EverFree, Blum Center showcase survivor-focused assessment
The UCI Blum Center for Poverty Alleviation and EverFree, the center's community partner organization working in the anti-human trafficking field, showcased the importance and power of survivor-focused data for lasting freedom at a recent meeting event hosted at the Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Meeting human trafficking survivor needs and helping them achieve their personalized goals requires survivor and programmatic data that didn't exist until now. The unique partnership between EverFree and the Blum Center has led to the development of a survivor-focused assessment tool. The tool, in the hands of service providers and case managers working with survivors, can help survivors identify areas or elements of their life they consider strengths and areas where they experience more challenges.
Empowered with such data, survivors can map out with their caseworker priorities to ensure they feel secure in their life and to reduce vulnerability to being re-trafficked.
Reassessment at a later time provides valuable information to both service organizations and individual survivors on what programs are working. In that way, the assessment could become a potentially critical evidence-based tool for shaping future programs and policy. The event, attended by local organizations that have piloted this tool as well as the Samueli Foundation, which has supported the development and piloting, illustrated the potential for harnessing technological advancements for good, with care and caution to ensure dignity, privacy and security.
Learn more about the Blum Center’s research on human trafficking on the website.
— Maureen Purcell