Collaborative Efforts Against Sexual Exploitation (CEASE)
CEASE is a collaborative initiative created to prevent and address commercial sexual exploitation and human trafficking.
We coordinate City of Boston efforts to prevent and address commercial sexual exploitation and human trafficking. Our goal is to increase collaboration between City departments and initiatives. We also work to build stronger partnerships with:
- survivors
- communities
- organizations, and
- service providers.
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Have questions? Contact:
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CEASE is a collaboration between:
- Women's Advancement
- Public Safety Office
- Boston Police Department
- Human Rights Commission, and
- local survivor leaders and community partners.
We also work in partnership with the Imago Dei Fund.
CEASE webinar series
CEASE hosts a series of webinars to show the impacts of commercial sexual exploitation in Boston from the experience of local service providers.
Recordings from the series will be available soon.
About CEASE
We (departments and offices of the City of Boston) commit to:
- build and strengthen relationships with survivors, communities, organizations, and individuals who work within this space
- rely on survivor leaders and subject matter experts to anchor our efforts
- work together on efforts to prevent and address commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) and human trafficking (HT)
- understand and address CSE through the lens of gender, racial, and economic equity
- identify and lift up existing initiatives and responsibilities within the scope of our work that overlap with these issues
- take initiative to share our connections and resources to meet the needs of those impacted by CSE and HT
- work with the community to learn from each other and from people who are knowledgeable about the issues, and
- uphold the values of teamwork and service to Boston residents over ideological and language differences. Our goal is to help those most affected by commercial sexual exploitation.
We advocate for the adoption and implementation of:
1. Progressive statewide legislationWe support the development of a strategic plan to adopt Equality Model Legislation in Massachusetts and the U.S. This includes:
- decriminalizing prostituted persons
- comprehensive support programming to assist prostituted persons in exiting, and
- building support and capacity for law enforcement to target those who exploit others (both sex buyers and pimps).
A shift in social norms is key to this effort. This can be facilitated by multi-sector community engagement combined with education about the harms of prostitution.
2. Policies and practices across sectors that amplify efforts to:- end sexual exploitation
- deliver effective protection, support, and exit options to prostituted persons and victims of trafficking
- empower frontline services and survivors of exploitation
- promote accountability of third party exploiters (pimps and traffickers) and those who engage in sexual misconduct by buying sex, and
- address upstream social determinants of health that are enabling or contributing to exploitation within the City of Boston.
Local service providers
Service providers
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Have questions? Contact:
-
CEASE is a collaboration between:
- Women's Advancement
- Public Safety Office
- Boston Police Department
- Human Rights Commission, and
- local survivor leaders and community partners.
We also work in partnership with the Imago Dei Fund.
