This issue brief from the Family Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) recognizes the vital role that runaway and homeless youth (RHY) programs can play in the prevention of sex and labor trafficking among runaway and homeless youth. It also highlights the importance of integrating public health, trauma-informed, and positive youth development principles into human trafficking interventions.
In addition to highlighting human trafficking (HT) risk factors, the brief offers a variety of HT prevention components that can be easily integrated into programmatic activities, such as discussing with youth how to recognize a "too good to be true" job or building safety nets to support RHY. This issue brief also emphasizes the importance of addressing the root causes and social conditions in which runaway and homeless youth become vulnerable to human trafficking, violence, and exploitation.