Lunch & Learn: Alberta Health Services

Join us for a conversation with Kimberley Poong.

The Sexual Exploitation Working Group is an Edmonton-based leadership group collaborating to create awareness of sexual exploitation, sex trafficking, and their causes and impacts.

SEWG recognizes vulnerabilities to sexual exploitation due to: age, ethnicity, sex, gender, financial desperation, migration, homelessness, prior childhood abuse or neglect, mental or physical health conditions, addictions, intergenerational trauma or any other circumstance that contributes to vulnerability.

  • “Any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially, or politically from the sexual exploitation of another.”

  • Orange combines the warmth of yellow for compassion and red for anger at injustices. Anti-human trafficking organizations around the world have chosen orange as their colour. In Edmonton, we stand in solidarity with these initiatives by wearing orange. It is also the colour chosen to remember the traumatic legacy of residential schools, to witness and honour the healing journey of survivors and their families, and to commit to the ongoing process of reconciliation.

SEWG is made up of Edmonton-based non-profits, law enforcement, and municipal and provincial government, supported by REACH Edmonton and working to:

  • Facilitate information sharing regarding sexual exploitation in its many forms

  • Act as a conduit for public education

  • Raise awareness of contributing factors

  • Support community and political efforts to address the issue

  • Identify and work with new partners and community stakeholders as needed

  • CEASE builds bridges over income instability and creates pathways out of exploitation. They provide tools for persons who have experienced sexual exploitation or sex trafficking to heal and renew their lives.

    Visit CEASE
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Stats

Victims who are bought and sold in Edmonton are most often from marginalized populations that include First Nations, newcomers, abuse survivors and vulnerable young girls and boys.

Over

75%

of people working in the sex trade began working as a child.

Source: Susan McIntyre, PhD

Close to

70%

of males had a history of being sexually violated prior to their street involvement.

Source: “Under the Radar.” Susan McIntyre, PhD

Reporting

Report sexual exploitation when you see it happen

If you know a child who is involved in sexual exploitation, call the Child Abuse Hotline

If you suspect a person is a victim of sexual exploitation, contact the Edmonton Police Service (EPS)

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