Dedicated to Ending Exploitation

Commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) is a serious and prevalent issue that impacts children & youth, families, and communities. CSEC is a form of child abuse.

Support to End Exploitation Now (SEEN) is a groundbreaking partnership that unites more than 35 public and private agencies in the belief that collaboration yields positive outcomes for child victims of commercial sexual exploitation (CSEC). Before the creation of SEEN in 2006, this form of human trafficking was virtually unrecognized in Suffolk County. SEEN provides a coordinated, multi-disciplinary response to at-risk and sexually exploited youth that aims to:

  • Empower victims to leave their exploiter or pimp and utilize opportunities to regain control of their future and life;

  • Ensure victims' physical and psychological safety;

  • Ensure victims' access to resources and services, including: medical & mental health care, substance abuse treatment, educational opportunities, job skills training, mentors/advocates, and more;

  • Enforce offender accountability by apprehending and prosecuting adults who exploit youth; and

  • Address the larger social issues impacting at-risk children through policy and education.

Roxbury Youthworks is proud to be a founding member of SEEN.

The Equality Model in MA (EMMA) Coalition is a survivor-led, community effort that works to dismantle systems of violence against prostituted people through the implementation of the Equality Model. RYI supports An Act to Strengthen Justice and Support for Sex Trade Survivors. The law is based on the Equality Model, also called the Nordic Model. The Equality Model takes a multi-faceted approach to address prostitution and sexual exploitation broadly, including by decriminalizing prostitution for those prostituted, decreasing demand by maintaining penalties against buyers and those deriving financial benefits from the exploitation of others, supporting exit programming, and promoting prevention and educational initiatives.

Every day in America tens of thousands of people are trafficked and sexually exploited. Millions more are bought, sold, and exploited worldwide. After decades of extraordinary political, economic, and social progress, why are so many people still being purchased like products? World Without Exploitation was created to confront that question. Our movement was born of a series of conversations among exploitation and trafficking survivors, human rights and gender justice advocates, artists, activists, and direct service providers. We’re united in the belief that we won’t end exploitation until we confront its root causes. We know that an injustice that goes unseen is an injustice that goes unchallenged. And challenging a world in which human beings are being trafficked and exploited is what World Without Exploitation is all about.