El Paso, TX

The El Paso Division has selected Virginia McCrimmon to receive the Director’s Community Leadership Award.

She has served as the point of contact for The Salvation Army's Anti-Human Trafficking Program. Mrs. McCrimmon, who has a bachelor’s degree in education and a master’s degree in guidance and counseling, taught school for 37 years. She was then hired by The Salvation Army for its Anti-Human Trafficking Program. In addition to providing for the basic and social needs of human trafficking victims, she has also been responsible for providing community education through an outreach and awareness program in which human trafficking information is given to the general public, law enforcement, and social service providers.

Thousands of individuals have been directly reached through scores of training sessions she has conducted for personnel in both private and governmental organizations. As a member of the El Paso Human Trafficking Task Force, she helped coordinate three multi-day regional human trafficking conferences for local, state, and federal law enforcement.

She has closely collaborated with government and social service partners in New Mexico and across the border in Mexico. She has hosted numerous international guests at the request of the U.S. State Department, which considers the El Paso Human Trafficking Task Force a model anti-human trafficking program.

Although the number of individuals educated by Mrs. McCrimmon can easily be documented and counted, her most selfless and generous acts of compassion are seen mostly through the eyes of the victims and potential victims of human trafficking. The El Paso FBI's Violent Crime/Civil Rights squad has witnessed and benefited greatly from Mrs. McCrimmon's assistance to the victims in cases they investigate. In addition to providing the expected services as outlined in her job description, Mrs. McCrimmon goes beyond the call of duty, spending countless hours of her personal time and even money to help victims in need. She has taken victims who have nothing but the clothes on their backs and provided for their food, safe shelter, clothing, medical and mental health treatment, transportation, job training, and employment.