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 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

Resources

To get more information about HTRI’s program evaluations or their competitive fund and research funds, contact [email protected].

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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 for real impact. So how would you describe prevention?

Jeni [00:02:41] So I think prevention for human trafficking, I think to really understand and appreciate what’s involved, you need to kind of look at the vulnerabilities of different populations. And so my lens comes more from the international realm because that’s where I focused my efforts. Although Sandie, I know we’ve talked about the U.S. context and ...