Supporting human trafficking survivor resiliency through comprehensive case management

Human trafficking, often referred to as modern-day slavery, entails the exploitation of a person for commercial sex or labor through methods that include force, fraud or coercion. Many of those human trafficking survivors who are identified have experienced significant physical, sexual, emotional, social or economic abuse at the hands of their traffickers. Professionals who work with those most vulnerable to trafficking—including refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), migrant workers, runaway and homeless youth, and survivors of intimate partner violence and child abuse—must be prepared to assist. Drawing on recent literature and case examples from a social service and advocacy organization that has served survivors of both sex and labor trafficking for over a decade, this chapter reviews common psychosocial needs of human trafficking survivors, factors that foster survivor resiliency, and policy and practice implications for working with this population.