Public awareness campaigns have been effective at increasing victim identification and more strategic efforts can lead to other successful outcomes. The political will to combat human trafficking in the United States has been a strongly bipartisan effort since the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000. Most recently, U.S. President Barack Obama proclaimed January as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is responding to the proclamation’s call by launching the Look Beneath the Surfacesocial media campaign and continuing to work with our federal partners to implement the Federal Strategic Action Plan on Services to Victims of Human Trafficking in the United States.
The Look Beneath the Surface campaign is built on the success of HHS’ Rescue and Restore Victims of Human Trafficking campaign, launched in April 2004 to support the implementation of the TVPA. The goal of HHS’ first public awareness campaign was to help communities identify and serve victims of trafficking and aid law enforcement. In its first five years, the Rescue and Restore campaign generated 200 million media impressions throughout the country with a focus on altering the media’s coverage of human trafficking from solely an international problem to a domestic problem. The campaign provided reporter guidelines to maintain victim security and promote ethical communication. The campaign also recruited more than 1,000 local and 75 national partners and formed coalitions in 19 cities. The design and impact of the campaign was recognised with more than 10 industry awards, including the prestigious Silver Anvil Award from the Public Relations Society of America.
One critical factor that contributed to the success of the Rescue and Restore campaign was a clear call to action. The HHS campaign, along with many other government and non-government public awareness efforts, pointed the public to call the National Human Trafficking Hotline for help. Since 2007, the hotline received 138,000 calls from the community, leading to the identification of more than 33,000 cases of human trafficking reported from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and U.S. territories. Annual increases in the number of identified victims (see Figure 1) signal that more people are becoming aware of human trafficking and taking action. Callers learned about the hotline from a variety of sources, including internet searches, referrals, prior knowledge, the Department of State Know Your Rights Pamphlet, and word of mouth as the most common referrals to the hotline in fiscal year (FY) 2016.
