Human Trafficking Initiative

The Ohio Children’s Trust Fund has identified human trafficking prevention as one of its core initiatives for funding and outreach.

Human trafficking is a serious problem that affects children and teens across the country — including in Ohio. Children who become victims of human trafficking also may be victims of physical, sexual, or other types of abuse or maltreatment.

We believe that preventing human trafficking aligns with our mission to prevent child abuse and neglect through investing in strong communities, healthy families and safe children.

As part of our anti-human trafficking initiative, the Ohio Children’s Trust Fund:

Participates in the Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force.
Assisted in the development of a Human Trafficking Prevention Youth Curriculum, and accompanying professional Train-the-Trainer training.
Has conducted awareness campaigns and public outreach to educate the public about human trafficking.
Provides funding to organizations for programs related to human trafficking prevention.

What is Human Trafficking?

You may have learned in school that slavery ended in the United States with the Civil War. But a form of modern-day slavery lingers on in the form of human trafficking. Human trafficking involves profiting from the exploitation of others — including children — for purposes such as forced labor or prostitution, with or without transporting them.

In Ohio, human trafficking is specifically defined by Ohio Revised Code Section 2905.32 this way:

“(A) No person shall knowingly recruit, lure, entice, isolate, harbor, transport, provide, obtain, or maintain… another person knowing that the person will be subjected to involuntary servitude or be compelled to engage in sexual activity…”
“…For a prosecution under division (A)(1) of this section, the element "compelled" does not require that the compulsion be openly displayed or physically exerted. The element "compelled" has been established if the state proves that the victim's will was overcome by force, fear, duress, or intimidation, or fraud.”

A Collaborative Approach

Beginning in SFY 2020, the Ohio Children’s Trust Fund (OCTF), the Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force, and the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services’ (ODJFS) Children’s Justice Act Task Force established a partnership to offer a braided funding opportunity for the purpose of soliciting applications from service providers across Ohio to support three separate human trafficking related activities. These activities include;

Human Trafficking Victim Support Services for Minors;
Training and Professional Development for those implementing Human Trafficking Victim Support Services
Human Trafficking Prevention Initiatives for Minors.

The OCTF manages this braided funding opportunity on behalf of all of these collaborative partners.

For more information about human trafficking prevention programming or services for minor victims and/or minors at-risk of victimization, contact a provider in your area.

2022/23 Grantees