The Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking (LCHT) is expanding its Root Cause Community Conversations to examine structural inequities that increase trafficking risk in Colorado. Using a community-led, data-driven approach, this project will identify systemic barriers in community safety, policing, labor protections, and economic conditions that heighten vulnerability. Accurately measuring human trafficking remains a challenge due to imperfect data, systemic turnover, funding fluctuations, and societal biases. The Colorado Project’s 10-year community-based participatory research (CBPR) offers a deeper understanding beyond prosecution and system counts. By using public health frameworks, it highlights who is counted, who is overrepresented, and who is missing in trafficking data. CBPR empowers survivors, underserved communities, and advocates with data-driven insights to shape local responses. It recognizes lived experience as vital expertise and ensures marginalized voices—including Indigenous, immigrant, LGBTQ+, and housing-insecure populations—are central in policy development. Building on The Colorado Project 2023, LCHT conducts focus groups, community dialogues, and stakeholder engagement to generate data that informs policy and advocacy strategies. Findings are synthesized into actionable recommendations for policymakers, service providers, and advocacy organizations, addressing the root causes of exploitation and fostering systemic change. Drawing from project findings, the presenters underscore how marginalized groups in Colorado continue to be more vulnerable to exploitation and human trafficking. They will share how they collected these data and the subsequent process for preparing Action Plan recommendations focused on inclusion, training, partnership actions, and housing needed to sustain survivor-centered and trauma-informed anti-trafficking responses. They will highlight regional differences across urban, rural, and frontier communities.
Trigger Warning: This presentation contains information (written, spoken, or visual) that may be triggering or (re)traumatizing to attendees.
Dr. Annjanette Alejano-Steele (she/her/siya) is the co-founder of the Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking and professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her health psychology expertise has focused on reproductive health equity and community responses to human trafficking. She has supported over 70 survivors of human trafficking to attend college.
Marla Sutherland (she/her) works at the Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking based in Denver. She has held a range of leadership and service-oriented roles, including housing counselor, property manager, and the first-ever Homeless Management Information System Database Administrator in Northern Colorado.