The Federal Role in Victim Services

• In Event: What Works in Human Trafficking Policy, Victim Identification, and Service Provision

Abstract

Ms. Waldrop will speak to the realities of providing services to trafficking victims and how the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) goes about it through its grant programs and other targeted initiatives. She will provide information on federal efforts to enhance victim services through her work on the first Federal Strategic Action Plan for Services to Victims in the United States. The Plan, which serves as a blueprint for the next five years, emphasizes the importance of research and evaluation so that we can better understand the scope of the problem, effective responses, and the scalability of promising practices. The Plan details the need for increased training to all providers and first responders who may encounter victims, and the necessity of working with survivors and incorporating their perspectives into program and policy development, as well as research and evaluation activities. She will encourage audience members to read the Strategic Action Plan to determine where their work fits in and how to best bring their research to practice.

Author

• B. Lindsay Waldrop, Office for Victims of Crime