21st Century Slavery. January 11, 2023, is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day

 

#WearBlueDay Is Almost Here

12/13/2022

December 2022 What's New with Blue? DHS Updates BLI Corner CCHT Corner From the Field What's New with Blue? Save the Date: #WearBlueDay Is Next Month Save the Date: #WearBlueDay Is Next Month January 11, 2023, is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, also known as #WearBlueDay. On this day, Blue Campaign invites you to do your part in raising awareness of the crime � and it is as simple as wearing blue. Why blue? It is the international color of human trafficking awareness. Just find your favorite blue outfit or article of clothing, take a picture of yourself wearing it, and post it on your preferred social media platform using the hashtag #WearBlueDay. Leading up to #WearBlueDay, Blue Campaign will share resources on our website and social media channels on ways to learn more about the indicators of human trafficking and how to help spread the word in your communities. For the U.S. Department of Homeland Security�s (DHS) Blue Campaign, combating human trafficking is a year-round effort. Follow Blue Campaign on social media (@DHSBlueCampaign on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram) and check out our future newsletters for what�s coming up throughout the year. DHS Updates The DHS PROTECT Campus Symposium: Human Trafficking on College Campuses� DHS Blue Campaign and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) invite you to join our Partnership for Response-Oriented Training and Education to Counter Trafficking on campus (PROTECT), a no-cost one-day symposium on human trafficking and college campuses in recognition of National Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Attendees will hear from a panel of human trafficking experts working in a variety of fields, all with one goal in common � to help combat this horrific crime and protect victims. The symposium will take place in-person on January 23, 2023. The student and faculty session will run from 1 - 4 p.m. CST at the University of Arkansas Little Rock. More info to come on the morning session for public safety and law enforcement. Registration for students and faculty: bit.ly/3Wggvst DHS Blue Campaign: Human Trafficking Youth Forum� Caretakers and adults who work with youth are invited to join�DHS Blue Campaign for a virtual forum on human trafficking and youth. Hear from Blue Campaign, Department of Justice (DOJ), DHS, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), National Human Trafficking Hotline-Polaris, and Love146 to learn how to talk to youth about online safety; gain knowledge of human trafficking trends and how they affect the youth population; and increase awareness of available resources for youth victims and individuals working with youth. The webinar will take place January 31, 2023, 10 a.m. - 4:15 p.m. EST. To learn more or register, visit: bit.ly/3iN8mgq DHS Blue Campaign: Recognizing and Responding to Human Trafficking For National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, DHS Blue Campaign invites you to attend one of our webinars on recognizing and responding to potential cases of human trafficking. Members of the public are invited to attend this webinar where representatives from Blue Campaign will provide an overview of what human trafficking is, the indicators, how to report a suspected human trafficking situation, and available resources to raise awareness in your communities. The dates and times of the webinars are as follows: Session 1: Tuesday, January 10th, 2023, 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm ET Session 2: Tuesday, January 17th, 2023, 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm ET Session 3: Tuesday, January 24th, 2023, 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm ET (Offered in Spanish) We encourage you to register via the following links: (English) Registration https://bit.ly/3VXsuv6 (Spanish) Inscripci�n https://bit.ly/3Fx0CXU BLI Corner Airlines for America Partners with DHS and DOT Airlines for America (A4A) recently announced that it will partner with DHS and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to combat human trafficking through the Blue Lightning Initiative (BLI), which trains airport personnel and tenants on how to recognize potential human trafficking indicators and report their suspicions to federal law enforcement. Through this partnership, A4A will collaborate with DHS and DOT to provide virtual training