Trafficking Prevention & Response Network (TPRN)

Human trafficking is a pervasive and secretive criminal enterprise that victimizes 27.6 million people every year across the globe, nearly 80% of whom are exploited sexually. In the United States, fewer than one percent of the hundreds of thousands of estimated trafficking victims will be identified in their lifetime and helped to escape their situations. Tragically, even identified survivors are not truly safe — 80% will be revictimized due to an extreme lack of dedicated resources, comprehensive health services, and collaboration on a national scale.

Victims of human trafficking suffer extreme trauma and abuse, particularly survivors of sexual exploitation. Most experience extensive poly-victimization, multiple agency involvement in complex trauma, and physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. On average, survivors report facing 10.5 psychiatric problems even after exiting a trafficking situation, which can range from severe anxiety disorders to complex PTSD to dissociative disorders. The majority of survivors report physical health challenges as well, which often include heart conditions, reproductive health challenges, and cancers directly traceable to the trauma endured during exploitation. Most of these health challenges persist for years or even the remainder of a survivor’s life.

Despite the clear and urgent need for comprehensive health services for survivors of trafficking, the U.S. response falls far short of adequate. Fragmentation of anti-trafficking efforts between various levels of law enforcement, healthcare networks, recovery services, and nonprofit organizations has led to duplicated services, inconsistent or inaccessible support networks, and severe gaps in the continuum of care for survivors that leave them highly vulnerable to re-victimization. Since much of direct care for survivors is currently provided through nonprofit organizations, many find themselves competing for limited funding, which drastically reduces opportunities for collaboration and greater collective impact. While anti-trafficking organizations compete for resources and operate in silos, hundreds of thousands of survivors remain trapped in exploitation or unable to access the services necessary to protect against revictimization.

Comprehensive aftercare services for survivors of human trafficking require a continuum of resources from identification through recovery and re-entry into society. Efforts to raise awareness, provide identification training, offer direct care services, or support survivors through housing or employment are well-meaning and valuable elements to this continuum, but survivors are often lost in the gaps between the steps because of a lack of collaboration and communication. Healing from a trafficking experience is not achievable without expert support at each step of the journey, requiring members of the anti-trafficking field to come together to form joint solutions, maximize the impact of our limited resources, and collaborate for eradication.

The Trafficking Prevention & Response Network (TPRN) is a groundbreaking initiative of Safe House Project, a national leader in the anti-trafficking space working to strengthen and expand the continuum of care available to survivors of human trafficking. In response to the clear and pressing need for greater communication and collaboration in the field, the TPRN utilizes proprietary technology to operate a centralized platform for aggregating tips on potential trafficking situations, seamlessly connecting survivors with resources, and providing a secure, HIPAA-compliant communication channel for multi-disciplinary teams working across the country.

The TPRN integrates advanced technology and artificial intelligence to establish a comprehensive, real-time network that facilitates connection between survivors of human trafficking and essential aftercare services. On the platform, various stakeholders, including law enforcement, healthcare providers, and direct care services, can communicate securely and collaborate to provide more efficient, supportive, and comprehensive care to survivors in crisis. Simultaneously, members of the general public can access awareness and identification resources hosted on the TPRN platform, including a resource operated through artificial intelligence that provides users with recommendations for reporting potential trafficking situations, helping community members stay safe while protecting survivors.

The solution offered by the TPRN addresses the profound challenges within the current national framework for combating human trafficking, especially the limitations encountered by the National Human Trafficking Hotline. The hotline has faced significant issues, including delayed response times to survivors in crisis and the inability to provide localized support tailored to the unique needs of survivors. Additionally, the hotline has failed to establish necessary coordination with law enforcement to ensure offenders are held accountable and trafficking networks are disrupted and dismantled. The TPRN provides solutions to each of these shortcomings, which will ultimately result in greater numbers of survivors being identified, provided with safe exit support, placed into restorative care programs, and supported on their path to lasting freedom. Furthermore, the centralized communication of the anti-trafficking field through the TPRN’s platform will allow the field to share available resources, innovate solutions, and maximize their collective impact.

