Fort Worth ISD receives federal grant to teach students how to stay safe from human trafficking
Fort Worth schools have received a federal grant to help combat human trafficking, district officials announced Monday.
Fort Worth ISD is one of eight school districts nationwide to receive the grant, according to a news release. The three-year program will provide up to $600,000 annually for the district to increase teachers’ understanding of the complexities of human trafficking, increasing students’ understanding of protective factors, and train qualified student support services staff to implement and replicate the project activities district-wide.
The Administration for Children and Families, a division under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will support the program.
The school district will partner with the anti-human trafficking nonprofit organizations Unbound North Texas and 3Strands Global Foundation. In 2019, about 24% of human trafficking cases in Texas involved minors, according to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
Students between the fourth and 12th grades will be a part of the program intended to stop and raise awareness for human trafficking. Fourth- and fifth-graders will learn how to develop personal boundaries to keep them physically and emotionally safe, both online and in-person.
Middle school students will learn about the different forms of child abuse, including exploitation and trafficking and the importance of trusting their gut and how to be empowered to report when their boundaries are crossed.
High school students will learn about warning signs, recruitment through social media and video games, signs of grooming, trafficking laws and how media can influence and desensitize people toward exploitation.
School officials expect the project to kick off this summer with the city-wide prevention campaign called “Don’t Get Tricked.”
