DASH Participates in the United Against Slavery “National Outreach Survey for Transportation”

DASH Participates in the United Against Slavery “National Outreach Survey for Transportation”

July 6, 2021

The Alexandria Transit Company (DASH) announces its participation in a global research collaboration spearheaded by United Against Slavery (UAS) to fight human trafficking via the 2021 National Outreach Survey for Transportation (NOST). Over 100 contributors including 59 oversight agencies from Canada, Brazil, the Netherlands, and the USA will analyze front-line data from the aviation, maritime, pipeline, railroad, roadway and public transit agencies in an effort to craft policies and solutions to disrupt this criminal activity and ultimately make it difficult, unattractive and unprofitable.

 

In 2020, UAS became the first-ever recipient of the USDOT Combating Human Trafficking in Transportation Impact Award. Christi Wigle, Co-Founder and CEO stated, “The National Outreach Survey for Transportation project will launch July 5, 2021 and be open to our collaboration partners for sixty days. The survey tool is designed to collect frontline data on all types of human trafficking to inform research, programming, evaluation, and other functions of the counter-trafficking community. The aggregate findings and data analysis will be completed and disseminated by April 2022 and will guide the collaboration team in crafting global solutions that help save lives. Our collaborative data collection efforts at United Against Slavery is to help victims be freed from enslavement and to empower survivors with the resources needed in their healing journeys.”

 

“Transit is a vital part of all communities, and we welcome this opportunity to partner in combating human trafficking and helping to protect some of the most vulnerable people in our society. Our partnership with UAS aligns with our company’s ongoing commitment to the national fight to end human trafficking. Transit is for everyone, but those who exploit or abuse others are never welcome on DASH,” said Josh Baker, DASH’s CEO/General Manager.

 

As the City of Alexandria’s public transit agency, DASH is committed to protecting the safety and wellbeing of its passengers and community. The National Human Trafficking Hotline has record 854 cases of human trafficking in the Commonwealth of Virginia from 2015 to 2019. Many trafficking survivors belong to vulnerable or at-risk groups, such as homeless, migrant, minority and LGBTQ+ communities. Disrupting human trafficking is a critical step in creating communities that are safe for everyone, and DASH is proud of our commitment to helping craft policies which achieve that goal.

 

To learn more about United Against Slavery and the NOST project, visit http://www.unitedagainstslavery.org/ or contact UAS at research@unitedagainstslavery.org.