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Human Trafficking Prevention

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A women presenting at a human trafficking prevention event

The SAFE Center’s prevention and community outreach initiatives aim to facilitate the identification of potential survivors and reduce vulnerabilities to trafficking. We have reached over 12,000 students, caregivers, educators, medical professionals, and other community members through events and trainings. The SAFE center continues to build partnerships with service providers who may also be in a position to help identify and empower survivors of human trafficking to access resources.

Prevention and Outreach

Reducing Youth Vulnerability to Trafficking

The SAFE Center leads human trafficking prevention programming in middle schools and high schools in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties. We provide human trafficking prevention workshops and outreach to students, parents/caregivers, and educators that address human trafficking 101, healthy relationships and dating violence prevention, and warning signs of exploitation.

The SAFE Center leads human trafficking prevention programming in middle schools and high schools in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties. We provide human trafficking prevention workshops and outreach to students, parents/caregivers, and educators that address human trafficking 101, healthy relationships and dating violence prevention, and warning signs of exploitation. We also worked with Bowie High School to facilitate meetings of the B.L.E.U. Club (Being Loving, Empathetic, and Understanding), a mental health-focused peer leadership program.

Girls Retreat

Girls Leadership Retreat

 

As part of a three-year federal grant aimed at expanding our trafficking prevention program to additional schools and foster care programs, the SAFE Center’s Clinical Mental Health team developed and led a Girls Leadership Retreat in June 2024. The retreat’s objectives were to empower the girls, boost their confidence, provide mentorship and networking opportunities, and encourage self-discovery as a means of reducing their vulnerability to trafficking.

Community Engagement

SAFE center staff members regularly deliver trainings and panel presentations on sex trafficking, labor trafficking, trauma, and mental health therapy techniques to raise awareness about trafficking among social workers, lawyers, medical professionals, school counselors, foreign consulate officials, university students, and other community members. Our trainings put a spotlight on the relationship between racism and human trafficking. We also support local efforts to change the language and address myths around human trafficking and address system change.

A presentation for the community

Guidelines for Hospital Healthcare Providers

In partnership with the Maryland Hospital Association, we developed Human Trafficking: Guidelines for Healthcare Providers to help Maryland’s medical professionals identify and support survivors of human trafficking in hospitals. We provide technical assistance to healthcare providers in Maryland to create and/or strengthen their human trafficking response.

Comprehensive Implementation at UMD Capital Region Health

The SAFE Center, in partnership with the University of Maryland Capital Region Health, is establishing a comprehensive human trafficking response and referral pathway in five units at the Prince George’s County-based hospital. The SAFE Center is implementing the Serve, Identify, Respond, and eValuate (SIRV) Model at the hospital, which is aimed at improving identification of and response to victims of sex and labor trafficking within healthcare systems by providing best practices for screening, identification, and support of victims in a medical setting. We are implementing this model in the Emergency Room; Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault Center; OB/GYN; Behavioral Health; and Outpatient Clinic.