courses for all A4A staff members. Read the full press release here. More than 200,000 aviation industry employees have gone through BLI training. To learn more, visit go.dhs.gov/Z3L. CCHT Corner CCHT marks two-year anniversary and FY 2022 contributions to DHS�s counter-trafficking mission In October, the Center for Countering Human Trafficking (CCHT) marked its two-year anniversary as the first unified, inter-component coordination center for countering human trafficking and the importation of goods produced with forced labor. Throughout fiscal year (FY) 2022, the Center took significant steps to advance counter human trafficking law enforcement operations, protect victims, and enhance prevention efforts by aligning DHS�s capabilities and expertise. Some of those accomplishments in the areas of operational support, victim protection, training, and outreach include: Supporting multiple, nationwide large-scale operations across the country with funding, subject matter expertise, coordinated intelligence, and interagency coordination Establishing the Labor Trafficking Initiative to build the capacity of HSI special agents to initiate and develop robust, proactive labor trafficking investigations Leading investigative and outreach initiatives in connection with the passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Coordinating with DOJ and field offices on the first high-profile investigations of importers in the United States who knowingly imported goods produced with forced labor. Increasing counter human trafficking efforts through training, outreach, and the delivery of victim protections Signing an MOU with Liberty Shared to receive information which will support HSI investigations of companies benefiting from forced labor abroad Making improvements to the Continued Presence (CP) program, including a 10% increase from the number of CP applications processed in FY 2021 Securing a contract to create an online CP application process, and Transmitting to Congressional leadership an Office of Management and Budget (OMB)-cleared legislative proposal on CP based on extensive listening sessions with law enforcement and victim service providers. The proposal highlights necessary statutory changes to CP that would provide clarification and reduce barriers, ensuring that CP is fully available, accessible, and utilized by law enforcement and civil attorneys to assist victims This increased DHS level of focus is also reflected in the number of successful human trafficking investigations conducted in FY 2022 by HSI. While official year-end statistics are still pending, initial results indicate a significant increase in human trafficking arrests and convictions. Look for more details on the CCHT�s progress in the FY 2022 DHS Countering Human Trafficking Year in Review, to be released in January 2023. From the Field Joint HSI-FBI Miami investigation results in 60-year sentence, over $14 million in restitution. A joint HSI/FBI investigation into a South Florida sex trafficking ring yielded a 60-year prison sentence for the ringleader, and a judgment of over $14 million to be paid in restitution to his victims. The defendant was also ordered to forfeit over $3 million. William D. Foster, 50, was sentenced in September 2022 for heading a sex trafficking organization that exploited dozens of women and girls for more than 20 years. At any given time, up to 15 women and girls lived with Foster and were forced to work at South Florida exotic dance clubs and engage in commercial sex. Foster falsely told the victims that he would invest their earnings so that they could retire in their 20s, then kept the money they earned from working six days a week. Foster used psychological coercion and violence to keep his victims compliant. He required many of the victims to go on liquid diets, get unsafe weight loss surgeries, and take anti-anxiety and anti-psychotic medications without proper diagnoses. Foster also had sex with victims, some of whom were minors. He transported his victims to other states including New York, New Jersey, Michigan, and Nevada, for the purpose of engaging in prostitution. If a victim attempted to leave, Foster would threaten financial ruin and other harm. If a victim left, she left with nothing. Law enforcement officers recovered one of Foster�s victims from a Detroit hotel room after she called the National Human Trafficking Hotline, a reminder that outreach is an important part of DHS� counter-trafficking policy. More detail on the investigation can be found here.

