Thanks to a grant from the Ohio Supreme Court, the Delaware County Juvenile Court has been developing a program to identify and prevent human trafficking for youth locally and across the state.
Delaware County Juvenile and Probate Court Judge David Hejmanowski learned about the grant by chance while attending a graduation party in 2021, and he told the Ohio Supreme Court official he was speaking to that Delaware County “doesn’t have a lot of those cases.” In response, Hejmanowski said he was essentially told the court was not looking hard enough.
“It turns out she was right,” Hejmanowski said earlier this month. “I had a really classic and narrow definition of what fits into human trafficking.”
After applying for the grant, the court was approved along with Hamilton County. Hejmanowski said the court was able to use the grant to hire Dr. Anna Travis, who now works as the Safe Harbor program coordinator for the court.
Travis said the goal of the grant is to build Ohio’s capacity to implement Safe Harbor diversion programs and responses for youth who are being trafficked. She explained that her role at the court is to develop a Safe Harbor diversion program, establish a multi-disciplinary response team for youth who are being trafficked, and provide technical support to other counties throughout the state to help them as they develop similar programs and protocols.
According to Hejmanowski, the first step was learning to properly identify human trafficking.
“People hear the phrase ‘human trafficking’ and they think about a teenage female being picked up or dropped off at a truck stop or moved around by a drug trafficker, and there certainly are those cases,” he said. “Those circumstances happen, but that is only the narrowest definition. What we see is often the broad definition.”
Travis explained that youths become victims of human trafficking mostly for survival, and trafficking can include trading sex for a place to sleep, for food, for phone access, or anything else.
“Most youth that are trafficked aren’t going to say, ‘Oh, by the way, I’m being trafficked,’” Travis said. “If you’re trading sex for anything of value, if you’re under the age of 18, that’s human trafficking.”
Hejmanowski said that currently when youth get involved with juvenile court, they are screened for a number of factors to see what the catalyst is behind their delinquent behavior.
“We’re already doing analysis of what issues they have,” Hejmanowski said. “(We want to learn) what’s driving this behavior. Are there developmental issues? Are there mental health issues? Are there drug/alcohol issues? Are there parenting issues at home? This now adds to that list of things that we’re looking for.”
Travis said juveniles who answer yes to certain screener questions are then referred to a Safe Harbor coordinator.
“(We had to) broaden our understanding of what qualifies,” Travis said. “If there’s any crime or charge that’s related to their trafficking situation, a youth can qualify for Safe Harbor diversion.”
Travis added that even when the court learns after a juvenile was adjudicated that they were in a human trafficking situation, they can still be connected with the necessary services.
According to Travis, from April 2022 to December 2022, there were 21 referrals to the Safe Harbor coordinator. Of the 21 referrals, nine were found to not be in trafficking situations, seven were found to be in high-risk situations, and five were found to have definitely been recruited or groomed by traffickers.
“If there were 10 (cases) a year, that would be a number that would surprise a lot of people in a county like Delaware County, and my guess is that’s low given we didn’t have the program up and running (the whole year),” Hejmanowski said. “Any one case would make this program worthwhile. I think what we’re seeing is it doesn’t matter if it’s a rural or urban county, these issues exist everywhere.”
Travis and Hejmanowski both said the court works to figure out what particular needs make the juvenile vulnerable to traffickers and then works to meet those needs.
“The legal system does not do prevention as well as the medical system does, but it’s easier, cheaper, and saves a whole lot of grief for a whole lot of people if we can prevent problems rather than have to fix the problems after they occur,” Hejmanowski said. “State law provides that if a youth has engaged in delinquent behavior as a result of being trafficked, then they’re eligible for a diversionary program. Are they trying to eat? (Do they need) some place to sleep? Let’s solve those needs and then we remove the necessity to engage in those types of behaviors. We match the services to the (need). … If all this program did was identify folks who were at risk and prevent them from being trafficked, I would be perfectly happy with that.”
Travis went on to say she has helped develop a 10-week prevention curriculum for at-risk female youth called the THRIVE Program.
“We talk about exploitation, and what it looks like,” she said. “The most extreme form is human trafficking, but it goes all the way to peer pressure.”
The program also covers understanding how to identify risky situations in people, setting safe and healthy boundaries, and establishing safe and healthy relationships. Travis said the program also aims to address some protective factors like enhancing youth’s social competence and “building positive self-identity in the hopes of preventing any sort of victimization down the line.”
“(It’s also about) identifying what their needs are so we know what services to put in place,” she added. “We work with active services providers … they could be mental health, substance, educational, vocational services, (or) mentoring. In terms of (the legal system,) we make sure there’s a public defender and guardian ad litem.”
Travis said the court works to make sure the professionals and attorneys working with the juveniles are trauma-informed. “What we don’t want to do ever is retraumatize,” she noted.
Both Hejmanowski and Travis reiterated not just females are vulnerable to traffickers and said it can happen anywhere.
“(Juveniles) can come from very stable home lives and can still be trafficked,” Travis said. “Traffickers know which vulnerabilities to look for. It can be anybody in the county or the state that could be vulnerable for this.”
Travis added she’s also working on creating a presentation to help other counties get their own programs running.
Glenn Battishill can be reached at 740-413-0903 or on Twitter @BattishillDG.
