Trump administration awards $100 million to fight human trafficking

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The Trump administration announced Monday that it is awarding over $100 million in grants to help task forces engaged in the fight against human trafficking, PBS reports. The award follows $35 million granted by the Justice Department in August for organizations that provide safe housing for victims of human trafficking.

Attorney General William Barr announced the new award together with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and the president’s daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump while visiting the Georgia Center for Child Advocacy (GCCA) in Atlanta. The award will provide funding to task forces fighting human trafficking and to victim services and victim housing.

In a statement, Barr said dealing with human trafficking is one of his department’s top priorities. “We’re on the forefront of this fight,” Barr explained. “It’s only by cooperating with all our partners, our state and local partners and those in the private sector that we’re going to be able to make any progress and ultimately end the victimization of those boys and girls,” Barr said.

As the dignitaries toured the GCCA, employees at the center told the visitors about their work, including counseling for caregivers of abused children, PBS reports. However, GCCA family advocate Amy Shipp explained: “Some of our families have such basic needs that need to be met, that the fact that their child has experienced this trauma is not even the highest on their list right now.”

The GCCA also prepares teenagers in foster care for young adulthood by helping them with education, work and life experience.

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