Lastly, the TPRN’s platform couples technological efficiencies with personalized case management and existing support resources, enabling survivors to directly access information about options for available aftercare programs and the quality and type of care provided. The current landscape of aftercare leaves little room for survivors to explore to find the best possible option for recovery care, but the TPRN empowers them to make informed choices about their healing journey while also ensuring equitable access to high-quality, specialized services.

The TPRN is a pioneering effort that addresses the inherent limitations of the existing anti-trafficking frameworks and harnesses the potential of technology to create a more responsive, integrated, and survivor-centered network. This project represents an essential step forward in our collective fight against the crime of trafficking, promising to transform the way we support and empower survivors on their paths to freedom.

The goal of the TPRN is to facilitate collaboration, communication, and collective impact to improve human trafficking survivors’ opportunities to escape exploitation, access restorative care, and build freedom, healing, and hope for the future.

In the United States, at least 80% of victims are trafficked for sexual exploitation. Survivors represent all backgrounds and demographics found in the general population, but underserved and minority groups are particularly vulnerable. Women, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people experiencing homelessness are all overrepresented among survivors. Over 90% of sex trafficking victims are U.S. citizens, and most are trafficked by someone they know in their own communities. Victims are commonly exploited by family members, domestic partners, friends, acquaintances, or gangs.

Trafficking survivors overwhelmingly report being sexually abused as children, spending time in foster care or the juvenile justice system, or experiencing financial insecurity, homelessness, domestic violence, or substance abuse prior to being trafficked. These situations are both indicators of vulnerability to trafficking and signs of ongoing victimization. Traffickers intentionally manipulate people’s vulnerabilities as a grooming technique, which tragically reinforces social stereotypes and further isolates their victims from the possibility of identification and escape.

Even if they are physically able to leave exploitation, trafficking survivors face incredible barriers to maintaining their freedom. This is largely due to a severe lack of access to adequate healthcare, addiction services, mental health diagnoses, and long-term restorative care. Many survivors report that they were unable to leave a trafficking situation because they had no financial independence, access to health services, or a safe place to sleep that night. Considering the high rates of severe psychiatric conditions, physical health problems, and extensive trauma, most survivors are simply not able to balance caring for their health needs with managing a job, housing, and protecting themselves against revictimization. Universally, survivors of human trafficking depend on comprehensive support services to truly move beyond a survival mindset and begin healing from their experiences.

Through the TPRN, survivors will be able to access Safe House Project’s Emergency Survivor Support Program, which creates opportunities and removes barriers for survivors to leave exploitation and find placement in a safe house program. The TPRN directly serves survivors in their most vulnerable moments by connecting them to emergency housing, safe exit coordination, medical care, and mental health stabilization services. Each of these elements is critical — the absence of any of them can mean the difference between a survivor’s successful exit from trafficking and their revictimization.

In addition, the TPRN raises the quality standards and the efficacy of services in the continuum of aftercare for survivors, which minimizes the risk of revictimization and creates a pipeline of therapeutic support for survivors’ healing journeys. By centralizing communication and fostering collaboration, the TPRN facilitates a national anti-trafficking response that removes barriers for survivors to access comprehensive care and ultimately provides them with the support they need to recover and move forward in freedom.

Safe House Project is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization with a vision to unite communities to end domestic sex trafficking and restore hope, freedom, and future to every survivor. We work to address the gaps in the continuum of care for survivors and ensure that every survivor has the opportunity to heal in safety in a therapeutic safe house program equipped to care for their unique needs. Through ongoing partnerships with survivor leaders, medical professionals, federal law enforcement, and direct care experts, Safe House Project has developed and expanded our programming to address the most pressing needs of survivors in their healing journey. Each sector of our work has been carefully structured to minimize barriers to care for survivors and empower them to find lasting freedom.

As a national organization working to provide emergency services to survivors and mentor, launch, and certify safe house programs, Safe House Project has in-depth knowledge of the national landscape of survivor care. Our team of lived experience experts, business leaders, direct service providers, and social workers deeply understand the challenges and opportunities facing the anti-trafficking field. By uplifting the voices of the survivor leaders on our staff, Safe House Project is able to respond with strategic programming to the most urgent needs of survivors in the United States. We firmly believe that survivors are the most equipped to inform our organization’s strategic direction and ensure that our work empowers survivors at every stage of healing.

