How to Develop a Directory of Services for Trafficking Victims: A tool for practitioners (2022)
How to Develop a Directory of Services for Trafficking Victims
This tool provides practitioners with step-by-step guidance on how to design and implement a Directory of Services for Trafficking Victims. It explains what a Directory of Services for Trafficking Victims is, who it is for and why it is important. It then offers a detailed roadmap of how to design and implement a Directory of Services for Trafficking Victims in a specific area or country.
This tool includes an accompanying Microsoft Excel template in which practitioners can compile information about services to be included in the Directory of Services.
A “how to” video is also available, offering clear guidance on how to design, prepare and maintain an up-to-date Directory of Services for Trafficking Victims.
We invite you to learn more in this interview with the NEXUS Institute and in this short overview video.
What is a Directory of Services for Trafficking Victims?
A Directory of Services is a vital resource for trafficking victims and their families to access the protection and assistance needed to recover and reintegrate after trafficking. It educates and informs trafficking victims about what constitutes trafficking in persons and exploitation, and the rights and entitlements of trafficking victims. It also provides information about the types of assistance and support available to trafficking victims in a specific area or country (both trafficking specific and other types of assistance) and how trafficking victims can access this assistance.
Who is it for?
The target audience of this type of Directory of Services is trafficking victims and their families. This approach recognizes that many trafficking victims are never identified or assisted and may not come into contact with anti-trafficking practitioners who can identify, refer and/or assist them. The Directory of Services speaks directly to trafficking victims and their family members to provide them with information about their rights and entitlements as trafficking victims and the assistance and reintegration services available to them. It empowers and enables trafficking victims to understand and name their experiences of exploitation and to seek out the services that they are entitled to and may need to recover and reintegrate.
Some trafficking victims may choose not to be formally identified but still wish to receive assistance and support. Other individuals may self-identify or be presumed trafficking victims who have not been formally certified as such. The Directory of Services provides information about assistance and services for identified trafficking victims as well as services that vulnerable individuals can access even if they have not been or do not wish to be formally identified as a trafficking victim.
While trafficking victims are the primary target audience of this type of Directory of Services, it can also be used by practitioners engaged in trafficking victim identification, referral, assistance and reintegration to strengthen their knowledge of trafficking in persons and enable them to provide relevant, useful, and up-to-date information to trafficking victims about the services available to them. Practitioners can also play an important role in the distribution and dissemination of the Directory of Services for Trafficking Victims, through their day-to-day work.
This set of tools for practitioners accompanies our series providing easy access to high quality research and guidance on victim protection that can be used in direct daily work. Recent publications (available in English, Bahasa Indonesian, Malaysian, Vietnamese, and Thai) focus on:
• Trafficking victim identification
• Trafficking victim protection and support
• Recovery and reintegration of trafficking victims
• Special and additional measures for child trafficking victims
