Province provides $3.5M to help human trafficking survivors
Advocate Paul Brandt named co-chair of office to combat sexual exploitation
Alberta is investing $3.5 million in 20 organizations that support survivors of human trafficking.
The organizations range from non-profits specifically founded to combat sexual exploitation, to First Nations police services and counselling agencies in cities and towns.
“Human trafficking is an unthinkable crime that denies a person their safety, freedom and individuality,” Public Safety and Emergency Services Minister Mike Ellis said at a news conference Thursday.
“The funding we've announced will be used by community organizations and service providers to increase and strengthen wraparound supports for survivors, break the cycle of recidivism for victims and support efforts to uproot the criminal networks profiting from the cruelty they inflict on Albertans.”
The funding is part of the $20 million budgeted by the province for anti-trafficking efforts over three years. RESET Society of Calgary, one of the recipients of the grant, said the financial assistance will cover one-fourth of their programs' annual costs.
The non-profit, which has a wait list of 32 survivors, accepts between 100 and 150 clients a year.
“A lot of the women are very broken, they're not healthy, they suffered a lot of trauma,” said Theresa Jenkins, the agency's executive director.
Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation (CEASE), another recipient of the funding, not only holds financial literacy programs and doles out bursaries to sexually exploited survivors, but also hosts lectures for buyers of sex who are educated on their role in perpetuating the exploitation of sex workers.
“The program is really about personalizing the whole aspect of the trafficking and the exploitation,” the program's executive director Liz John-west told Postmedia.
CEASE also received $200,000 and plans to use the money to hire staff who will help expand its employment program for survivors. “We're hoping to help at least 50 women in the next year,” Johnwest said.
Other recipients include Metis Child & Family Services Society, Native Counselling Services of Alberta and Tsuut'ina Nation Police Service. Police reported 260 incidents of human trafficking from 2012 to 2022, according to Statistics Canada. But the number is believed to be much higher.
The funding program was designed by Alberta Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons, the product of a recommendation by a provincial task force on the issue. The news conference on Thursday also announced the co-chairs of the office — country singer and advocate Paul Brandt, and the former CEO of Indigenous Community Development and Prosperity, Angela Adsit.