Group items tagged

MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL LAUNCHED HotelHelp, a pilot room donation program for human trafficking survivors, at the AHLA Foundation's third annual No Room for Trafficking Summit. The program works with care providers who handle bookings, offering survivors short-term stays at Marriott properties, Marriott said in a statement. The program is being piloted in five U.S. cities-Atlanta, Detroit, Phoenix, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.-and is expected to expand to 25 cities across North America by January 2025. "Survivors of human trafficking often face a shortage of dedicated shelter beds that put them at greater risk of being re-trafficked after exiting their trafficking situation," said Anthony Capuano, Marriott's president and CEO. "As part of our longstanding anti-trafficking and survivor empowerment efforts, we are proud to have developed a solution to bridge the gap for safe, short-term accommodations for trafficking survivors and we look forward to working with other hotel companies to extend the reach of this effort."

THE RECENTLY INTRODUCED "Human Trafficking Awareness Training Recognition Act" aims to expand the Department of Homeland Security's "Blue Campaign" by establishing an annual certificate program for employers to train employees in human trafficking awareness. The American Hotel and Lodging Association announced its support for this legislation that would increase awareness through education. "The Human Trafficking Awareness Training Recognition Act would complement our industry's anti-trafficking efforts by providing important third-party validation for hotels' training and prevention initiatives," said Kevin Carey, AHLA's interim president & CEO. The legislation, sponsored by Congressmen David Valadao and Troy Carter, allows DHS to certify businesses that have trained their employees to combat human trafficking and display these annual certifications to the public, AHLA said in a statement. These optional certifications would be issued by the Blue Campaign at the DHS Center for Countering Human Trafficking, which aims to raise public awareness.

The American Hotel & Lodging Association Foundation's third annual "No Room for Trafficking Summit" will take place on July 30, coinciding with the United Nations' World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. The upcoming summit will evaluate the first-year impact of NRFT Survivor Fund grants on nearly 650 human trafficking survivors, AHLA Foundation said in a statement. "In 2022, we launched the NRFT Survivor Fund - a first for the hotel industry - to expand the hotel and lodging industry's efforts to support trafficking survivors," said Anna Blue, AHLA Foundation's president. "Since launching the Survivor Fund, we have grown our total raised to $7.5 million towards our goal of $10 million, and we look forward to awarding $1 million in grants to community-based organizations that support human trafficking survivors at our third annual summit." Last year's NRFT Summit announced the inaugural grantees of the NRFT Survivor Fund, including Safe House Project, BEST, Restore NYC, and the University of Maryland SAFE Center for Human Trafficking Survivors, the statement said. AHLA Foundation also shared data showing the impact of the $500,000 distributed to the four Survivor Grantees.