Mission/Beliefs/Demands

We envision a world without commercial sexual exploitation.

Mission

Our mission is to provide services to commercially sexually exploited youth, and to work for systemic change with the youth we serve.

Our Beliefs:

• CSEC need and deserve specialized treatment, as well as non-judgmental, maternal, and innovative services provided by staff who possess cultural humility, compassion, and relevant life experience.
• CSEC are victims of child sexual abuse in the form of commercial sexual exploitation, not child prostitutes.
• Creating a permanent record of a child’s sexual exploitation through media or any other means further exploits the child.
• CSEC are victims of physical, mental, and psychological abuse as well as sexual abuse, and need protection regardless of their ability to cooperate.
• We believe that the sexual abuse and commercial sexual exploitation of children and youth are serious criminal offenses against a highly vulnerable population.

Our Demands:

• We demand that CSEC and sexually exploited youth to be recognized as victims instead of criminals.
• We demand education and awareness be brought to the issues surrounding CSEC. The commercial sexual exploitation of children and youth occurs in many forms including on the streets, through pornography, and in strip clubs.
• We demand a comprehensive service model and more crisis centers to be established.
• We demand CSEC be provided with services focusing on their healing and recovery.
• We demand a national movement that recognizes the issue of CSEC, which will require law enforcement, the juvenile justice system, and social services to respond to CSEC as victims instead of criminals.
• We demand serious consequences imposed on anyone who sexually abuses or commercially sexually exploits children.