Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2008, $99,981)
The Harris County Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance (HTRA) will serve as an anti-human trafficking task force leadership site. As a leadership site, Harris County, in collaboration with the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and the Upper Midwest Community Policing Institute (UMCPI), will develop and implement an immersion-based training program to be delivered to five BJA-funded Human Trafficking Task Forces, and perform follow-up training and mentoring, as needed, by visiting task forces.
The project goals and objectives are to: (1) develop subject matter content for the immersion learning process; (2) identify 'best practices' for use by new or existing anti-human trafficking task forces; and (3) serve as a training location for selected task forces identified by BJA and provide intense training to selected attendees in the form of mentoring, coaching, advising, and demonstrating successful practices. Attendees will include up to four critical members of a visiting task force: an Assistant U.S. Attorney in charge of prosecuting human trafficking cases; a task force commander; a victim services provider representative, funded by OJP's Office for Victims of Crime; and a law enforcement officer assigned to human trafficking investigations.
The immersion training will cover the following elements: (1) develop a better understanding of the capabilities and proper roles of each task force member agency and improve intra- and inter-agency and multi-disciplinary collaboration; (2) access other agencies and resources that may be available to bolster investigative capabilities and services to victims; (3) import lessons learned and promising practices of the leadership task forces; (4) enhance dissemination of information to the community and law enforcement with regard to human trafficking and its victims; and (5) improve the accuracy and reliability of human trafficking investigations and victim statistics.
Grant funds will cover overtime, travel (host site follow-up, evaluation consulting, and national reporting), presentation equipment, general supplies (HTRA brochures and information cards), consultant services (immersion coordinator and vehicle rental), and immersion meeting expenses.
NCA/NCF