Archived News Releases

News Release - Manitoba

October 7, 2004

Educational Resource for Helping Sexually Exploited Youth Released

Educational Resource for Helping Sexually Exploited Youth Released


The Manitoba government today announced the availability of an educational resource to help professionals reach out to sexually exploited children and youth or those who may be vulnerable to exploitation.

“This resource is in addition to a range of other measures the province has undertaken to protect children who are sexually exploited or street involved,” said Healthy Living Minister Jim Rondeau.  “In Manitoba, approximately one-third of individuals involved in the sex trade are under age 18.  There is a need to provide information and supports to professionals working with these children.”

“This new resource will help professionals by providing them with educational and informational materials to help them work with affected children and youth,” said Family Services and Housing Minister Christine Melnick.  “By working together to develop new resources, we will continue to help meet the evolving needs of affected young people, educators and service providers across Manitoba.”

In December 2002, the province launched a strategy on child sexual exploitation.  The plan focused on offering shelter and treatment to at-risk youth, intervening to take children out of dangerous situations, seeking incarceration for adults who sexually exploit children and developing an educational resource to help communities uncover sexual exploitation and abuse.

This strategy is in addition to other measures regarding sexual exploitation of children including the introduction of a prosecution policy which recognizes that youth involved in prostitution are victims of a particularly serious form of sexual exploitation and abuse.

The CD-ROM Partnerships in Action was created to provide training and support to professionals in the fields of health, justice, education and social services who work closely with street-involved young people.

The training and education resource will be distributed to government departments, regional health authorities, physicians, nursing stations, schools, foster care and child welfare contacts, youth and adult corrections and probation workers, friendship centres, women's organizations and recreational directors.

“Experts in the field recognize that exploitation of young people through prostitution is child abuse,” said Rondeau.  “Children and youth who are sexually exploited are at high risk of becoming rooted in a lifestyle where they can contract sexually transmitted diseases, become dependent on our social service system, become involved in drug and criminal behaviour, and raise children who are likely to become involved in the same lifestyle.”

Rondeau acknowledged the work of members of the multi-jurisdictional implementation team on sexually exploited children and youth which includes representatives from the Manitoba departments of Health; Family Services and Housing; Education, Citizenship and Youth; Justice; Aboriginal and Northern Affairs; and Culture, Heritage and Tourism as well as Healthy Child Manitoba and the Manitoba Women's Directorate.

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INITIATIVES TO SUPPORT SEXUALLY EXPLOITED CHILDREN

The following are some of the initiatives that are underway by the Manitoba government to support sexually exploited children.

·         Implementation of a new prosecution policy seeking jail time for offenders and diverting youth from the formal court process.

·         Development of a protocol for Child Victim Support Services to assist sexually exploited youth through the court process. 

·         Through Family Services and Housing, expansion of an outreach project that assists in reducing the number of residential care runaway youth who become at increased risk of sexual exploitation.

·         Through Family Services and Housing, intensive specialized training for foster parents and other front line workers who deal with children and youth who have been sexually exploited.

·         Through Family Services and Housing, a six-bed safe transition home in Winnipeg, Honoring the Spirit of our Little Sisters, is in operation by Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre Inc. for females aged 13 to 17 who have been subjected to and are at risk of continued sexual exploitation.

·         Through Family Services and Housing, the Marymound specialized residential child care facility Rose Hall has been enhanced to deliver specialized services for young women aged 13 to 17 who have been sexually exploited.

·         Partnerships with existing community services relevant to the issue of child and youth sexual exploitation, particularly in Winnipeg, remain in operation.  These include connections with organizations such as Child Find, the Salvation Army Prostitution Diversion Program, West End Biz, Winnipeg Police Service, Operation Go Home, Street Connections, Thunderbird House, Ndaawin, Kanikanicihk, Dream Catchers, Aboriginal elders and others.

·         Development of a provincial Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention and Control Strategy by Manitoba Health.

·         Manitoba Health contract with Teen Talk to consult with youth in 2003-04 for the development of a social marketing campaign focusing on STD and HIV prevention.

·         Manitoba Health works with Teen Talk to implement peer based training in communities with high rates of STDs among youth.

·         The Sexually Transmitted Disease/Public Health Nurse Corrections project continues in five of nine provincial correctional institutions (including Agassiz Youth Centre).  Manitoba is one of only two provinces in Canada to have a formal public health and corrections partnership.  Current services include education, testing, counselling and the development of a provincial resource package for offenders on release from the institution.

·         Manitoba Health has provided funds for a sexually transmitted disease co-ordinator to work in Burntwood Regional Heath Authority to address the high rates of STDs and HIV in the region.

·         Manitoba Health has provided Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (RHA) with syphilis outbreak funding for public health nurses and was part of the RHA's outbreak response team.

·         Manitoba Health co-chairs the 110-member Manitoba Harm Reduction working-group.  The committee's goal is to reduce the harm associated with injection drug use and high-risk sexual behaviour.  Work accomplished to date includes the implementation of a condom accessibility strategy, a harm reduction information clearing house at the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba and funding proposal support for Sunshine House.

·         Development and implementation of anonymous and nominal HIV antibody testing options in Manitoba. 

·         Manitoba Health requires regional health authorities to submit STD reduction plans to the Communicable Disease Control Unit.  All RHAs have committed to making STD and HIV prevention a priority and to increase primary prevention for target populations, especially youth.