ABSTRACT
During the last 20 years, law enforcement, faith-based organizations, agencies from the social service sector, and non-governmental organizations in Florida have strived to develop organizational structures to combat human trafficking. In many cases, attempts to develop working relationships have faltered and even been abandoned entirely. However, in the Central Florida area, one of the primary hot spots for human trafficking in Florida, local and regional law enforcement, social service agencies, and the Florida Abolitionist (FA) have successfully built ties that provide a model for combating human trafficking. In this chapter, we outline the various agencies in Central Florida and describe the collaborative efforts of these groups that have assisted both victims and the criminal justice system in responding to human trafficking incidents. Due to the FA developing into the leading organization in Florida for assisting victims, it has expanded to form the United Abolitionist (UA), providing training to other areas of the nation based on the promising results from Florida. Similarly, the next goal is the establishment of the United Abolitionist Human Trafficking Training Center to serve as a means to share knowledge gained in Central Florida with organizations outside the state and to secure funding needed to develop programs that can serve as best practices within the United States (US) and other nations.
