Using community readiness assessment to prepare communities for effective response to commercial exploitation

Globally, human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) are profoundly complex public health problems, affecting more than 29 million people each year, mostly women and children. In the United States alone, more than 300,000 people are forced into CSE annually. CSE is enormously profitable for traffickers and deeply injurious to the exploited. Specialized safe homes are evolving as promising practices to support the complex intervention and aftercare service needs of the affected target population. In 2012, a diverse group of Massachusetts citizens launched a local effort to create a residential home community for adult women emerging from CSE. The group (entitled RIA House) utilized a community-based participatory approach to evaluate the potential community's readiness to support the program. A 14-member volunteer team used the Community Readiness Interview (Plested, et al., 2005), to conduct key informant interviews across nine population sectors including business, human services, and other strata within the target community. Questions centered on attitudes, knowledge, and obstacles to changing community responses to CSE. To date, 10 of 50 interviews have been completed and analyzed using sensitizing concepts (Patton, 2002). Preliminary findings include a notable lack of knowledge about CSE and poor understanding of possible solutions (such as support for legalization of prostitution as an intervention). Data are still under analysis. Early findings affirm the importance of community readiness assessments in understanding potential challenges faced by public health social workers. Implications for how to engage the community, including development of potential resources and building of future partnerships, will be discussed.