New Portland curriculum helps students identify sex trafficking, exploitive relationships
Youths are taught that the dynamics of a coercive relationship emerge slowly after a power imbalance is established
Many youths caught up in the deceptive world of sex trafficking might not even realize it, said Emmy Ritter, executive director of Raphael House, which serves survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
“It’s more subtle than a pimp picking them off the street,” Ritter said. “A boyfriend might begin to ask his partner to have sex with his friends or take her to parties and hand her out there.
“Maybe family members or gang affiliates are pulling them in, which doesn’t feel unsafe on the front end,” Ritter said.
As part of the New Day Program, high school students are learning how to spot the signs of exploitive relationships.
A new curriculum on sex trafficking and coercion has now been integrated into the generalized training on consent, dating violence and healthy relationships – which has been provided to Portland schools by Raphael House and VOA Home Free for 13 years.
“Rather than the scare tactics of the past, we’re approaching this by letting the kids see sex trafficking from their perspective – from a relationship perspective – as opposed to the scary guy outside the school trying to get you in the van,” Ritter said.
New Day’s lead prevention instructor, Gibson – who uses the pronouns they and them and chose to go by their first name only – said exploitation happens when someone exploits a power imbalance to profit off another person. Furthermore, anyone under 18 who is trading sex is recognized as a trafficking victim and can access resources and support.
“The ways these youth experience trafficking relationships, these relationships with third-party exploiters,” Gibson said, “they don’t really fit into an easy mold.”
Gibson said to help students understand the grooming techniques used by traffickers, the New Day Program facilitates fluid discussions among students.
“We ask how the power imbalance might begin,” Gibson said. “What are the ways people can experience exploitation? What are the dynamics of an exploitive relationship? What’s deceit? How do we define coercion?”
To read the full article, written by Libby Dowsett, click HERE
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