WASHINGTON—American Resort & Lodging Affiliation (AHLA) Interim President and CEO Kevin Carey launched the next assertion concerning the introduction of the Human Trafficking Consciousness Coaching Recognition Act, which requires the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) to determine a certification program for companies that prepare their workers to acknowledge and reply to suspected human trafficking.
“The Human Trafficking Consciousness Coaching Recognition Act would complement our business’s anti-trafficking efforts by offering necessary third-party validation for inns’ coaching and prevention initiatives,” stated Carey. “We’re grateful to Reps. Valadao and Carter for introducing this necessary invoice and look ahead to serving to them move it into legislation.”
Background
The Human Trafficking Consciousness Coaching Recognition Act was launched this week by Reps. David Valadao, R-Calif., and Troy Carter, D-La.
The laws lets DHS certify companies which have educated their workers to battle human trafficking and permits these companies to show these annual certifications to the general public. These non-compulsory certifications can be issued by the Blue Marketing campaign on the DHS Middle for Countering Human Trafficking, which works to boost public consciousness of human trafficking.
AHLA, its members, and the AHLA Basis are dedicated to trafficking prevention, and inns have been leaders on this space for a few years.
- Since 2019, the No Room for Trafficking (NRFT) initiative has supported the distribution of free trafficking-prevention coaching for lodge workers by way of a partnership with PACT (previously ECPAT-USA).
- These trainings assist lodge employees perceive what to search for and the way to reply to indicators of trafficking and are paired with AHLA Basis assets that specify the best way to show human trafficking indicator signage in inns, set up company-wide insurance policies, coordinate with legislation enforcement, and share success tales and finest practices.
- The three obtainable coaching modules have been taken greater than 1.6 million instances to this point, and 1000’s are educated yearly. These numbers don’t embrace extra anti-trafficking coaching efforts by AHLA members, which differ in size and frequency.
- The AHLA Basis in 2022 introduced expanded efforts to help trafficking survivors by way of the business’s first-ever Survivor Fund, which has raised $3.7 million since its inception.
- As a part of its continued dedication to combatting this difficulty, AHLA Basis is matching NRFT Survivor Fund contributions as much as $5 million {dollars} (with an general purpose of $10 million in whole contributions).
“By way of the AHLA Basis’s No Room for Trafficking initiative, the lodge business is united within the effort to stop human trafficking and help survivors,” stated AHLA Basis President Anna Blue. “The collective impression of the business can speed up modern human trafficking prevention efforts and upstream methods to make a constructive distinction within the communities the place we work and stay.”
