About Rising International
Rising International is a California non-profit with a mission to protect women and children from poverty and exploitation, both locally and globally.
Rising International’s local “Safe & Sound” human trafficking prevention program aims to provide youth with the fundamental information needed to stay safe and seek help from potential exploiters. Workshops are conducted both in person (when safe to do so) and virtually with middle and high school students. The workshops provide knowledge of human & labor trafficking, awareness of traffickers’ methods, information for creating healthy boundaries and knowledge of where to access resources and assistance.
Pro-Bono Engagement Summary
Rising International collected survey data before and after each Safe & Sound workshop, with the goal of measuring whether participants gained greater awareness of key human trafficking topics, as well as the overall student reaction to the program.
The Vega team assisted Rising International on a pro-bono basis to help its leadership understand and interpret the survey data from multiple workshops conducted during 2019 and 2020. Vega performed exploratory analyses and produced visualizations regarding various aspects of the program’s overall effectiveness. In addition, Vega analyzed the participants’ reactions to the program and provided detailed statistics for each survey question, helping to identify topic areas where students’ learning could be improved.
Safe and Sound Program Analysis
Rising International provided the Vega team with its aggregated survey data. To analyze the success of the program, Vega determined the degree to which students had successfully learned the program content and whether participants had a positive impression of the program.
Vega first analyzed the data to determine whether participants demonstrated an increase in their knowledge of key program topics after attending either an in-person or virtual workshop.
The surveys included several multiple-choice questions meant to evaluate students on the program content. Vega calculated the percentage change between the pre-workshop and post-workshop proportion of students who provided correct answers for each of these survey questions. The team also performed more detailed analyses for select questions. For instance, the chart below illustrates the increase in the percentage of participants who correctly defined human trafficking after the virtual workshop. See Figure 1: Knowledge of Trafficking Before and After the Virtual Workshop.
The analysis found that while only 51% of students could correctly define human trafficking before the workshop, 88% of participants could correctly define it after attending the virtual workshop.
Figure 1: Knowledge of Trafficking Before and After the Virtual Workshop
Vega also compared the knowledge gains of the students who attended the in-person workshop to students who attended the virtual workshop, providing an overview of program results across each delivery method. Figure 2: Increase in Total Knowledge After the Safe & Sound Workshop illustrates the increase in the percentage of students correctly answering several survey questions on the post-workshop survey, differentiated by delivery method.
Vega’s analysis found that both the in-person and virtual workshops were successful in educating participants about human trafficking, with over 60% of students providing correct answers to the post-workshop survey questions. As an example, Vega found that the percentage of students who were able to identify the signs of human trafficking increased from 25% to 73.2% for the in-person workshop and from 8.1% to 62.1% for the virtual workshop, differences of 48.1% and 53.9%, respectively.
Figure 2: Increase in Total Knowledge After the Safe & Sound Workshop
Finally, the Vega team evaluated several metrics of student satisfaction for both the in-person and virtual workshops, finding that students were generally pleased with the Safe and Sound program. For example, the data indicated that more than 80% of in-person and 90% of virtual workshop participants would recommend the program to friends.
Vega’s analysis found that on average, students reported slightly higher satisfaction levels for the virtual workshop, while participants from the in-person program were more likely to be interested in starting a Rising International club of their own.
Figure 3: Program Satisfaction Analysis
Improvements to Future Safe and Sound Workshops
Vega’s analysis of the survey data included a breakdown of the students’ responses by question, and for some questions included further breakdowns based on whether the workshop was presented in-person or virtually, or by key student demographic characteristics such as gender. This provided Rising International with detailed insights into their program’s functioning. Vega identified specific topics where Rising International could revise their curriculum to improve student success rates.
For example, Rising International introduced new content in the past year relating to healthy relationship boundaries. Vega’s analysis of the post-workshop surveys revealed that male respondents, on average, indicated much less confidence in setting healthy boundaries for themselves as compared to the female participants. Using this information, Rising International’s leadership will be able to plan changes to better reach the male students in future workshops.
Vega also provided consulting regarding Rising International’s survey methodology and data collection procedures, making suggestions to enhance both response rate and ease of reporting for future surveys.
Key Results
- Rising International’s Safe & Sound program educates students about key topics related to human trafficking, and each key topic saw an increase in student knowledge after completing the program.
- Vega found that student engagement and satisfaction was high for both the in-person and virtual workshops, and that many participants would recommend the program to a friend.
- Vega identified areas where student response rates could be improved. These insights were communicated to Rising International’s leadership so that they could improve their program delivery for future workshops.
Analysis of Rising International's Safe & Sound Workshop Surveys