Safe Harbor Evaluation

The Minnesota Safe Harbor law passed in 2011 provided legal protections and state services for sexually exploited children and youth. This legislation acknowledges that exploited minors are not delinquent, but are victims. The law expanded in 2013 and 2014 to implement No Wrong Door, a statewide, victim-centered response for serving at-risk and sexually exploited youth.

The Safe Harbor law and No Wrong Door model is evaluated at least every other year, as required by the Minnesota Legislature.

Evaluations were completed in 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2023. A Mid-Year Report was developed by MDH in 2016.

Safe Harbor evaluation report 2025

Download: An Evaluation of the Safe Harbor Initiative in Minnesota, 2023-2025 (PDF)

This report shares findings from the sixth evaluation of Safe Harbor, for services provided April 2023 through March 2025. 

Program highlights

Safe Harbor serves more than 2,000 youth. During the 2023-2025 evaluation period, 1,783 individuals initiated services with Safe Harbor. When including individuals who initiated services prior to this period, Safe Harbor served a total of 2,312 individuals. Youth most often connected with Safe Harbor through self-referral or a referral from child protection or child welfare. Almost all youth survey respondents reported satisfaction with the services from Safe Harbor organizations. 

Safe Harbor grantees educate the state on sexual exploitation. Grantee agencies conducted at least 442 trainings and 794 consultations with other service providers and system professionals, as well as the public.

Key outcomes in the evaluation of Safe Harbor include strong, multidisciplinary partnerships and access to services, including culturally specific services. The evaluation also highlighted the factors contributing to Safe Harbor's impact, as well as ongoing gaps and challenges, such as distinct regional needs, building staff retention, and improvement opportunities for training.

Opportunities for improvement in Safe Harbor were noted in training, policy change, data quality, public awareness, and making programs accessible. The evaluation emphasized the need for increased support for survivors to access employment and education. 

Recommended actions from The Improve Group to MDH Safe Harbor include identifying better definitions for  “trauma-informed” in the context of services, centering youth voice as a “trauma-informed practice,” building more collaboration among grantees and community organizations, building grantee staff retention through pay equity and turnover or succession planning, improving training beyond “101” levels, and providing continuous training on data quality for grantees, among others listed in the Improve Group report.

Recommended actions from youth advisors to MDH Safe Harbor include providing language assistance to youth whose primary language is not English, using more accessible descriptive language for youth (e.g., not all youth perceive “trafficking” as describing their experiences), building public awareness campaigns with youth input, and creating pathways from Safe Harbor programming to meaningful employment, among others listed in the Improve Group report.

Conducting the evaluation

The Phase 6 evaluation was conducted by The Improve Group. The evaluation centered youth and used mixed methods to tell the story of Safe Harbor. Youth advisors with lived experience gave valuable input on the evaluation. Data sources included a survey of youth, informant interviews with youth, analysis of the MDH Safe Harbor program data, and focus groups with grantees and partners.

The Improve Group evaluation is available here: An Evaluation of the Safe Harbor Initiative in Minnesota Phase 6: April 2023 - March 2025 (PDF).

Past reports

• Download: An Evaluation of the Safe Harbor Initiative in Minnesota, 2021-2023 (PDF)
  • The supplemental resources document is here: An Evaluation of the Safe Harbor Initiative in Minnesota: Phase 5, April 2021-2023 (PDF)
• An Evaluation of the Safe Harbor Initiative in Minnesota – Phase 4, 2021 (PDF)
  • The supplemental evaluation resources including the background report and appendix are available here: An Evaluation of the Safe Harbor Initiative in Minnesota – Phase 4 Supplemental Materials (PDF).
• An Evaluation of Safe Harbor Initiative in Minnesota - Phase 3, 2019
• Safe Harbor Evaluation Report 2017.
• Safe Harbor 2016 Mid-Year Report (PDF)
• Safe Harbor: First Year Evaluation Report, 2015