ATEST is a coalition of organizations dedicated to combating human trafficking and forced labor, and the social and economic forces that cause these severe forms of exploitation to exist. As a policy coordinating coalition of experts who work on trafficking prevention, prosecution of perpetrators and protection of survivors, ATEST educates decision makers about unmet needs and best practices for eliminating trafficking inside the U.S. and around the world. Our collective experience implementing programs in more than 30 cities at home and 100 countries abroad provides our coalition unparalleled breadth and depth of expertise.
ATEST MISSION: To improve laws and policies, promote effective implementation of programs, and increase survivor leadership, by utilizing ATEST’s unparalleled depth and breadth of expertise to provide nonpartisan technical guidance to policymakers.
ATEST VISION: A strategic, comprehensive, effective and adequately-resourced effort by the U.S. government to eliminate human trafficking and forced labor inside the United States and around the world.
ATEST ROLE: To further collaboration among U.S.-based organizations, survivors of human trafficking and forced labor, and allied coalitions to build consensus, foster partnerships, provide leadership, and strengthen the anti-trafficking sector’s collective voice and impact.
ATEST Member Organizations
Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is a worker-based human rights organization internationally recognized for its achievements in fighting human trafficking and sexual violence at work. The CIW’s Anti-Slavery Campaign has uncovered, investigated and assisted in the prosecution of over a dozen multi-state farm slavery operations across the Southeastern U.S., helping liberate thousands of workers held against their will since the early 1990s. The CIW is also recognized for pioneering the design and development of the Worker-driven Social Responsibility paradigm, a worker-led, market-enforced approach to the protection of human rights in corporate supply chains that currently empowers millions of workers across the globe.
Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking (Cast)
Cast is the nation’s largest provider of comprehensive, life-changing services to survivors and an advocate for groundbreaking policies and legislation. For 25 years, Cast has supported thousands of survivors in Los Angeles, California on their journey to freedom, providing emergency response, case management, legal services, housing, and leadership development to survivors of sex and labor trafficking of all ages and demographics.
Covenant House
Covenant House builds a bridge to hope for young people facing homelessness and survivors of human trafficking through unconditional love, absolute respect, and relentless support. The doors of Covenant House are open 24/7 in 34 cities across five countries – U.S., Canada, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico – with residences and a wide variety of programs designed to empower young people to rise and overcome adversity, today and in the future.
Free the Slaves
Free the Slaves liberates slaves, helps them rebuild their lives, and changes the economic, legal and social systems that allow modern slavery to exist. Through innovative grassroots community organizing projects, rigorous evaluation and groundbreaking research, targeted advocacy, and compelling communications and public engagement, Free the Slaves is helping show the world that ending slavery is possible.
HEAL Trafficking
HEAL Trafficking addresses human trafficking as a public health issue through a comprehensive approach focused on Health, Education, Advocacy, and Leadership. By emphasizing these areas, we aim to foster systemic change, support survivors, and prevent trafficking. Our evidence-based practices and commitment to survivor-centered, trauma-informed care ensure that healthcare professionals and stakeholders are equipped to recognize, respond to, and prevent human trafficking.
Humanity United Action
Humanity United Action is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing new approaches to global problems that have long been considered intractable like human trafficking, mass atrocities, and violent conflict. Like our sister organization, Humanity United, we build, lead and support efforts to change the systems that suppress human rights and contribute to human suffering. We pursue our mission by working directly and with partners to advocate for legislative policies that advance solutions to these intractable problems.
National Network for Youth (NN4Y)
National Network for Youth (NN4Y) works to prevent and end youth homelessness and human trafficking in America by advancing policy solutions and systems change through advocacy and capacity-building support. We partner with community-based service providers, youth with lived experience, and communities to strengthen local systems and improve responses to young people’s needs. Together, we envision a future in which all young people have a safe place to call home with endless opportunities to achieve their fullest potential.
Polaris
Named after the North Star, an historical symbol of freedom, Polaris is leading a survivor-centered, justice- and equity-driven movement to end human trafficking. For nearly 20 years, Polaris operated the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline, connecting victims and survivors to support and services, and helping communities hold traffickers accountable. Through that work, Polaris has built the largest known dataset on human trafficking in North America. The data and expertise gained from two decades of working on trafficking situations in real time informs strategies that hold traffickers accountable, support survivors on their healing journeys and address the vulnerabilities that enable the business of stealing freedom for profit.
Safe Horizon Anti-Trafficking Program
Based in New York City, Safe Horizon is the nation’s leading victim assistance organization and helps more than 250,000 people each year who have been affected by child abuse, domestic violence, human trafficking or other violent crimes. The Anti-Trafficking Program (ATP) there consists of a multidisciplinary team of social workers and lawyers advocating for and representing trafficking survivors. Through this work and its additional commitment to outreach and training, ATP strives to raise awareness of labor trafficking which continues to be under-identified and mis-understood.
Solidarity Center
The Solidarity Center is the largest U.S.-based international worker rights organization helping workers attain safe and healthy workplaces, family-supporting wages, dignity on the job, widespread democracy and greater equity at work and in their community. The organization assists workers across the globe as, together, they fight discrimination, exploitation and the systems that entrench poverty—to achieve shared prosperity in the global economy. The Solidarity Center uses its expertise to combat some of the worst forms of labor exploitation, including forced labor, human trafficking, and migrant worker exploitation.
United Way Worldwide
United Way fights for the health, education, and financial stability of every person in every community. With global reach and local impact, we’re making life better for 48 million people annually by working in 95% of U.S. communities and nearly 40 countries. We bring anti-trafficking efforts to scale by energizing, coordinating, and mobilizing the United Way Network. We are working to create effective community-based solutions, galvanize collaboration across sectors, and build public and political will to scale strategies across the world that find, stop, and prevent human trafficking. We are innovating where needed, uplifting good work already being done, elevating survivor leadership, and utilizing the United Way Network to catalyze the anti-trafficking movement.
Verité
Verité is a US-based nonprofit organization that promotes worker rights in global supply chains through human rights due diligence consulting, research, and policy advocacy. It leverages its experience in multiple sectors worldwide to set robust expectations for accountability in supply chains on forced labor and labor trafficking, as well as all other labor rights.
Vital Voices Global Partnership
Vital Voices Global Partnership identifies, invests in and brings visibility to extraordinary women around the world by unleashing their leadership potential to transform lives and accelerate peace and prosperity in their communities.
ATEST Director
- Terry FitzPatrick | Email: terry.fitzpatrick@ATEST-US.org | Cell: 571-282-9913
Info Kits
- See ATEST Strategic Plan & Core Principles here.
- Recommendations to the Trump Administration:
Presidential Priorities for Ending Forced Labor, Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery 2025-2029
FY26 Anti-trafficking Budget Recommendations to the White House Office of Management and Budget