What is PATH?
PATH
stands for Partners Against Trafficking in Humans. PATH is a community-wide, outcomes-based, coordinated, transparent, and data-driven response to human trafficking. The PATH Project's mission is to address the barriers and gaps in direct service coordination for victims of human trafficking and to improve service delivery. PATH provides a continuum of care, moving victims to become survivors, and survivors to become thrivers.
Care coordinating agencies
are PATH approved and provide a PATH Care Coordinator that works with clients who have been trafficking, connecting them to services through the PATH model.
PATH-Approved agencies
have been through the training process and provide a Point-of-Contact. These agencies have committed to coordinate and guide clients through their agency services.
Path-Approval seeking agencies
have not completed the process to be considered PATH-approved, however, they have either been trained on PATH, human trafficking and/or trauma-informed care; have signed the Memorandum of Understanding; or have attended the Lucas County Human Trafficking Coalition.
Victim - Survivor - Thriver
A victim is a person who suffers from destructive or injurious, acute or chronic, emotional, mental, and/or physical victimization, derived from real or perceived threats or action, and because of these circumstances suffers from trauma. A victim may continue to be involved in trafficking or may no longer be involved, but continues to suffer trauma manifested in some or all of the following ways: continued dysfunctional professional or personal relationships or moving into other dysfunctional relationships, living in or experiencing reoccurring crises, continued necessity for basic needs, lack of adequate attention to health, an unwillingness or inability to engage in reflection or insight into their life and situation, a lack of meaningful movement toward recovery or change, significant deficits in positive and pro-social informal and/or formal support systems.
A survivor is actively involved in recovery services, but is fragile and may be re-traumatized and/or re-injured emotionally. A survivor may shift in and out of victimization and victim-survivor status as they may return to their trafficker and/or other situations involving exploitation. Survivors may be involved in some or all of the following: some relationships in their lives are dysfunctional and some are positive, survivors recognize their circumstances and issues and are actively working on them, he/she experiences a periodic crisis, basic needs may be occasionally needed, acute conditions are resolved immediately and chronic conditions are being consistently controlled and the survivor under the care of a professional, there is meaningful reflection or insight into their life and situation, and meaningful movement is occurring towards recovery, there are some positive and/or pro-social informal and/or formal support systems in his/her life.
A thriver no longer suffers or minimally suffers the trauma related to the reasons they became involved in services. He/she may or may no longer be involved in recovery services; however he/she continues to work to maintain emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical health. Thrivers feel empowered to make healthy decisions about their lives and the people involved in their lives. He/she actively pursues and is engaged in positive and prosocial informal and formal support systems. He/she works toward achievable goals and have attainable objectives to reach them. Thrivers may be identified as involved in some or all of the following: most meaningful relationships in their lives are positive. Thrivers consciously monitor their emotional, mental, physical and spiritual health and attend to it. Thrivers live their lives intentionally and purposefully because they choose to. He/she experiences periodic crises, but can recover using the resources they have or the knowledge they have on how to obtain the resources they need. Thrivers engage in meaningful reflection or insight into their lives and situations and make plans to maintain or enhance those positive aspects. Recovery is something a thriver holds dear and he/she puts time into it and places importance on it. Thrivers empathetically reach out to others in need because they can do it without being easily re-wounded. Finally, thrivers understand boundaries and finding balance in their lives.
Process of PATH
