This page was last updated July 30, 2021. 

The Council for Women & Youth Involvement's (CFWYI) response to human trafficking is spearheaded by the Seek, Engage and Empower North Carolina (SEE NC) project. CFWYI uses a community-based approach that focuses on building partnerships with the agencies and individuals working at the local level to support and advocate for survivors of trafficking and other marginalized groups. Through the SEE NC project, we help our partners to meet human trafficking survivors where they are, both geographically by expanding services available in the community to support survivors and by ensuring these services are trauma-informed and survivor-centered. We recognize that response to human trafficking requires the community to be active in doing the work. We strive to connect communities to the knowledge and resources they need to succeed.

SEE NC 

SEE NC focuses on interdisciplinary collaboration and improving identification and response of human trafficking in marginalized, underserved, and unserved communities. The three primary components of SEE NC are interagency collaboration, accessible culturally specific resources, and training/technical assistance.

Interagency Collaboration

CFWYI partners with other state agencies, members of the Human Trafficking Program’s Interagency Committee, and CFWYI grantees serving marginalized populations to improve the identification of and response to human trafficking. Recent training partners include the Department of Public Instruction, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Rural Health and Division of Deaf/Blind/Hard of Hearing as well as over 90 public schools statewide. 

Accessible Culturally Specific Resources

CFWYI’s Human Trafficking program creates accessible, culturally specific, and multi-lingual resources, materials, training workshops, and outreach events across the state with a focus on improving access to services for survivors, including mental health, transportation, and language access. SEE NC continues CFWYI’s effort to expand transitional and permanent housing assistance for domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking survivors.

Training and Technical Assistance 

SEE NC project staff assist agencies across the state to improve identification of and response to human trafficking. In addition, the team provides trainings to professionals in a variety of fields to increase their understanding of and capacity to serve survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. CFWYI, in partnership with Capital Broadcasting developed an online training platform for CFWYI grantees on recognizing, identifying, reporting, and serving survivors of human trafficking. To request a specific training topic, please submit a Training/Speaker request form.

To access outreach materials on a variety of topics, including labor trafficking, serving male survivors, serving survivors with disabilities, and the intersections of human trafficking/domestic violence/sexual assault, please visit our resource library. 

SEE NC is made possible by grant funding through the Governor’s Crime Commission. This two-year project began October 1, 2019 with the intention of merging the best practices from earlier Human Trafficking Program projects into a single, integrated project.

SEE NC works to reach target communities that are marginalized, underserved or unserved, including projects focused on responding to North Carolina’s youth, and Native American communities.