CRATSEY Report (Capital Region Action Team for Sexually Exploited Youth)

Capital Region Action Team for Sexually Exploited Youth (CRAT-SEY)

2013 Report to Victoria Family Court and Youth Justice Committee

CRAT met 5 times during the year. Our thanks to the City of Victoria for donating space for the meetings. During the year, we continued to raise awareness of the issue of sexually exploited youth in the Capital Regional District and worked to identify gaps in service for these youth.

We sponsored Taking Care of Ourselves, Taking Care of Others (tco2) to put on presentations in local schools in April and May. In total, 13 presentations were made to 803 people, including 2 sessions for adults working with youth. We are bringing them back in May 2014.

We continued to coordinate the West Shore Emergency Youth Housing Task Force. As a result of our activities, Threshold Youth Housing has developed a strategic plan that will see them increase the number of beds they provide for youth from the current 21 to 50 over the next 5 years. Their next project will be to open a house in the West Shore area. As a result, the Task Force has decided to wind down and work with Threshold to help youth who are in danger of becoming exploited.

PEERS closed its drop in centre for sex trade workers due to lack of funding. CRAT wrote a letter to the Premier about this issue, asking that funding be restored. PEERS provides a range of services to sex trade workers and has worked closely with CRAT in the past to provide support for sexually exploited youth.

We were informed by the Mobile Youth Support Team (MYST) coordinator, Constable Theresa Tuttle, that her appointment will end December 2013 and that a new coordinator will start in January. The local Police Chiefs are investigating the possibility of increasing the size of MYST to 2 people. A decision is expected by early 2014.

CRAT organized a day-long workshop on Human Trafficking/Sexual Exploitation at the Victoria Native Friendship Centre on November 7, thanks to a $5000 grant from the Ministry of Justice.

There were 151 registered and 10 presenters. There was a lot of information conveyed during the day and it appears the attendees got a lot out of it. About 50 people signed up to be on the CRAT mailing list, and this has already resulted in several new people coming to CRAT Meetings. Thanks is also due to the Victoria Family Court and Youth Justice Committee for providing a grant to cover the costs of coffee and muffins in the morning at the Workshop.

Although we are not seeing as many youth selling sex on the streets, it appears that youth are now using the internet and are becoming more difficult to detect and help. There also appears to be an increase in the incidents involving gang coercion. CRAT will continue to work on these issues in 2014.

Submitted by Bill McElroy, Chair, December 2013