The Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA), along with its partners at the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) and the Southwest Transit Association (SWTA), announced that the Crime and Human Trafficking Prevention for Smaller Transit Agencies website and accompanying resources are now live.

The new resource center aims to achieve multiple goals:

• To improve existing educational materials for transit agencies on human trafficking, operator assault, and public safety;

• To develop new learning tools; and

• To provide resources targeted specifically for smaller urban, rural, and tribal transit providers.

“We are excited to introduce this resource to the community and public transit industry,” said Scott Bogren, CTAA executive director. “The project team harnessed the expertise of transit stakeholders, researchers and human trafficking experts in creating these valuable educational materials, resources, and training. We strongly believe that these new tools will help smaller transit systems combat human trafficking and forced labor, and empower their staff and riders to help protect vulnerable populations.”

The website and the resources it houses were developed through a grant from the FTA. The project team (CTAA, TTI, and SWTA) was funded to develop a program of Interactive Learning Resources and Guidance for Improving Crime Prevention and Safety for the Public and Transit Employees in response to the FTA’s Crime Prevention and Public Safety grant program.

“Empowering the community with accessible and actionable information is a critical component of this project and we’re very proud to see these resources go live so that people can begin to leverage them,” said Zachary Elgart, TTI principal investigator. “Education and awareness are key, and we’re already looking forward to continuing our work with CTAA and SWTA in the future to add new resources to the toolkit.”