 

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African Leaders Summit. Dec 13-15, 2022. BEMA International and Letter to African Leaders. Global Health

To: blackemergmanagersassociation.org Subject: Re: URGENT - U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit Dear Black Emergency Managers Association International Thank you so much for signing-on to the advocacy letter calling on critical actions to address the impacts of COVID-19, reclaim pre-pandemic health and development gains, and help prevent another deadly and costly pandemic from happening again. We’re pleased to have Black Emergency Managers Association International on board.  As always, thank you for your partnership! Best, Pandemic Action Team

    

Advocacy Letter for African Leaders

December 7, 2022 Dear U.S. and African Leaders, The December 2022 United States of America (U.S.) and Africa Leaders’ Summit (Summit) presents a timely opportunity to strengthen strategic collaboration between the U.S. and Africa. As the pandemic enters its fourth year, it continues to set back progress on health, development, climate change, food security and poverty reduction goals, and hamper the world’s ability to tackle other global crises. Pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (PPR) must be elevated and sustained by all leaders as a top cooperation and investment priority. At the Summit, we therefore call on all leaders to: Financing: Commit to secure sustainable financing necessary to accelerate investments in PPR across sectors, including mobilizing political and financial support for the Pandemic Fund. Advance a sustainable financing plan to close the new Pandemic Fund’s estimated gap of US $10.5 billion/year and to become a co-investor in the Fund. We also urge leaders to adopt a Global Public Investment model for the Fund, whereby all countries, at all income levels, contribute to PPR as a public good and share in its benefits. We particularly urge African leaders to consider investing in the Pandemic fund as it presents an opportunity to mobilize significant, additional, long-term funding to complement and support national and regional pandemic preparedness efforts. Endorse reforms to the IMF, World Bank, and other Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to unlock additional multilateral financing for PPR and fiscal policies to alleviate the debt burden on African nations. COVID-19 has greatly increased the inequality gap between high- and lower-income countries, and has fueled a growing debt crisis that threatens public investments toward Universal Health Coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).   Redouble their efforts to close the remaining access gaps for lifesaving tools across Africa, both for COVID-19 but other resurgent disease threats such as Ebola and mpox. With COVID-19, we witnessed the potential of collaborative international efforts like the C-TAP initiative to foster open technology sharing to accelerate equitable global access to vaccines, treatments, diagnostics and other tools.  US-Africa regional cooperation: Ensure a coordinated, coherent, and collaborative approach to strengthen national and continental health security. Articulate plans to fully implement the ambitions laid out in the New Public Health Order in Africa. Doing so will require collective leadership and respectful partnerships among governments, private sector, and civil society to bolster Africa’s public health institutions; increased and sustained investments in local manufacturing, supply and delivery chains for lifesaving medical countermeasures and tools in Africa; and a strengthened health workforce that will expand access to affordable, quality primary health care and has the necessary surge capacity to respond to outbreaks and emerging pandemic threats.  Prioritize the filling of capacity gaps related to biosecurity and biosafety as part of the larger health security architecture and in alignment with Africa CDC’s Biosafety and Biosecurity Initiative. Biosecurity is globally under-represented as a policy and financial priority. Africa CDC has made great strides in spotlighting the importance of addressing accidental and deliberate biological threats, but significant policy and capacity gaps pose a serious concern for regional and international security. US-Africa regional cooperation will be enormously beneficial in building a safer and more secure Africa as it relates to man-made pandemics. R&D: Invest in health research and development (R&D) and expand access to lifesaving tools.  Commit to increased, coordinated, and sustained investments in health R&D to support regional and national core capacities, technology co-creation, and enhanced manufacturing to rapidly develop and deploy new and advanced medical countermeasures that meet the unique needs of countries and communities in Africa.  Lay out their plans to meet their commitments in the Maputo declaration of 2007 to allocate 1% of their domestic GDP to R&D, and for US and African leaders to explore bilateral arrangements to incentivize these investments. Africa hosts 15% of the world’s population and carries 25% of the global disease burden, yet  accounts for only 1% of global investments in R&D and 2% of world research output. Forge agreement on the temporary suspension of patents and IP rights for lifesaving medical tools during pandemics. The failure of the TRIPS waiver for COVID-19 points to a glaring roadblock in the global system that, if not addressed, will once again stymie equitable access to vaccines and other lifesaving tools in future pandemics. Leaders should also ensure that the principle of equitable access is reflected in the various deliberations underway on the global PPR architecture, including the reviews of the ACT-Accelerator and International Health Regulations, and the forthcoming negotiations on a potential Pandemic Accord.  One Health: Prioritize a One Health approach to address emerging health threats. Champion the inclusion of a One Health Approach (human, animal, and environmental) to health security, including in the forthcoming negotiations on a potential Pandemic Accord, and the creation of a permanent global One Health structure to provide countries with technical and scientific support in One Health implementation from prevention of spillover, to surveillance of threats, to response. Such a holistic approach to emerging infectious disease threats is urgently needed, given the increasing frequency and depredation of climate and public health related events.  Pandemic Leadership and Accountability:  Ensure inclusive mechanisms to elevate political will and drive accountability for action. Commit to participate in the UN High-Level Meeting on PPPR in 2023 and to work together to ensure that the HLM accelerates action and elevates governance of the pandemic PPR agenda. Outcomes for the HLM should include establishing a high-level global council to monitor and address emerging pandemic threats, and instituting an annual global review and accountability process and forum to assess progress and identify priorities for targeted action and investment.  At the Summit, we urge you to commit to these actions to address the impacts of COVID-19, reclaim pre-pandemic health and development gains, and help prevent another deadly and costly pandemic from happening again. Yours respectfully, Access Challenge  ACCESS Health International  ADET (Amis des Étrangers au Togo) Amref Health Africa Association For Promotion Sustainable Development AVAC  Black Emergency Managers Association International    Coalition for Health Research and Development (CHReaD) Conservation International COVID Survivors for Change East African National Networks of AIDs and Health Services Organization (EANNASO) Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Foundation for Environmental Watch (FEW)  Gavi CSO Constituency  Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) Goodbye Malaria  Healthcare Foundation Organization (HFO) Heart that Cares for Better Health Organization  IntraHealth International ISE International Group KANCO Management Sciences for Health (MSH) Nigeria Health Watch  NTI ONE Organization of African Youth  Organization of Christian Writers Pandemic Action Network  Panorama Global  PATH US  REACH Ethiopia Resolve to Save Lives  Right to Health Action SAMOCRI Seed Global Health  Spark Street Advisors Speak up Africa  Stowarzyszenie Higieny Lecznictwa (SHL) Uganda Child and Aid Development Foundation (UGACAD) Uganda Peace Foundation Union des Amis Socio Culturels d'Action en Développement (UNASCAD)  Village Reach  WACI Health  Wote Youth Development Projects (WOYDEP)

