Authentic Community Engagement in Safe Harbor

The meaningful engagement and collaboration within community strengthens a multidisciplinary response to sexual exploitation and trafficking. A blend of constructive teaming strategies, stakeholder buy-in, and effective system partnerships will set the foundation for teams to be successful. However, it is essential that teams bolster their response with the feedback and participation of culturally-specific organizations and survivor voice.

To improve the response of statewide protocol development, the Sexual Violence Justice Institute (SVJI) at the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault (MNCASA)¹ sought to identify how Safe Harbor Protocol Teams could increase their capacity to center marginalized voices and survivors within their work.