1 DCP Stakeholder Interview Guide

HUMAN TRAFFICKING

PILOT DATA COLLECTION PROJECT

Organization Semi-Structured Interview Guide

Conducted by:

Health and Human Services
Administration for Children and Families and Office on Women’s Health

Organization Name:	__________________________________________
Date Completed:	_______ /	_______ /		_______
	Month	Day	Year

Notice to Respondents

Public reporting time for this collection is estimated to average 120 minutes, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to ACF OMB Officer, [name/address]. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB control number for this project is [insert number].

Human Trafficking Data Collection Pilot Project Introduction (2.5 minutes)

The Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF) Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP) and the Office of Women’s Health (OWH) are partnering to conduct the Human Trafficking Data Collection Pilot Project, which intends to use data to better understand and serve victims. The Pilot’s goals are to:

• Gain understanding of stakeholder opinions and their level of satisfaction with current human trafficking data collection practices and requirements for improving these practices

• Establish universal standards and definitions for data collection on human trafficking

• Use data to understand human trafficking victimization and survivor needs

• Align federal, state/local, and private sector experts on U.S. human trafficking data collection efforts

• Enhance HHS’ and OTIP’s ability to collect and share human trafficking data from partners

• Improve the efficiency of reporting legislatively-mandated data

• Analyze the need for development of an Interoperable Human Trafficking Data Collection Platform, in which systems will communicate with one another to share relevant information

Human Trafficking Data Collection

There are three elements impacting the collection and reporting of human trafficking data:

1. Uniform definitions and data standards

2. Federal and state legislation on victim service provision; and

3. Technological infrastructure for collecting, managing, and reporting human trafficking data

Your Organization and the Data Collection Pilot

Your organization was identified as a key stakeholder within one of the Pilot states, and the success of this project relies upon your insights as an expert in the field.

We would like to learn more about your satisfaction with your organization’s activities related to human trafficking data collection and/or providing services to victims. We would also like to document your insights on how to enhance ACF’s ability to collect and share human trafficking data from multiple stakeholders both within and outside of the federal government.

[Introduce team members, give brief description of qualifications, and describe functions during the interview]

Privacy and Consent

Before we begin, read the consent document and let us know if you have any questions or concerns. If you are willing to participate in this interview, please sign the consent document. Your name and title will not appear in the report, unless we specifically ask for and receive your approval. Although we are taking detailed notes, we would also like to record the interview to verify our notes with the interview dialogue.

Are you comfortable with this approach? [Allow time for consent or additional questions.] Do you have any questions? We expect this to take 1 hour.

Instructions to Interviewers

This guide provides an overview of the in-person stakeholder interviews for the OTIP Human Trafficking Data Collection Pilot Project. Stakeholder interviews will be conducted with Pilot team members. Each participant will complete a data sheet and an informed consent document.

Human Trafficking Data Collection Pilot Project

Stakeholder Organization Interview Guide

I. Organization and Interviewee Background (5 minutes)

1. What is your role within your organization?

PROBE 1: Is there anyone else here today who should be part of this conversation? We
will be covering your anti-trafficking work, your data collection processes, data
access and privacy with some technical questions, and data change management.

2. Please provide a brief overview of your organization, its mission, and summary of staff size and resources.

PROBE 1: Who do you serve?

PROBE 2: How do clients learn of your services? Do you received referrals from
organizations?

PROBE 3: What services do you provide to clients?

PROBE 4: What is your total current and past yearly budget? Yearly budget for serving
human trafficking victims?

II. Organization’s Role in Anti-Trafficking Efforts (10 minutes)

1. Are you satisfied with your organization’s capability to distinguish between victims of domestic violence, intimate partner violence, child maltreatment, and human trafficking? Please explain.

2. Please explain your organization’s client populations who may be human trafficking victims.

PROBE 1: Has your agency identified a strategy for identifying victims of human trafficking? How many trafficking victims do you serve in a year? What percentage of your clients are human trafficking victims?

PROBE 2: Please describe the victims that are served. Are these children or adults, or both?

PROBE 3: Do you notice any trends within human trafficking victims (risk indicators, certain populations, etc.)?

3. Please explain how your organization works with human trafficking victims.

PROBE 1: What services does your organization provide to human trafficking victims?

PROBE 2: Does your organization refer human trafficking victims to other services or
organizations? Which ones?

4. Please provide a general description of how your organization operates within your state, particularly in regards to human trafficking.

PROBE 1: Please describe any services and activities that you provide for human
traffic victims.

PROBE 2: Please describe any initiatives, campaigns, or outreach efforts in place.

PROBE 3: Is your organization planning to expand its capacity to serve trafficking victims?

5. Please explain how your organization partners with other agencies within your state, particularly in regards to human trafficking.

