Strategies for Successful Outreach: A Research Report
Kezban Yagci Sokat, PhD & Micaela Cayton Garrido, JD, MA | September 23 | 3:15-4:15 pm
Topic: Research, Programming | Knowledge Level: Intermediate
Outreach is an important part of the anti-trafficking efforts to increase awareness and referrals to the service providers so that they can find additional human trafficking cases and connect the victims to services. Unfortunately, there is limited funding for organizations to conduct outreach, especially targeted outreach. Moreover, benefits from website visits are highly uncertain and change based on the correctness of the site information, safety of the site for the outreach specialist to enter, and the workers’ willingness to talk with the outreach specialists. Thus, organizations have to be effective in their planning to deploy successful outreach strategies. Assessing the impact and effectiveness of anti-trafficking interventions is also a complex issue. Through twenty-eight semi-structured interviews, which were analyzed in NVivo using a hybrid approach with two coders, the presenters investigate the definition of success for outreach, the factors impacting the outcome of outreach, and how to measure the success of outreach operations for planning. The interviews cover insights from as many industries as possible to comprehensive strategies for organization working in different forms of trafficking and different populations. They present an outreach planning example utilizing the best practices accumulated by interviews along with using potential data applications. Based on the research, attendees will gain an understanding of the suggested recommendations to create an optimal outreach plan for their operations and service areas.
Presentation Objectives:
· Present definitions of success for outreach
· Introduce success measures for outreach efforts
· Describe best practices for outreach planning and highlight gaps and opportunities for planning state-of-the-art outreach strategies