Teaching Undergraduate Social Work Students to Identify, Assess and Prevent Human Trafficking

Overview: Human trafficking is a human rights violation estimated to involve millions of victims worldwide each year .Intervention and prevention are important parts of com bating human trafficking. Workshop will provide information to help identify, assess and prevent human trafficking.Proposal text: Human trafficking is considered modern day slavery. Human trafficking is both a criminal act and human rights violation that affects individuals and communities worldwide. Human trafficking is believed to be the third largest criminal activity in the world. Human trafficking is the use of force, fraud or coercion to compel another person to provide labor or commercial sex against their will. The International Labor Organization estimates that there are at least 12.3 million adults and children being trafficked throughout the world at any given time .The National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline in 2020 received reports of human trafficking cases from every state in the United States .Polaris estimates that 80% of the traffickers are involved in sexual exploitation, and 19% in labor exploitation, and the numbers could be in the hundreds of thousands .According to the United States State Department, every year between 6000,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders. Social workers have an understanding of the needs of people who have been exposed to violence .It is important that they have training on human trafficking to assist with the issues unique to this form of victimization .Social workers who come in contact with victims of human trafficking need to understand how they can help ,local and national resources. Knowledge of the risk factors ,types of human trafficking ,and the need for public awareness can play a key role in detecting and preventing human trafficking. The role of the social worker is to support the human trafficking victims while advocating for their rights and help with legal ,medical, employment, housing and criminal justice system.