The TPRN is designed to integrate seamlessly into Safe House Project’s existing Emergency Survivor Support Program, which will serve 1,500 survivors of human trafficking in 2024 as they safely exit exploitation and seek restorative care. Since 2018, this program has provided over 1,100 survivors with coordinated exit plans, emergency housing, transportation, medical care, and personalized case management to arrange safe house placement. With the extension of the TPRN’s technology platform, the impact and capability of the Emergency Survivor Support Program will be amplified, providing survivors still in exploitation with critical opportunities for escape and restoration.

To date, Safe House Project has integrated our CRM with the TPRN platform to pass data back and forth between the two systems. This connection allows our Emergency Survivor Support Team to respond immediately to survivors in crisis as they submit help forms to our CRM. The connected system analyzes these forms and automatically creates secure communication channels with the appropriate team members on the TPRN platform, which facilitates secure conversations with the survivor and industry partners working to help the survivor to safety.

Safe House Project is deeply committed to forging partnerships across the anti-trafficking field, recognizing that collaboration is crucial in our mission to combat human trafficking. Just as this criminal enterprise pervades and is enabled throughout our society, an effective response to trafficking depends on partnerships and shared expertise from representatives of every societal sector. 

By joining a Solver team, Safe House Project hopes to cultivate deep collaborative partnerships with leading experts from many backgrounds. It is our sincere belief that incorporating a wide variety of perspectives into the strategic direction of the TPRN will pave the way for a more cohesive and effective national and community-level response to human trafficking.

As a nonprofit organization, Safe House Project continually seeks to diversify and expand our opportunities for funding to fuel the progress of our mission. However, the value of becoming part of a Solver team far exceeds the monetary award. We do not claim to be the sole solution for combating human trafficking in the United States; rather, we have seen our efforts multiplied through partnerships with survivor leaders, other nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and other community leaders. It is our intention to support the progress of the anti-trafficking field as a whole through the implementation of the TPRN and the connections offered by MIT Solve.

The anti-trafficking field in the United States, kickstarted by the passing of the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000, has grown and diversified its strategies largely in silos. Human trafficking is often considered a problem for law enforcement, but that approach fails to recognize the high rate of interactions victims have with healthcare providers, educators, social workers, and other community service providers. Trafficking victims are much more likely to be victimized by someone they know in their own community, including family members, friends, and trusted authorities than by strangers or through abduction. Survivors regularly report that they were exploited for years while living in one community and regularly interacting with many people. Placing the responsibility for anti-trafficking efforts on only one group, such as law enforcement, is a direct result of a societal lack of understanding of what trafficking looks like in our communities today, how to respond in a way that supports survivors and brings perpetrators to justice, and where collaboration can multiply the progress of a single activity.

The potential impact of the TPRN in this current landscape of anti-trafficking efforts is profound. By centralizing communications, sharing available resources, and gathering real-time data, the TPRN will not only transform the landscape of survivor support and intervention but also elevate the entire anti-trafficking community’s capability to respond to and prevent trafficking activities. Providing a cohesive, data-driven foundation for action, the TPRN will empower emergency response organizations, law enforcement, and long-term support services to operate more synergistically and effectively.

This level of collaboration has not been successfully implemented in the United States since human trafficking was classified as a federal crime in 2000. The current response to human trafficking in our nation is fragmented by sector, severely restricting the available resources from reaching the front lines of survivor care and the real-time data from reaching high-level decision-makers. The TPRN’s integrated network model is designed to overcome these barriers by facilitating a unified, coordinated response to human trafficking that transcends geographical and institutional boundaries, thereby revolutionizing the field’s ability to respond effectively and urgently to survivors in crisis.

The power of data collection and analysis is the cornerstone of developing strategic, effective solutions to human trafficking as a global issue. To harness this power, the TPRN serves as an indispensable and robust technology infrastructure. It gathers vast amounts of data while also analyzing and interpreting it accurately and efficiently. A strong technological backbone is essential for transforming raw data into actionable intelligence, guiding targeted interventions, and shaping policies to eradicate trafficking on a global scale.