Black Emergency Managers Association International        Washington, D.C.
bEMA International Cooperation, Collaboration, Communication, Coordination, Community engagement, and  Partnering (C5&P)  A 501 (c) 3 organization

Thursday, December 15th at 12pm ET for our weekly White House Faith and Community Engagement call

 

December 14, 2022

Friends –   Please join us this Thursday, December 15th at 12pm ET for our weekly White House Faith and Community Engagement call.  RSVP here.   Here are several updates on Administration priorities that may be relevant to your organization and community.   Countering Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Related Forms of Discrimination and Bias President Biden has established an inter-agency group led by Domestic Policy Council staff and National Security Council staff to increase and better coordinate U.S. Government efforts to counter antisemitism, Islamophobia, and related forms of bias and discrimination within the United States. The President has tasked the inter-agency group, as its first order of business, to develop a national strategy to counter antisemitism. This strategy will raise understanding about antisemitism and the threat it poses to the Jewish community and all Americans, address antisemitic harassment and abuse both online and offline, seek to prevent antisemitic attacks and incidents, and encourage whole-of-society efforts to counter antisemitism and build a more inclusive nation. We look forward to working with you on these issues. Britney Griner’s Release On Thursday, December 8th, President Biden spoke with Brittney Griner after securing her release from wrongful detention in Russia. Her release was the result of painstaking negotiations across the U.S. government.   Griner’s release demonstrates the President’s resolve to bring home wrongfully detained Americans. The Biden-Harris Administration will not stop working to bring home every U.S. citizen wrongfully detained anywhere in the world.   Respect for Marriage Act Bill Signing On Tuesday, December 13th, President Biden signed the bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act into federal law at a celebration on the South Lawn. The Respect for Marriage Act builds on generations of civil rights advocacy to bring stability and security to millions of LGBTQI+ and interracial couples who will finally be guaranteed the rights and protections to which they and their children are entitled.   The President signed this historic legislation into law alongside a bipartisan group of lawmakers, as well as advocates, LGBTQI+ families, faith leaders, and plaintiffs in marriage equality cases across the country. The President noted in his remarks that more work remains to protect LGBTQI+ individuals across the country, including by passing the Equality Act.   Lower Inflation Shows President Biden’s Economic Plan is Working On Tuesday morning, we received welcome economic news—inflation is coming down. This is a reason for optimism for the holiday season and the year ahead. Annual inflation has fallen for the last five months, with gas prices falling and food price increases slowing. Core inflation—a key measure for economists—has also slowed.   President Biden’s economic plan is showing results: Inflation is lower as we see a much-needed slowdown ahead of the holidays Gas prices are down—at an average of $3.25, they are cheaper than they were a year ago, before Putin’s war GDP is up—the economy grew at 2.9% last quarter Jobs are up—more than 260,000 were created last month for 10.5 million total jobs since President Biden took office Manufacturing is booming—750,000 manufacturing jobs have been created under President Biden Unemployment is down—near a 50-year low Wages are up—rising 0.5% last month We’re making real progress on the President’s top economic priority—tackling inflation - while we transition to a period of stable, steady economic growth. The President’s plan to build an economy from the bottom up and middle out is working.   All the best, The White House Faith and Community Partnerships Team   Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe

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