Advantages of a Task Force

There are several advantages of the task force model:

• Develop Collaborative Relationships: Agencies involved in local anti-trafficking efforts, or seeking to become involved, can learn the roles and capacities of the other agencies.
• Improves opportunity to meet the needs of victims: It is impossible for any single agency or organization to comprehensively meet all needs of victims of human trafficking. A successful taskforce can create a stronger, collaborative response to victims' needs. Responding to the victims' needs and conducting the criminal investigation are not mutually exclusive.
• Leverage Resources: Task forces can create a directory of all member organizations so that everyone on the task force can easily identify the capacity of the other members.
• More Effective Response: As task force members learn about partner capacities and limitations, and gain experience working together, authentic collaboration on everyone's part makes responding to incidents of human trafficking more successful.
• Greater Agency Buy-in and Support of Anti-trafficking Efforts: Task force partners can leverage their success to gain greater agency support of anti-trafficking efforts. For example, the chief of a local police department may offer more resources toward anti-trafficking operations when she/he learns that victim service providers are willing to assist identified victims or take up the cause of promoting a regional anti-trafficking response protocol along with other chiefs of police.
• Funding Opportunities: Successful task force collaboration can assist in the application and obtaining of grants. For example, under the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA)/Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) grant program, the Enhanced Collaborative Model Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force program, existing collaborations between law enforcement and victim service providers must be documented in the grant application.
• Joint Training Opportunities: Task force partners can model how they respond to trafficking and promote all the partners' capabilities through coordinated training.
• Promote a Unified Message on Human Trafficking: Member organizations can promote a consistent and unified message on human trafficking to the community, along with advocating for needed changes in laws or funding related to the response to human trafficking.

For additional information and tools, visit the Resource page for Section 2.1: Forming A Task Force