Our Founder

Amina Hassan founded Her Safety Net in 2021, as a nonprofit organization that provides advocacy and well-being services to women of all ages, with a special focus on immigrants facing gender-based violence, domestic violence and sexual assault.

MaineBiz named Hassan a 2023 Maine Business Leader of the Year in its annual awards. Executives from across the state’s business community were nominated in nine different leadership categories and final selections were made by a special committee at MaineBiz. Amina was honored in the New Mainer category for her work with immigrant communities. Watch her acceptance speech on YouTube.

In 2022, AK Health and Social Services, a nonprofit in Lewiston, Maine, honored Amina for her work founding HSN with its annual “Outspoken Allies of the Immigrant and BIPOC Communities in LA” award.

In addition to leading HSN, Amina recently joined AK Health and Social Services, and now serves as its vice chair. She also is chair of the AK Collaborative, a coalition of immigrant-led, community-based organizations, of which HSN and AKHSS are members. Members of AKC work together to assist immigrants, refugees and BIPOC individuals and their families in Maine.

In 2022, Amina was appointed to serve a two-year term on the Maine CDC’s Office of Population Health Equity council. OPHE council members are tasked with assisting the state in the design and implementation of initiatives that advance health equity across Maine.

Amina’s professional background includes more than a decade of work in the Lewiston-Auburn community as a case manager, an interpreter and as an advocate for women and children.

She was born in war-torn Somalia and grew up in a refugee camp in Kenya. As a teenager, she and her family were able to emigrate to the United States and eventually relocated to Maine in 2010. She graduated from Lewiston High School in 2014 and earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern Maine in Social and Behavioral Sciences, with a concentration in counseling. Currently, Amina is pursuing a master’s degree in social work.