PROBE 1: Do you work closely with other organizations or coalitions/taskforces within your state? If yes, please describe how you work together. Which organizations participate? What are some of the facilitators and challenges in collaborating with these agencies to serve trafficking victims?

PROBE 2: Do you receive referrals from and/or make referrals to other agencies within your state? Please describe the process for receiving and/or providing referrals to other services providers.

6. What have been some of the challenges/barriers to success in meeting the needs of trafficking victims?

PROBE 1: What barriers/challenges do victims face when accessing services at your
organization? Within your state?

III. Human Trafficking Data Collection Processes (15 minutes)

1. Are you satisfied with your organization’s current methods of collecting data?

2. Do you collect data on services you provide to the victims? If so, are you satisfied with your organization’s ability to collect specific information related to human trafficking from the individuals you serve?

3. What is your role in the data collection process?

PROBE 1: Are you involved in the data collecting or reporting?

PROBE 2: Is there someone else who is in charge of the technical side of data collection?

4. Describe the process you use to collect data on human trafficking victims.

PROBE 1: What is the purpose of the data collection?

PROBE 2: What data do you collect? Do you think your organization should collect additional data? Would you be willing to start collecting additional data to support HHS?

PROBE 3: What categories of data exist in your dataset or system?

5. Please describe the data that you collect on human trafficking victims. What is the content, format, forms of data collection (manual or web entry), etc.?

PROBE 1: Do you receive data from an external data system?

PROBE 2: Are there data quality issues (e.g., older data prior to standardization, commonly misused fields, missing data, open text vs. picklists, etc.)? Please explain.

PROBE 3: Is a logical data model available?

PROBE 4: Is a data dictionary (including relational data elements) available?

PROBE 5: Does your dataset or system have/maintain standard metadata fields or tags? If so, what are they?

V. Data Access and Privacy (5 minutes)

1. Are you satisfied with your organization’s capacity to protect client or program participant information?

2. What are your organization’s data retention policies?

3. What are your organization’s data access restrictions? (e.g., PII, VAWA) How do you stay informed of privacy laws and regulations on information sharing for client data?

4. Do you currently share information with other agencies on human trafficking victims served?

PROBE 1: What information do you share? How do you share it?

PROBE 2: Have you been involved in any type of planning or advisory committee for the project? If so, please describe your involvement.

PROBE 3: Has your collaborative role changed/developed over the past year? If so, how?

PROBE 4: Are you satisfied with your organization’s ability to share data with other organizations?

5. Are you aware of any frameworks to facilitate data collection and information sharing among providers of victims of human trafficking?

PROBE 1: Have you heard of the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) and
National Human Services Interoperability Architecture (NHSIA)? Health Level Seven (HL7) Standards? Does your organization use either?

PROBE 2: Are you aware of and/or use the following to report data?

• The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS),

• The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS)

• The Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS)

• National Electronic Interstate Compact Enterprise (NEICE)

• Runaway and Homeless Youth Management Information System/Homeless Management Information System (RHYMIS-HMIS)

• National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD)

• Trafficking Information Management System (TIMS)

6. Would your organization be willing and able to routinely share anonymized client (human trafficking victim/survivor) data with any external organizations (e.g., grantors, state/local governments, other service providers, law enforcement, task forces, hospitals, clinics)? With HHS?

PROBE 1: Do privacy laws and regulations allow your organization to share and exchange the

anonymized data your organization collects with HHS?

7. What have been some of the challenges/barriers to collecting information on trafficking victims?

PROBE 1: Which issues make data collection particularly difficult? (Funding/budget? Staffing? Data sharing restrictions? Reporting processes? Data
accessibility? Data privacy/security?)

PROBE 2: What could be done to address these barriers?

PROBE 3: If you have not started collecting the information, what challenges/barriers, do you anticipate?

PROBE 4: Are you satisfied with your organization’s ability to report data to other relevant organizations?

VI. Technical Questions (10 minutes)

Note: These questions may apply to a different person within the organization. Recommend sending these questions ahead of time.

1. Does the system have existing data delivery feeds or exports?

PROBE 1: How is the data transmitted? How is it received?

PROBE 2: What feed/extract formats (e.g., XML, delimited text, DBMS export) do/can you support?

2. How frequently is the data sent?

3. How many organizations or people receive the data? What are the organizations/systems that receive the data?

PROBE 1: How is the delivery created (e.g. from a transaction archive, query,
software export function, etc.)?

PROBE 2: How large are the deliveries (number of records and file size)?

4. What type of data system/software is your data stored (Mainframe, Server-based relational database, Server based No-SQL, Local database (Access, Excel))? Please provide current vendor/ software version information.

PROBE 1: How much information is in your system (number of records, file size, etc.)?

