Outcomes & Evidence · 2015—2025
A decade of federally funded, independently evaluated human trafficking outreach and aftercare in northern New Mexico — measured with validated instruments, reported to our funders, and published here.
Goal vs. Delivered
Every federal award sets measurable objectives. Here is what our grants required of us, and what independent evaluation found we actually achieved.
Enrolled clients receiving intensive case management
Not a single enrolled client went without a case manager — across the full grant period.
Clients remaining stably housed at twelve months
Measured across current, discharged, and out-of-state clients — against Section 8 waits of one to two years and rising rents.
Clients in benefits, employment, or school within twelve months of intake
Exceeded the target by forty points. 81% receiving benefits, 44% working, 19% in school — with overlap.
Clients with measurable reduction in PTSD or psychiatric symptoms
Verified by PCL-5, PHQ-9, and OQ-45.2 — administered and scored over time, not self-reported at exit.
Scale of Delivery
Service units measure the real hours of care delivered — case management, safety planning, housing advocacy, emotional support. Ours more than tripled in five years.
Annual service units, 2019—2024. The 2021—22 dip reflects pandemic service disruption; the 2023—24 climb reflects expanded outreach capacity and a fully staffed advocate team.
Where the Change Shows Up
Four domains, each tracked with a validated instrument across the life of the program.
A Housing First model: secure shelter comes before intensive clinical work, because being housed measurably reduces PTSD symptoms on its own.
Measured with the PCL-5, the standard clinical instrument for post-traumatic stress, administered repeatedly over time.
A harm-reduction approach that meets clients where they are, rather than driving them from care with abstinence-only requirements.
Benefits enrollment, employment, and education — the practical scaffolding that makes leaving possible and staying gone durable.
Peer-support case managers and licensed clinical therapists on one team, with daily or near-daily client contact.
Asked directly, anonymously, and repeatedly — from 2020 through 2025.
Context Worth Knowing
Outcome numbers mean little without knowing the population and the place. Ours is among the hardest-hit and least-resourced in the country.
Average ACE score in our cohort. A score of 4 or higher already sharply elevates lifetime risk of depression, chronic illness, and suicide.
New Mexico's national rank for poverty in 2023 — 17.8%, against a national rate of 12.5%.
Of the state population is rural. Central and northern pueblos are isolated and disproportionately affected by MMIW-linked trafficking.
Typical local Section 8 waitlist. Voucher values have stagnated while rents climb — the headwind behind every housing number above.
In Survivors' Own Words
They provide a chance to change the things in your life like trauma, abuse and life experiences in a positive way… I really appreciate this program because it made me change my life for the better and made me feel like my life matters.
I would just like to thank The Life Link program. You all have helped me so much. I could not be clean today without [staff].
In the most recent survivor survey, every respondent strongly agreed that staff respect their background, and more than 93% agreed that staff help them believe their lives could change for the better.
How We Know
Across more than a decade of federal and state awards, the program has used the data systems its funders required — SAMHSA, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the New Mexico Crime Victim Reparations Commission — to capture client demographics, service type, frequency, and dosage.
Change over time is measured with validated clinical instruments, administered and scored repeatedly rather than collected once at exit. Staff wellbeing is tracked too, via the VT-ORG vicarious-trauma organizational survey.
The program also deployed a Mandarin-language PCL-5 and satisfaction survey to serve a growing population of Chinese labor-trafficking survivors — an accessibility effort translated by a native-speaking client.
Outcome figures for housing, trauma, self-sufficiency, and satisfaction are drawn from the DOJ Office for Victims of Crime K022 final evaluation (2018—2021) and the FY2025 program evaluation (2022—2025). Reach and service-volume figures come from Key Performance Measures and Service Provision reports and the 2019—2024 internal data summary.
Service-unit totals apply the program's standard 5.68 multiplier to recorded services. From 2022 onward, "victims served" includes both enrolled clients and anonymous hotline contacts; unduplicated enrolled-client counts were 66 in 2022, 119 in 2023, and 66 in 2024.
The Mandarin-language satisfaction instrument was translated by a native-speaking client; it is presented as an accessibility effort rather than a formally validated measure. Law enforcement and prosecution outcomes from task-force grants are intentionally excluded — this page covers survivor services only.
Partner With Us
If you are a funder, a referral partner, or someone who wants this work to continue in New Mexico — we would like to hear from you.