National Human Trafficking Resource Center Website

The Polaris Project unveiled the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) webpage this week http://traffickingresourcecenter.org/. This website is meant to be the new hub for the NHTRC the national, 24-hour, toll-free hotline for the human trafficking. The NHTRC is operated by the Polaris Project it is supported by the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division in the Office of Refugee Resettlement of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). According to a Polaris project newsletter release the website "provides information about the NHTRC and human trafficking in the United States, national and state-specific hotline statistics and events, as well as an extensive Resource Library that includes assessment tools, online trainings, statistics, reports and other materials." The website seems easier to navigate than the Polaris site since you do not have to negotiate all of the additional information about the organization. They also unveiled a public online version of their referral directory "with information on 3,000 service providers, law enforcement agencies, coalitions, and advocates covering the entire United States and U.S. territories." Similar to the Global Modern Slavery Directory I wrote about a few weeks ago, it is missing some organizations but it is a great starting off point for locating victim service and advocacy organizations. Now that their directory is online I wonder if the number of calls to the national hotline will go down. The hotline statistics are something Polaris Project discusses in most of their promotional materials so I can see why they would want to keep this information all to themselves. So it is great news that everyone has access to it now and I believe this website will be a great resource for people looking for more information on trafficking or organizations in their area.

The quotes were drawn from the National Human Trafficking Resource Center bi-monthly newsletter. For more information, please call the NHTRC at 1-888-373-7888 or visit the NHTRC at traffickingresourcecenter.org.