By Gordon Haas

In 2014, the Super Bowl will take place at the Meadowlands. Already the state is hustling and bustling to welcome the hundreds of thousands of people who will be visiting the tri-state area to celebrate football. With this comes the need for accommodations, food, transportation, game-related activities and more. It’s an important and wonderful moment to showcase New Jersey.

 

Unfortunately, large sporting events such as the Super Bowl are often associated with increased human trafficking activities. To this end, the New Jersey Coalition Against Human Trafficking, whose mandate is to end modern day slavery, is teaming up with New Jersey’s Attorney General’s office to do all it can to deter human trafficking and to educate at-risk populations and the community-at-large.

 

As members of the Coalition, Federation’s Community Relations Committee of Greater MetroWest NJ and the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New Jersey are an integral part of these efforts, which will focus on:

• Raising awareness about Human Trafficking
• Mobilizing volunteers around anti-trafficking efforts with a specific focus on the tourism and travel industry.
• Building a grassroots infrastructure to fight Human Trafficking with an emphasis on high schools, colleges, religious organizations, municipal organizations, and community-based organizations, including men’s and minority organizations

YOU ARE NEEDED!

 

The Coalition is looking for volunteers, beginning in September, to join leadership teams that will educate and mobilize hotel staff in New Jersey in preparation for Super Bowl 2014. Teams will work together to contact hotels in their area and ask them to join in the effort to recognize trafficking situations and learn how to effectively handle them.

The goal is to encourage hotels to commit to training their staff in how to identify victims of sex trafficking and develop protocols for responding to victims of trafficking. Each team leader will be responsible for bringing together at least six volunteers, coordinating the team’s outreach efforts to hotels, and reporting back to the command center.

 

SIGN UP TO BE TRAINED IN September

 

Team Leader Training: Monday, September 9, 7:30 p.m., Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ, Alex Aidekman Family Jewish Community Campus, 901 Rt. 10, Whippany

 

Volunteer Training: Monday, September 16 from 12-2 p.m. or 7-9 p.m., Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ, Alex Aidekman Family Jewish Community Campus, 901 Rt. 10, Whippany

 

All volunteers must attend a training session.

>>register here