PROBE 2: Are you satisfied with your organization’s capability to store data?

VII. Data Change Management (5 minutes)

1. Please describe how adding new data (i.e., new cases or updating records) affects the process of maintaining data records.

PROBE 1: How frequently do these changes occur (real-time, quarterly, etc.)? Which type
of data change is most common (e.g., new record, record update, etc.)?

PROBE 2: What is the time lag from data change and the data delivery?

<Only ask if the state has a mandate repopulate based on the state’s mandates>

2. Has your organization’s capacity to provide services been affected as a result of your state’s legislative mandate to either collect data and/or provide services to human trafficking victims? How so?

PROBE 1: Do you think your organization’s ability to serve victims of human trafficking
increased or decreased based on your state’s mandate(s)? If so, please explain why and how.

VIII. Closing Comments (10 minutes)

Thank you for taking the time to speak with us.

1. Would a national human trafficking database help your organization achieve its mission?

PROBE 1: How would your organization use it? What data would be useful to you?

PROBE 2: How do you recommend HHS coordinate with stakeholders to successfully create a national human trafficking information data collection system?

2. Are you interested in participating in a human trafficking data collection working group?

PROBE 1: In what capacity? How frequently?

PROBE 2: Can you recommend others to participate in this working group?

3. Is there anything you’d like to add? Are there any other questions we should have asked?

4. Is there anyone else you would recommend that we contact?

Human Trafficking Data Collection Pilot Project
Stakeholder Organization Post-Interview Completion Summary Document
The following form should be completed by the interviewer(s) and is not part of the Stakeholder Organization Interview Guide.

Table: Discussion Topics Covered in Interview and Key Findings/Themes
	Section	Key Interview Findings/ Themes by Topic Area	Respondents Supporting Finding*	Supporting Page(s) in Field Notes
	Organization and Interviewee Background
	Organization’s Role in Anti-Trafficking Efforts
	Human Trafficking Data Collection Processes
	Data Access and Privacy
	Technical Questions
	Data Change Management
	Closing Comments

* Code respondents based on Fact Sheet numbering: Respondent 1 as R1, Respondent 2 as R2, etc. (e.g., Statements by R1 supported Key Theme 1)

Other Topic Areas Discussed

List of Documents Obtained

Observations Regarding Interview Setting (e.g., description of location, etc.)

Observations Regarding Interview Respondents (e.g., engagement level, reluctance, etc.)

Additional Notes and Comments

Human Trafficking Data Collection Pilot Project Consent Form

Please read this form carefully and ask any questions you may have before agreeing to take part in the study.

Purpose of the Research: To understand about practices, requirements, and needs related to data collection about human trafficking. The Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF) and the Office of Women’s Health (OWH) have partnered to establish baseline knowledge of human trafficking and victim service needs. We are asking you to take part because you were identified as a key stakeholder within one of the six states identified to participate in the pilot study.

What You Will Do in This Research: If you agree to be in this study, you will be asked to participate in one interview. We will not ask you for human trafficking victim/survivor data. We will ask questions about:

• Human trafficking data collection and reporting

• Federal and state legislation on victim service provision

• State and organizational infrastructure for collecting, managing, and reporting human trafficking data

Time Required: The interview will take approximately 1 hour.

Risks: We do not anticipate any risks to your participation in this study.

Benefits: This is a chance for you to contribute valuable information about requirements, challenges, and resources required for collection, reporting, and sharing of data on human trafficking victims and survivors. These stakeholder perspectives will provide guidance to child welfare agencies on human trafficking data reporting requirements and will assist in the development of an interoperable human trafficking data collection platform.

Confidentiality: Your responses to interview questions will be anonymous. At no time will your actual identity be revealed. You will be assigned a random numerical code. Anyone who helps transcribe responses will only know you by this code. The recording will be erased as soon as it has been transcribed. The transcript, without your name, will be kept until the research is complete.

Participation and Withdrawal: Your participation in this interview is completely voluntary, and you may refuse to participate or end the interview at any time. You may skip any question during the interview, but continue to participate in the rest of the study. Withdrawal will not affect your organization’s relationship with HHS.

To Contact the Researcher: If you have questions or concerns about this research, please contact the Office on Trafficking in Persons at [email protected]

Agreement: The nature and purpose of this research have been sufficiently explained and I agree to participate in this study. I understand that I am free to withdraw at any time without incurring any penalty.

Signature _____________________________________________________ Date _______________

Name (print) ______________________________________________________________________

In addition to agreeing to participate, I also consent to having the interview audio-recorded.

Signature _______________________________________________________ Date ______________

Signature of person obtaining consent ________________________________ Date ______________

Printed name of person obtaining consent _____________________________ Date ______________