USAID announces grant to TCU to combat human trafficking


Fort Worth, TX | August 9, 2013 05:35 PM | Print this story




The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced this week that it has awarded a research grant to TCU for a project that will administer a public opinion survey to 2,000 participants in Moldova and Ukraine to discover what they known and think about human trafficking. The project will also research how participants' knowledge and perceptions can be influenced to change behaviors and practices related to human trafficking.


TCU Assistant Professor of Political Science, Dr. Vanessa Bouche, is leading this effort. Bouche serves as Director of Policy for the National Research Consortium on Commercial Sexual Exploitation (NRC-CSE.org). She also provides expert and methodological consultation to a number of anti-trafficking organizations. She has experience lobbying at the state and federal levels for human trafficking legislation.


The grant is part of USAID's Counter-Trafficking in Persons (C-TIP) Campus Challenge, a global campaign to strengthen a movement within higher education to combat human trafficking. The Campus Challenge is part of a larger effort to apply innovation, research and evidence to inform its counter-trafficking programs.


TCU was one of three universities awarded between $175,000 and $200,000 each, sharing the honor with the University of Southern California and Vanderbilt University. All three research projects will begin this summer and are expected to be completed by 2015.