Work Groups

The Georgia Statewide Human Trafficking Task Force operates by a targeted, strategic framework which consists of individual Work Groups addressing the five elements of the trafficking continuum: Vulnerability-Recruitment-Exploitation-Withdrawal-Reintegration.

Specifically, the Task Force functions based on nine objectives:

  1. Community Awareness and Education;
  2. Youth Aware And Safe;
  3. Deterring Traffickers And Buyers;
  4. Keeping At-Risk Youth Safe;
  5. Apprehending, Investigating, And Prosecuting;
  6. Foreign-Born and Labor Trafficking;
  7. Survivors Supported And Protected;
  8. Survivors Recovering And Thriving;
  9. Examining Domestic Adult Sex Trafficking.

The nine Work Groups, created and launched in 2015, operate under the umbrella of these defined objectives.

Each Work Group is comprised of Partner Level members of the Statewide Human Trafficking Task Force. It is the responsibility of these Work Group members to conceptualize, develop and implement projects to address gaps in education and services relating to exploitation in Georgia with the goal of making a lasting impact on combating this issue in the state. Each Work Group project has clearly identified the target population to be addressed where a change in knowledge, behavior, attitudes, or conditions will occur as a result of the work. Projects will impact an identified risk factor of exploitation, guided by the nine goals of the Task Force developed to address one of the five key elements of the trafficking continuum (above). When all projects are being implemented, the full continuum is being impacted—resulting in “Collective Impact.” One of the clear innovations of this framework is the way it structures the work so that numerous projects will be proceeding concurrently to ensure that multiple aspects of the Human Trafficking issue are being addressed simultaneously. In this way, the Work Groups members conceptualize, develop, and implement innovative projects designed to identify a gap or limitation in existing activities, outputs, and outcomes relative to collective impact goals for which innovation is needed due to the existing system’s inability or unlikeliness to attempt said innovation. This approach allows the Task Force to address needs that either are not being addressed by established programs in the service system, or are not being addressed to the needed level of frequency, intensity, or duration.