SAFE Center for Human Trafficking Survivors

The University of Maryland Support, Advocacy, Freedom, and Empowerment (SAFE) Center for Human Trafficking Survivors is a direct services, research, and advocacy center. We provide comprehensive and holistic services to sex and labor trafficking survivors that help them move from crisis to wellness.

Our mission is to empower trafficking survivors to heal and reclaim their lives, better support them through research and advocacy, and help prevent human trafficking. The Center provides bilingual social, legal, mental health, economic empowerment, and crisis intervention services to survivors of sex and labor trafficking of all genders, nationalities, and ages.

Our Services

• Legal: immigration, labor, and crime victims’ rights legal services for survivors and their family members
• Case Management: crisis response, safety planning, strengths and needs assessments, court accompaniment, and connection to benefits, medical and dental care, and financial assistance programs
• Economic Empowerment: career readiness and skills training, education support, and job assistance services to help survivors pursue stable employment and advance their career journey
• Behavioral Health: clinical mental health therapy to help survivors develop healthy coping skills, understand the effects of trauma, and process traumatic events

SINCE OUR INCEPTION IN 2016, THE SAFE CENTER HAS:

• Provided services to over 400 human trafficking survivors and their family members in the Baltimore/Washington D.C. metropolitan region. Approximately half of our clients are U.S. citizens and half are foreign nationals from around the world, with a large percentage from Central America.
• Successfully advocated for the passage of several anti-trafficking bills in the Maryland General Assembly.
• Leveraged the intellectual and clinical expertise of 11 schools in the University System of Maryland to enhance services and research.
• Developed Human Trafficking: Guidelines for Healthcare Providers in partnership with the Maryland Hospital Association to help medical professionals state-wide identify and support survivors of human trafficking in hospitals.
• Played a leadership role on labor trafficking by successfully advocating for a state law prohibiting labor trafficking, co-chairing Maryland state and Prince George’s County Human Trafficking Task Forces' Labor Trafficking Committees, and representing labor trafficking survivors.
• Strengthened the safety net for youth survivors of sex trafficking by serving as Regional Navigator in Montgomery and Prince George's counties.
• Trained more than 5,000 professionals and community members to recognize and respond to human trafficking.
• Conducted workshops on human trafficking, healthy relationships, and warning signs of exploitation for more than 1,800 students, parents, teachers, and school administrators in middle and high schools in Prince George’s County.
• Refocused our policies, programs, and partnerships to respond to the impact of systemic racism on the clients we serve.

University Partnership

The SAFE Center is an initiative of the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the University of Maryland, College Park through their formal, collaborative enterprise for research and innovation, the University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State (MPower).

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