Helping Hands is a collaboration between St. Luke’s Health and Marriott, in support of victims of human trafficking who receive healthcare at any St. Luke’s Health facility. In this new collaboration, Marriott will provide donations of toiletries and other personal items to victims identified within St. Luke’s Health hospitals. 

St. Luke’s has trained more than 9,000 employees across Texas since the passage of  legislation in 2019 by the Texas legislature, which requires all health care practitioners in the state to learn to identify and provide appropriate care to people who are victims.

Texas is one of the top three states, along with California and New York, for incidences of human trafficking in the U.S.

A 2016 study from the University of Texas at Austin estimates there are more than 300,000 human trafficking victims in Texas. The study specifically identified 79,000 victims of sex trafficking and 234,000 victims of labor trafficking. But this only represents a fraction of the real numbers. Human trafficking, by its nature, makes data challenging to ascertain.

The Helping Hands collaboration between Marriott and St. Luke’s Health allows us to better prepare within Texas to identify and care for the more than 300,000 who will need us during a very painful time in their lives.