For the second consecutive year, the University of Maryland SAFE Center for Human Trafficking Survivors was selected by the American Hotel and Lodging Association Foundation as a national grant recipient to expand its program to train human trafficking survivors nationwide for careers in the hospitality industry.

The grant will allow the SAFE Center to provide job training to survivors in different regions of the country, to work with hospitality companies to create internship and job opportunities for survivors, and to assist survivors in the program with their job searches. At the national business summit announcing grant awards, a survivor who received job training at the SAFE Center shared insights from the program and their experience becoming a training facilitator. See the AHLA Foundation news release.

About the University of Maryland SAFE Center for Human Trafficking Survivors

The University of Maryland Support, Advocacy, Freedom, and Empowerment (SAFE) Center for Human Trafficking Survivors provides survivor-centered and trauma-informed services that empower trafficking survivors to heal and reclaim their lives. The SAFE Center aims to prevent trafficking and better serve survivors through research and policy advocacy. The center is an initiative of the University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State (MPower) — a collaboration between the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP). MPower leverages the sizable strengths and complementary missions of both institutions to strengthen Maryland’s innovation economy, advance interdisciplinary research, create opportunities for students, and solve important problems for the people of Maryland and the nation.