Youturn Youth Support Services

Published purpose

This 38-month project with Youturn Youth Support Services will develop and implement promising practices that will entail the development of trauma-informed program structure and delivery modalities to help service providers working with young Indigenous, low-income and racialized victims of human trafficking to advance knowledge and enhance empowerment supports for survivors or youth at high risk of becoming involved in human trafficking in Ottawa. This will be achieved by hiring a project coordinator to build a trauma-informed program and delivering training for service providers to better identify, prevent, and work effectively with youth 12-18 years of age who are survivors or at high risk of becoming involved in human trafficking. The project will seek to develop and foster partnerships with key stakeholders and build a comprehensive strategy in Ottawa that will improve recognition of the signs and risks related to sexual exploitation and to identify youth well before they become deeply entrenched in human trafficking. At the end of the project, the organization will have advanced knowledge and developed effective interventions focused on prevention and early detection of human trafficking survivors by ensuring supports are in place to reduce negative long term impacts on mental and physical health. The project will include an external evaluation that will look at the success and scalability of the promising practices.