A Lehigh Valley agency that helps people caught up in the world of human trafficking will be honored on the national stage this week.<\/p>\n
Members of Bloom for Women will travel to Washington on Tuesday to receive the 2026 Ed Stout Memorial Award for Outstanding Victim Advocacy at the Library of Congress. The award is presented by the bipartisan Congressional Crime Survivors and Justice Caucus, which works to advance bipartisan legislation, raise awareness, and strengthen support systems for victims and survivors of crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cBloom for Women is deeply honored to receive this national recognition,\u201d Bloom CEO Carol Andersen said. \u201cEvery day, we walk alongside survivors on their journey toward healing and independence. This award reflects not only the strength and resilience of the women we serve, but also the dedication of our staff, volunteers, and community partners who make this work possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Based in Bethlehem Township, Bloom operates several safe houses for victims of sex trafficking in the Lehigh Valley and provides therapy, career counseling and substance abuse support for people trying to escape their captors. With its proximity to major highways connecting New York and Philadelphia, the Lehigh Valley consistently ranks in the top 10 areas in the country for human trafficking, Bloom officials said.<\/p>\n
According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, Pennsylvania ranked ninth nationally for the most reported cases of human trafficking. Pennsylvania\u2019s courts handled approximately 1,400 human trafficking offenses in the last five years.<\/a><\/p>\n In addition to its safe houses, the faith-based nonprofit operates My Sister\u2019s Closet,<\/a> a thrift store in Bethlehem Township, and runs a program for at-risk children at Family Wash Day, a downtown Allentown laundromat<\/a>.<\/p>\n When human trafficking victims are called on to testify in court, Bloom advocates are by their side, helping them navigate the legal system.<\/p>\n \u201cBloom for Women has been making a real difference in the lives of victims for years and continues to improve our entire community,\u201d Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan said. \u201cWe are proud to support their work and congratulate them on this well deserved award.\u201d<\/p>\n The Crime Survivors and Justice Caucus presents several national awards to individuals and victim advocacy organizations. Bloom was nominated by Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-7th District, for its \u201cleadership, innovation, and impact in serving survivors across the Lehigh Valley.\u201d<\/p>\n The Ed Stout Memorial Award for Outstanding Victim Advocacy honors a professional, volunteer, or organization whose work directly benefits victims and survivors of crime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Lehigh Valley agency that helps people caught up in the world of human trafficking will be honored…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,182,139,432],"class_list":["post-170720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}