A coordinated technology infrastructure is also pivotal in overcoming the array of challenges previously discussed in data collection. The TPRN bridges the gap between varied data sources, dismantling data silos and fostering a seamless flow of information. It enhances data quality and consistency, providing standardized protocols for data collection and reporting. Crucially, it addresses privacy and security concerns, ensuring that sensitive information is handled with the utmost care under a standardized and agreed-upon security protocol. By integrating these elements, the TPRN not only streamlines data management but also transforms fragmented data into a powerful tool for timely intervention, informed decision-making, and strategic action.

The TPRN represents a fiscally efficient approach due to its potential for resource optimization. Centralizing data and streamlining processes reduces duplication of efforts and the need for multiple, disparate systems. This consolidation leads to cost savings in both the short and long term. It also allows for more efficient allocation of limited resources, ensuring that funds are directed where they are most needed. Moreover, the TPRN has been designed to adapt and scale beyond the United States efficiently, offering a sustainable solution with greater impact per dollar invested.

Serving as a centralized repository of data, the TPRN offers numerous benefits in the fight against human trafficking. It serves as a single, unified source of information, enabling stakeholders to access, share, and analyze data more effectively. This centralization facilitates a comprehensive view of trafficking trends and patterns, aiding in the identification of hotspots and the prediction of future occurrences. It also enhances collaboration among various entities, allowing for more coordinated and targeted interventions. Additionally, a centralized repository simplifies data management, ensuring consistency and improving the overall quality of the data collected. Each of these elements leads to more informed policymaking and resource allocation, driving impactful and efficient efforts.

The ultimate goal of the TPRN is to provide an easily accessible platform to unite efforts against human trafficking throughout the United States and maximize the collective impact of available resources. Progress toward this goal will result in greater numbers of trafficking survivors being identified and provided access to a complete continuum of restorative care. 

The TPRN platform will incorporate the following elements to support this comprehensive response:

• Data Integration System: A platform that consolidates data from various sources, ensuring seamless data flow and accessibility.

• Real-time Data Analysis Tools: Advanced tools capable of processing and analyzing data in real time, facilitating prompt and informed decision-making.

• Secure Data Sharing Mechanisms: Robust security protocols to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive data, allowing for safe sharing among stakeholders.

• User-Friendly Interface: An intuitive and accessible interface for users of varying technical proficiencies, ensuring wide usability.

• Scalability and Flexibility: The infrastructure should be capable of adapting to evolving needs and scaling up as required.

• Standardization Protocols: Standardized data entry and retrieval protocols to ensure uniformity and comparability of data.

• AI and Machine Learning Capabilities: Integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify patterns and trends that may not be immediately apparent.

• Mobile Compatibility: Ensuring that the system is accessible via mobile devices to increase accessibility and on-the-ground data collection.

• Multi-Lingual Support: To cater to diverse users and contexts, offering support in multiple languages.

• Compliance and Ethical Considerations: Ensuring that the infrastructure adheres to legal and ethical standards in data handling, including anonymization of personally identifiable information.

We measure the functionality of the listed TPRN platform elements through the following quantitative metrics:

• Number of Users:  The total number of users registered on the TPRN platform.

• Active Users:  The total number of users who engage with the platform within a specific time frame (daily, weekly, monthly, annually).

• User Growth Rate:  The percentage increase in registered users or active users over a specific period of time.

• Geographic Distribution:  The physical locations of users.

• Retention Rate:  The percentage of users who continue to engage with the platform over a specific time period.

We measure the quality and accessibility of the listed TPRN platform elements through the following qualitative metrics:

• User Feedback & Reviews:  Comments, reviews, and feedback gathered from users of the TPRN platform.

• User Interviews & Surveys:  Feedback gathered by directly asking users about their experience with the platform and their satisfaction with its function.

• Usability Testing:  Observing how users engage with the platform to identify pain points.

The Trafficking Prevention & Response Network (TPRN) utilizes a combination of technology to provide a unified, easily navigated platform to simplify communication, data collection, and coordinated responses throughout the anti-trafficking field in the United States. The TPRN is accessible through a mobile application and a website for convenient use. Because the combination of technology used for the TPRN is specifically designed for integration within the anti-trafficking field, it is HIPAA-compliant and offers encrypted communication channels using a waterfall method, including one-to-one and group communication. The TPRN allows for secure file sharing, video calls, and hosting events through a single platform. A feature enabling forms and polls for users allows Safe House Project to aggregate data and analyze the functionality of the platform easily. The technology included in the TPRN’s design is proprietary.

