Established in 2010, the Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Program at the Asian Association of Utah (AAU) is Utah’s largest and only federally-funded program specifically tailored to provide direct victim assistance to all victims of human trafficking regardless of trafficking type, age, gender, or immigration status.
The TIP Program is housed in the Asian Association of Utah. AAU was founded in 1977 in response to the need for additional supports and services for the influx of refugees being resettled in Utah from Southeast Asia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, and other Asian countries at the time. Over the last 40+ years, AAU has expanded the populations it serves as well as the services provided. AAU currently serves over 3,200 individuals annually, including refugees, immigrants, survivors of trafficking from around the world, and members of the mainstream population. Our agency utilizes a multi-service agency approach, committed to reducing barriers to services by co-locating a broad range of programs and supports under one roof.
In 2010, as a result of AAU’s expertise in working with vulnerable refugee and immigrant populations, the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s National Human Trafficking Victim Assistance Program (NHTVAP) asked AAU to be a subgrantee of the program to serve foreign national victims of human trafficking. This marked the official start of the Trafficking In Persons (TIP) program at AAU.
In 2014, AAU was awarded a federal grant through the Administration on Children and Families to expand services to provide victim assistance to domestic victims of human trafficking including U.S. Citizens, and Legal Permanent Residents.
In 2015, AAU, as the lead victim services provider, and the Utah Attorney General’s Office received a grant to enhance the operation of the Utah Trafficking In Persons (UTIP) Task Force. This included improving victim identification, investigation and prosecution, and victim’s services for human trafficking cases.
In the last three years, in addition to maintaining previous services, AAU has enhanced services for specific types of trafficking victims and victim needs including Minor Victims of Trafficking, Victims of Labor Trafficking, and programming for emergency, short-term, transitional, and permanent housing opportunities for survivors of trafficking.
Today, the TIP program is funded through multiple federal, state, and private grants. Through these grants, we are able to serve all victims of both sex and labor trafficking—regardless of age, gender, and immigration status and continue to co-facilitate the UTIP Task Force with the Utah Attorney General’s Office.
While our grants allow us to provide many services in-house, we rely on strong community partnerships and referral networks to connect clients with the services that will be the best fit, in the right geographic area, with staff who have been trained in trafficking. Key partners include:
We are extremely grateful for all of our partnerships and truly believe we are better, and stronger together.
