The United Nations defines human trafficking as "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person for the purpose of exploitation" (United Nations, 2006). Affecting hundreds of thousands of victims in the US, it emerged as a federal priority, with the Department of Justice (DOJ). We defined capacity building as establishing understanding and enabling skills to assist excluded individuals participate more effectively in their communities (Henderson & Thomas, 2004; Payne, 2005). We adopted the five-component definition of capacity building developed by Glickman and Servon (1998) that analyzes the organization's resource, internal, programmatic, network and political capacities. Using a qualitative approach, we determined whether enhanced organizational capacity in addressing this vulnerable population occurred. © 2008 by The Haworth Press. All rights reserved.

Social services Emergent design capacity building Complexity Human trafficking

United Nations qualitative analysis local participation United States trafficking North America capacity building