JANUARY 3, 2024 – In late December, President Joe Biden proclaimed January as National Human Trafficking Prevention Month and urged every American to learn how to identify signs of trafficking. The Defense Department continues its efforts to prevent and eradicate this horrific crime.
Human trafficking deprives millions of people worldwide of their freedom. Through innovative training and resources, the Defense Department Combating Trafficking in Persons office focuses on efforts to prevent human trafficking. CTIP offers training and awareness resources to DOD’s 3.4 million civilian and military personnel.
DOD CTIP Chaplains Training and Toolkit
Chaplains play a vital role in the fight against human trafficking. Often, chaplains are the first responders to victims, survivors, parents and other service members who have suffered because of human trafficking. The new specialized CTIP chaplains’ training and companion toolkit focus on loss of belief, survivor’s guilt, moral injury and other spiritual issues related to human trafficking.
The Chaplains Toolkit, as it is called is a grab-and-go set of action cards featuring survivor stories, videos, one-pagers, infographics, case studies, pocket cards, desk guides and other resources.
Both the training and the toolkit provide military chaplains with the resources they need to help in the following situations:
- Giving spiritual guidance to someone who has been trafficked.
- Counseling or ministering to service members who were trafficked before they joined the military.
- Recognizing those in precursor situations who are potential trafficking victims and providing spiritual guidance with prevention in mind.
- Encountering trafficking victims or survivors who have experienced moral injury in the course of being trafficked. Chaplains’ guidance can offer spiritual sustenance and healing to victims and survivors of trafficking.
- Meeting parents and other family members who have suffered loss due to the trafficking of a child, teen or adult. Chaplains’ guidance and ability to refer members to the right resources is critical.
DOD CTIP Healthcare Personnel Training and Toolkit
Health care providers are first responders and play a vital role in the identification, treatment and follow-up for victims, survivors and their families. The new DOD CTIP Healthcare Personnel Training and Toolkit provides DOD health care providers the information they need to recognize human trafficking in health care settings and to respond effectively.
Like the chaplains’ toolkit, the health care professionals’ toolkit is a set of action cards that include pocket cards, desk guides, case studies and other resources on human trafficking for healthcare providers.
The training and toolkit include information about trafficking in healthcare settings, including:
- Health issues of human trafficking victims and survivors.
- Indicators of human trafficking in chief complaint, medical history and medical exam.
- Barriers to health care for victims and survivors.
- Best practices for identifying, treating, referring and reporting human trafficking.
- New International Classification of Diseases codes on human trafficking.
- Mandatory reporting issues.
- The effective use of electronic medical records in human trafficking cases.
All training and toolkits can be accessed on the CTIP website training page.
Additional CTIP resources include:
Survivor Stories: The CTIP office continues to add stories of survivors of sex and labor trafficking and child soldiering to its Survivor Voices of Human Trafficking webpage. Currently there are 17 stories. Survivors have provided first-hand insight into areas of DOD that benefit from specialized trainings and resources.
CTIP website: The CTIP office regularly updates its website with awareness resources including public services announcements, posters available in 22 languages, worker’s rights cards available in 10 languages, newsletters, fact sheets, training, toolkits and more.
For more information on how to report trafficking in persons, visit the Report Tip page on the CTIP website.
If you or someone you know is a victim of human trafficking, there are resources available: Contact the DOD Inspector General hotline at 1-800-424-9098, visit https://www.dodig.mil/Components/Administrative-Investigations/DoD-Hotline/, call the National Human Trafficking hotline at 1-888-373-7888, text 233733, or visit https://humantraffickinghotline.org/en.