Safe House Project has contracted with the Luep development team to develop the Luep platform serving as the core of the TPRN, a custom ecosystem for the anti-trafficking field. Safe House Project has one project manager who coordinates the development of the project with the president of Luep and his team.

Safe House Project has been in the development phase for the TPRN for four months (as of April 2024).

Safe House Project has been a leader in the U.S. anti-trafficking field since 2017 and has helped over 1,150 survivors of human trafficking exit their situations and access restorative care. Our other programs have trained over 300,000 individuals to identify trafficking, added 472 new spaces to safe houses, and certified 50 residential safe house programs.

Safe House Project is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in traditional aspects through the representation of diverse populations through board members, paid executives, employees, and volunteer staff. This includes employing individuals with disabilities, women, people of color, and survivors of sex trafficking.

We highly value the perspectives and insights of people with lived experience of trafficking in every element of our work. We continually depend on the lived experience experts on the Safe House Project team to help direct the development and implementation of each of our programming areas to ensure that our impact is for survivors at every stage of healing. Survivor staff members are involved in developing our training initiatives, policies and procedures for emergency survivor support, and mentorship programs to spread knowledge and understanding throughout the field.

Safe House Project recognizes the unique challenges survivors of human trafficking face when seeking employment, such as chronic health issues and complex psychiatric disabilities, and works to provide adequate workplace accommodations to allow survivors to reach their full potential.

We strongly believe that eradicating trafficking requires a team with diverse experiences, professional backgrounds, and the ability to learn and grow continually in the anti-trafficking space. As we partner with healthcare networks, law enforcement, service providers, universities, corporations, and policymakers, we are constantly reminded that this work requires the best each of us can bring.

The Safe House Project team is no exception, bringing together lived experience experts, corporate professionals, social workers, law enforcement, and policy experts to approach the problem of human trafficking holistically. This method allows us to refine our approaches first through survivor perspectives and then through trauma-informed expert recommendations. This mindset informs every aspect of our work for survivors, service providers, and community members affected by human trafficking.

By creating intentional space for diverse voices at Safe House Project, we ensure that we do not create solutions in silos but rather are considering carefully how to build the greatest possible good with our resources. Supporting diversity of thought among our team empowers us to craft a response to trafficking that creates tangible change in the lives of survivors and our communities.

Safe House Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization combating human trafficking throughout the United States. The TPRN platform serves multiple purposes for our programs, particularly for those directly serving trafficking survivors in crisis or connecting safe house programs, law enforcement, and referral organizations to centralized resources. Our work directly serves survivors of human trafficking and lifts up the anti-trafficking industry as a whole.

Safe House Project is supported through the generosity of private and corporate foundations, individual donors, government programs, and partnerships with anti-trafficking industry organizations. This funding has allowed for our annual budget to double each year since our founding in 2017. A generous endowment in 2022 has provided for a stable financial future with careful stewardship, allowing external funding sources to be dedicated to program impact. The TPRN is supported through these established funding sources, along with new partnerships with technology organizations and licensing fees for industry partners.

As a platform influencing program impact at Safe House Project, the TPRN is funded through many of the same channels as our other programs, including private foundation and corporate grants, individual donors, and event fundraising. Each of these funding initiatives has been highly successful in supporting Safe House Project’s other programs since 2017. As the TPRN’s impact and reach grow in the United States, we plan to seek additional funding as needed from more focused sources.

To ensure the long-term sustainability of the TPRN platform, nonprofit organizations, law enforcement, and government agencies will pay an annual licensing fee to be integrated into the platform. The data can also be packaged to create state and federal contracts to help improve the government’s responses to trafficking. Finally, the high-level data can also be distributed to corporations to help decrease their risk of involvement in trafficking and provide actionable intelligence for prevention.

The TPRN enhances the transformation of data and raw information into actionable intelligence, which aids in the identification of trafficking victims and connects them to relevant services more efficiently. Additionally, the TPRN will increase the success rates of prosecutions for traffickers and buyers, thereby improving prevention efforts. The data centralized in the TPRN’s platform will help directly support victims, target trafficking networks, and prevent future instances of exploitation in the United States. Each of these outcomes is highly effective in driving funding from Safe House Project’s existing supporters.