Human Trafficking occurs in every town in every city in The United States of America. Its victims are vulnerable and often preyed upon for profit.  According to the local human trafficking task force, San Bernardino and Riverside are known for high incident rates of human trafficking. The PROTECT project plan is to inoculate youth to trafficking through implementing prevention education in schools and training school staff to identify those who may be at-risk of exploitation, assuring that they get the resources they need to heal from their trauma. Our plan takes a four-pronged approach that includes; setting protocols, training, curriculum and research. The objectives are clear:

1. Protocol: PROTECT works alongside schools and county stakeholders to ensure that in the event a student is identified or self-identifies as a victim of human trafficking, coordinated, agreed-upon response protocols and procedures are in place. 

2. Training: PROTECT provides human trafficking training to schools and county stakeholders. Participants learn about sex and labor exploitation, complex trauma, the role of technology,and how to identify and report suspected trafficking. 

3. Curriculum: PROTECT offers trauma-informed lesson plans for elementary, middle, and high school students. Teachers may download the vetted curriculum from the PROTECT online system and use it immediately in their classrooms. 

4. Research: PROTECT is partnered with third-party researchers that track and analyze the data from training and prevention education implementation. Through a developed logic model, PROTECT aims to increase knowledge and awareness, as well as positively impact behavioral changes.

Human Trafficking Prevention in School Communities

Schools can and should be safe places for students, and even more so for students whose lives are otherwise characterized by instability and lack of safety and security.

Everyone who is part of the school community—administrators, school counselors, nurses, other mental health professionals, teachers, bus drivers, maintenance personnel, food service staff, resource officers, and other school community members—has the potential to be an advocate for children who have been exploited. 

First, however, school community members must learn the factors that make students vulnerable to trafficking and how to identify the warning signs. 

— U.S. Department of Education, Office of Safe and Supportive Schools. (2021). Human trafficking in America’s schools: What schools can do to prevent, respond, and help students to recover from human trafficking