The digitalization of outreach social work: Hybrid practices in Italian anti-trafficking efforts

This study contributes to understanding digital social work efforts by outreach professionals engaging in anti-trafficking interventions in Northern Italy. It aims to answer the following research questions: How are digital resources being mobilized by outreach social workers in preventing, countering, and redressing forms of exploitation and trafficking in persons? What contribution does this offer to the understanding of the new opportunities and risks created by digital social work, applied to outreach activities toward highly marginalized groups at risk of being trafficked for labor and sexual exploitation? In this paper, we first contextualize the issue through essential literature in the areas of trafficking in persons, outreach social work, and digital social work. We then briefly outline the methodology, which is followed by a presentation and discussion of some of the strategies outreach social workers have enacted to mobilize digital resources to prevent, identify, and redress exploitation. A brief conclusion highlights the main takeaways. Some methodologies aim to enhance the digital agency of persons at risk, while others generate user-led digital contact pathways or promote digital safety practices, thus contributing to achieving UN sustainable goals 5, empowering women and girls, and 16, promoting just, peaceful, and inclusive societies