of this resource. 

• Ana Cody, Human Trafficking Advisor, Family and Youth Services Bureau. 

• Resa Matthew, Ph.D., Director, Division of Adolescent Support Services, Family and Youth 

Services Bureau.

• Linda Greenberg, Ph.D., Social Science Research Analyst, Family and Youth Services 

Bureau.

• Laura Murphy, Ph.D., Professor of Human Rights and Contemporary Slavery, Helena 

Kennedy Centre for International Justice, Sheffield Hallam University. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center of Injury Prevention and 

Control (NCIPC), Division of Violence Prevention (DVP)’s Sex Trafficking Workgroup:

• Chris Harper, Ph.D., Behavioral Scientist, Research and Evaluation Branch. 

• Ruth Leemis, M.P.H., Sex Trafficking Workgroup Co-Chair, Behavioral Scientist, 

Surveillance Branch, 

• Jennifer Matjasko, Ph.D., MPP, Associate Chief of Science, Research and Evaluation

Branch, 

• Sharon G. Smith, Ph.D., Sex Trafficking Workgroup Co-Chair, Behavioral Scientist, 

Surveillance Branch, 

• Elizabeth Swedo, M.D., M.P.H., Medical Officer, Surveillance Branch, 

 

Special Acknowledgement

FYSB would like to recognize the invaluable contributions made by RHY 

grantees who participated in FYSB’s listening sessions and shared their 

expertise and strategies to help develop this Issue Brief. We are always 

thankful for their work, commitment, and dedication to serving 

runaway and homeless youth.
Issue Brief: Human Trafficking Prevention – Strategies for Runaway and Homeless Youth Settings

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