Understanding the Prevalence and Context of Human Trafficking through Data Collaboration
Natalie Muyres, MS, PMP & Jody Wolfe, MA | September 21 | 11:15 am-12:15 pm
Topic: Research, International | Knowledge Level: Intermediate
Founded in 2017, #NotInMyCity is a non-profit organization in Calgary, Alberta, Canada mobilizing community and facilitating transformational systems change to disrupt and combat human trafficking. #NotInMyCity co-chairs the Provincial Human Trafficking Network bringing together government, police service, and social service organizations who are working to end human trafficking and support victims and survivors. In 2021, #NotInMyCity recognized an opportunity to improve the provincial understanding of the nature of human trafficking and embarked on a novel data sharing initiative on behalf of the Network. With a 2-year grant from the Community and Social Services Ministry of the Alberta Government, #NotInMyCity initiated the Alberta Human Trafficking Data Portal project. Using a multi-disciplinary, community-engaged research approach, the collaborative co-designed a data story that will be used to support education, training, and advocacy efforts. The project involved literature reviews, and qualitative research including stakeholder surveys and participant interviews with 19 organizations and 31 individuals. Participating organizations included law enforcement and community serving non-profit agencies. This presentation will include a walk-through of the data story and will describe the process of developing the data story, how the team overcame barriers, and the vision for the future of data collaboration. Presenters will explore culture and group dynamics, keeping victims and survivors at the center, taking an iterative-incremental approach, and human-centered technology design as key factors that enabled this initiative to be successful. Lessons learned from this initiative can help inspire and guide others who are seeking to improve the way that the human trafficking sector uses data to inform policy and practice.
Presentation Objectives:
· Describe the challenges of data collaborations in the human trafficking sector
· Describe a victim-centered and user-centered approach to design
· Discuss lessons learned in developing a human trafficking data story
· Share a roadmap for the future of using data to inform human trafficking policy and practice