Safe Harbor Protocol Teams

Since 2018, Safe Harbor Protocol Teams across the state of Minnesota have developed comprehensive protocols, responses, and services for sexually exploited youth within their communities. The purpose of Safe Harbor Protocol Teams, in tandem with the statewide model of the Safe Harbor Protocol Guidelines, are to develop a collaborative and multidisciplinary response to the needs of sexually exploited youth in their own unique communities. A pivotal framework of the Guidelines and Teams themselves are the 5 core principles for working with and responding to youth who have been sexually exploited or trafficking:

• Victim-Centered
• Trauma-Informed
• Youth-Centered
• Strengths-Based
• Culturally Responsive

The inception of the Safe Harbor Protocol Development Project in 2018 brought forth a total of 5 pilot county teams: Ramsey, Hennepin, Wright, Goodhue, and Brown/Blue Earth/Nicollet. The success of this pilot initiative has since spread to other counties across the Minnesota including (but not limited to): Crow Wing, Clay, Isanti, Kandiyohi, Olmsted, St. Louis (Duluth), Washington.