WASHINGTON—The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), the AHLA Foundation, and the BHN Group/Northstar Journey Group introduced that the co-founders of Procure Affect have been named this yr’s recipients of the Arne Sorenson Social Affect Management Award.

CEO Lauren McCann and President Jen Collins co-founded Procure Affect, which works with suppliers that make use of trafficking survivors, veterans, refugees, individuals with disabilities, and individuals who face obstacles to work comparable to poverty, homelessness, psychological well being and trauma, dependancy, or prison historical past.

Their effort captures the essence of the Arne Sorenson award, which is introduced every year to a senior-level govt within the lodging business who’s dedicated to social accountability, supplies options for social challenges, empowers underprivileged communities, and demonstrates outcomes.

“We’re honored to current Lauren and Jen with an award that displays how they’re driving constructive change each day by creating actual alternatives for marginalized staff,” mentioned AHLA President and CEO Rosanna Maietta. “They’re so deserving of the esteemed Sorenson Social Affect Management Award for his or her imaginative and prescient and management and distinctive method and partnership with the resort business.”

“Lauren and Jen are richly deserving of this award, which celebrates individuals who care deeply about their communities,” mentioned The BHN Group by Northstar President Jeff Higley. “Via Procure Affect, they’ve given 1000’s of inns the means to help missed individuals and provides them the dignity that comes from work.”

The Arne Sorenson Social Affect Management Award was launched in 2022 in honor of business icon and former President and CEO of Marriott Worldwide, Arne Sorenson, who handed away in February 2021 and left a legacy of dedication to social affect, variety, and sustainability. Lauren and Jen can be awarded throughout the AHLA Basis’s annual Evening of a Thousand Stars gala on Jan. 27, 2025, in Beverly Hills, California.

In 2024, Procure Affect and AHLA members teamed as much as launch the Dignity of Work Pledge to supply items accountability and create 100,000 hours of paid employment for individuals with obstacles to work. Efforts to succeed in this aim had been tracked on AHLA’s Accountable Keep web site, and final October, Procure Affect and AHLA introduced that this aim was reached because of 23 hospitality firms that pledged over $7.4 million in purchases.