Presenter: Meghan Deyesu, Neurobiology and Physiology, Global Public Health Scholars
My practicum project was completed at the University of Maryland SAFE Center as a volunteer. The UMD SAFE Center is an organization that provides survivors of human trafficking with the resources and support to return to a normal state of living in a safe environment. With the aid of volunteers and professional staff, survivors are able to feel comfortable in entering society again and are provided with the skills needed to do so in the College Park area. Human trafficking is a wildly unreported and unrecognized problem in the United States. My work focuses mainly in the economic empowerment division of the SAFE center which specifically targets providing educational and work opportunities for survivors. Through a series of interviews with professionals, I hope to determine the effect of economic empowerment on these individuals specifically in regard to their mental health and overall wellbeing following the work done by this division of the SAFE Center.