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Ending Human Trafficking

286 – How Do We Measure Prevention, with Jeni Sorensen

Nov 14, 2022 · 33 min · Episode 1 · 32.2 MB
0:00-33:10

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This episode is brought to you by Vanguard University and the Global Center for Women and Justice, who offer an incredible anti-human trafficking certificate. Whether you're a frontline responder, a social worker, in the ministry, a healthcare provider, or simply a community member who wants to help, this program is built for you. Head over to gcwj.org/ahtc to take the next step and apply today. 

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Sandie is joined by Jeni Sorensen from Poverty Action to discuss research methods and data gathering approaches to help NGO’s evaluate their programs. They look at the different types of data, how to design your research, and existing tools.

Jeni Sorensen

Jeni Sorensen is a human trafficking specialist with 20 years of experience designing, managing, and evaluating programs to combat human trafficking in the U.S. and around the world. Ms. Sorensen currently serves as Director of International Poverty Action’s Human Trafficking Research Initiative, which fosters partnerships between researchers and program implementers to build and carry out rigorous research studies. Previously, Ms. Sorensen served as Director of Winrock International’s Human Trafficking and Safe Migration programs, where she oversaw a $70 million portfolio of counter-trafficking programs in Asia and Latin America. Ms. Sorensen holds a BA from the University of Texas at Austin and an MPP from Georgetown University.

Key Points

  • To measure prevention impact, a theory of change and measurement of success should be identified beforehand.
  • To measure trainings, identify the goal of the trainings, randomize your audience, and take a pre-test and post-test.
  • Qualitative and quantitative data is important to humanize stories and this issue and to determine the efficiency of programs, respectively.
  • When gathering data, be sure to only collect data on indicators you actually have time to analyze.

Resources

To get more information about HTRI’s program evaluations or their competitive fund and research funds, contact IPA_HTRI@poverty-action.org.

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Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 286, How Do We Measure Prevention, with Jeni Sorenson.

Production Credits [00:00:09] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

Dave [00:00:29] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie [00:00:34] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave [00:00:37] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. And of course, a big part of that difference is prevention, right Sandie? We’ve talked about this.

Sandie [00:00:48] Oh, yes! It’s my favorite topic.

Dave [00:00:49] Again and again as we’ve gone forward. And of course, we’re going to come back to this today. I’m so glad to be able to welcome an expert for us to really dive in on this further. Jeni Sorenson is a human trafficking specialist with 20 years of experience designing, managing and evaluating programs to combat human trafficking in the U.S. and around the world. She currently serves as director of IPAs Human Trafficking Research Initiative, which fosters partnerships between researchers and program implementers to build and carry out rigorous research studies. Previously, she served as director of WIN Rock International’s Human Trafficking and Safe Migration Programs, where she oversaw a $70 million portfolio of counter trafficking programs in Asia and Latin America. She holds a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and an MPP from Georgetown University. Jeni, what a pleasure to have you on the show.

Jeni [00:01:42] Thank you so much for having me.

Sandie [00:01:43] So I’m really excited. You’re a hero in my ecosystem to use some of the language people are starting to talk about here, and I like to talk about prevention the same way we talk about brushing our teeth. But it’s not very helpful in anti-trafficking because we don’t have an easy way to be able to do every six month checkups with every kid that we give a toothbrush to or that we give something to that we think is going to prevent them from being exploited. I want a vaccine. But prevention in this frame is very challenging to actually measure what we’re doing...