Erryn Tappy
CNA Research Intern
Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking

Call it our summer of surveys. As interns at LCHT, my colleague Mindy and I have been tasked with launching a Community Needs Assessment (CNA) in Boulder.

The ambitious research project is designed to facilitate the enhanced coordination and provision of services to victims of human trafficking in the state of Colorado. To date, LCHT has surveyed more than 160 first responders who have contact with victims – an integral part of the CNA process. LCHT has carried out CNAs in Denver, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Englewood and Cheyenne, WY. Before extending the CNA to Boulder, Mindy and I had to first edit the 14-page survey LCHT distributes to first responders. We spent months scrutinizing every word and every sentence in the document. Sounds tedious, right? For us, it was exactly what we wanted as interns: an opportunity to grow as community-based researchers.

I was drawn to this internship, specifically the CNA project, because it combines two topics I am really passionate about: science and social justice. As an undergraduate, I took a class focused on human trafficking, which is what originally motivated me to become involved in the anti-human trafficking movement; however, my understanding of research in the field has been deeply enhanced through my work at LCHT.

Mindy and I both came into the CNA project with our own values and expectations about community-based research. Thankfully, they closely match the values of LCHT. We believe community-based research should go beyond making observations from the outside looking in, and instead should support the community in identifying and voicing their own needs. We believe research should be non-exploitative. We try to be mindful of the impact that each step of the research process may have on a community. And we’re committed to sustainability. To us, that means we don’t own information gathered in a CNA, the community does.

When creation and ownership is shared, a project can gain life beyond laboratories, libraries and agencies.

In extending the CNA project to Boulder, we’ve learned a lot, building upon the beliefs we had at the outset of the project. We’ve gained a new level of appreciation for the complexity of the research process, and the necessity to be mindful of details. Yes, dissecting every sentence in a survey is time-consuming, but researchers need to be critical of every detail to obtain success. This became clear to us while editing the survey used to gather data for the CNA project. Without a strong foundation, research undoubtedly suffers.

One of the most rewarding aspects of the project is seeing how eager people are to learn more about the issue of human trafficking and what they can do about it. It’s also inspiring to recognize the potential that local communities have to combat human trafficking. Additionally, we witnessed first-hand the advantages of being connected to the community throughout the research process. As a recent graduate of CU Boulder, my sense of belonging to that community has been so helpful in establishing connections there. I didn’t have to start from scratch. It was great to know what resources were available to me, and to feel comfortable in reaching out to those resources. I feel fortunate to be able to bridge the roles of both a Boulder community member and a researcher.

We are optimistic that others can form similar bridges between their communities and the anti-human trafficking movement.

For more information, check out this link on our site. If you have any questions, suggestions, or comments, please include them in the comments section below or e-mail us at info@combathumantrafficking.com.

Marlena Hartz
Social Media Intern
Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking

The relationship has always been ambivalent, tinged with resentment, advanced on impulses, marked by a sense of mystery.

I purchased my first cell phone in my senior year of college. All my friends had them, but I didn’t understand the need. More than that, I feared what we might become: discourteous drones obligated to answer phone calls in all places and at all hours, defined by the tiny machines in our pockets. I liked to think of my refrain as a form civil disobedience. Then, I found a new apartment and new roommates who refused to be tethered to a landline. So reluctantly, I bought my first cell phone. I sat on my porch until the sun went down and painstakingly transferred numbers from a tattered phone book into a little device. Today, I don’t leave the house without my cell phone. It’s saved me a hundred times: from flat tires, from crowds that separate me from friends, from detours on strange highways.

A few years later that familiar trepidation crept up again. I’d been a reporter for a daily newspaper in New Mexico for about a year when traditional and new journalism collided. My editor had just invested in a couple handheld video cameras. He called me into a meeting with our publisher and department managers. I assumed we’d talk about my big story. The Board of the community college would announce its next president. The race, between a newcomer and a town native, had been contentious.

“Marlena,” my editor asked, “How would you feel about Dustin following you with a video camera tomorrow to cover the announcement?”

“What?” I balked. “I think that’s a horrible idea. None of my sources will open up if some guy’s lurking around with a camera. No one will talk. No one.”

The next day Dustin followed me around with a camera. All my sources opened up. Unlike me, they embraced the camera’s presence.

Confession No. 1: as an intern at LCHT, one of my primary duties is contributing to our social media campaign. I spend a lot of time as a graduate student of communication contemplating technology, asking how it’s changing the news business and how it’s changing our lives. My Strategic Communications class this quarter often revolves around social media. We talk Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Flickr. Even these sites, I’ve learned, are now best described as “old school.” The telltale sign: my mom just opened a Facebook account. Innovative social media venues, such as Foursquare and Meetup, and brilliant ways to use them seem to spring up every day.

Confession No. 2: I still find technology dizzying. A team of four LCHT interns and staff met last week to discuss how to cover an anti-trafficking conference in Colorado Springs. We agreed we should do some live tweeting from the event. Comedy ensued.

Me: “Is is twittering or tweeting? I still can’t figure that one out.”
No answer. Discussion moves on to other matters.

LCHT Staff Member No. 1: “We should make sure there’s an Internet connection available at the conference site.”
Me: “Yeah, like Wi-Fi, or whatever it’s called?”
Silence.

LCHT Staff Member No. 2 to me: “Can’t you just tweet from your phone?”
Me: “My phone doesn’t have that capacity.”

As usual, I’m a slow to move with the times, still a print journalist at heart who’s exploring a pretty foreign landscape. Given all that, it’s surprising: the more I learn about social media, the more I like it. I seem to have landed in the right place, too, since LCHT embraces experimentation.

Gil Scott-Heron told us the revolution would not be televised in 1971. I wonder, will it be digitized?

I don’t think social media can replace the durability of relationships formed face-to-face or old-fashioned mobilization like marches, sit-ins, or boycotts. But it has power.

On the first day of class, my strategic communications professor prompted us to consider the recent Target scandal. Fittingly, we’ve been documenting it as a class on our communal blog. This June, news that the retail giant donated $150,000 to a group tied to a senator who opposes same-sex marriage went viral. Progressive consumers vented online, calling for action on blogs and Facebook pages. Employees vented on the same venues. Some 78,000 people joined an anti-Target Facebook page launched to encourage store boycotts. Target Ain’t People – the catchy YouTube video of a musical protest at a Target store – attracted more than 1.2 million viewers. In August, Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel publicly apologized for the store’s political misstep. That’s powerful. Yet, so are other forces working to dismantle Internet democracy. According to The Huffington Post, Facebook administrators recently blocked key functions of the anti-Target site. It proves advocates of social change need to work hard to maintain and fortify the digital ground they’ve won.

I’m getting more and more excited about my social media assignments at LCHT. I’m starting to think like a chemist. Virtual activism and on-the-ground activism are like red and white phosphorus on the tip of a match.

Together, I believe they have the power to combat human trafficking and incite tangible social change.

To join in the conversation with LCHT on social media, "Like" us on our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter. You can also find some of our other social media outlets in the footer of our website. Just scroll to the bottom of this page and click on any of the links under "Social Community."