Canada’s Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, the Honourable Bill Blair, has announced almost $55,000 to Saint Mary’s University for their Community Hackathon: Addressing Human Trafficking in Atlantic Canada project. This funding is made available under the Contribution Program to Combat Serious and Organized Crime.
This project kicked off on February 18 with a virtual hackathon. This two-day event is bringing together post-secondary students from across Atlantic Canada, as well as service providers, law enforcement and others, to explore innovative ways that technology can be used to raise awareness of human trafficking.
For a month following the hackathon, participants will continue to receive mentorship and training from Saint Mary’s University to further develop their ideas and learn how they may be applied in practice.
The project aims to increase youth awareness of human trafficking and improve technology to facilitate the reporting of potential human trafficking situations to the appropriate authorities.
This week, the Government of Canada also launched its national human trafficking public awareness campaign. The campaign will raise awareness among Canadian youth and parents of the misperceptions of human trafficking and increase understanding of its warning signs and how to report suspected cases to the appropriate authorities.
In 2020, Public Safety Canada launched a call for proposals for organizations working to prevent and address human trafficking and support at-risk populations and survivors. Through this call, $8.4 million is being made available for twenty projects that work to prevent and address human trafficking and support survivors.
Read more at Public Safety Canada
