Prevention

 

Our most powerful tool.

It isn’t the responsibility of a young person to prevent their own exploitation. However, research shows that the right tools can help reduce the risk of commercial sexual exploitation. My Life My Choice prevention programs deliver changes in attitudes, knowledge, and skills in efforts to influence action at both individual and systemic levels. 

 

  • The Curriculum

    My Life My Choice’s nationally acclaimed and rigorously evaluated 10-session exploitation prevention curriculum is designed to change disproportionately vulnerable youths’ attitudes and perceptions of the commercial sex industry, as well as build the skills and internal resources necessary to reduce their risk, build self-esteem and increase a sense of personal empowerment.

    More about the curriculum

  • Prevention Solution Model

    Our Prevention Solution Model provides a blueprint for fostering shifts in behavior, practice, and policy for programs serving and caring for marginalized youth. This model enables these programs to expertly wrap specialized care around ALL youth, ensuring that no exploited or high-risk child slips through the cracks. Only then can we achieve sustained system-wide change.

    More about Prevention

  • Partners in Prevention

    We are building a network of well-trained survivors and allies. From our Prevention Solution Fellowship awarded each year to five congregate care organizations, to partner initiatives such as our Male Allies Initiative, to our robust Online Community for Certified Facilitators, we continue to change perceptions and shift the way marginalized youth are served.

    More about our Partners

All children walking through our doors are at risk of exploitation, whether they have histories or not. A program that provides education, resources, and honesty, creates a safe space for all our kids to explore their vulnerabilities, but more importantly harness their strengths in finding their voice and choice along the recovery journey.

Kristin Corkum, Assistant Clinical Director, Cohannet Academy

The My Life My Choice Curriculum

The first comprehensive exploitation prevention curriculum in the nation, our nationally-acclaimed and evidence-based ten-session exploitation prevention curriculum equips disproportionately vulnerable young people between the ages of 12 and 18 with the tools and knowledge needed to protect themselves from exploiters, thus reducing their risk of commercial sexual exploitation. The My Life My Choice Curriculum is most effective and impactful for young people who were assigned female at birth or identify as female. 

About the My Life My Choice Curriculum

  • Evidence-based

  • Designed specifically for adolescent girls at greatest risk of exploitation

  • Gender specific and gender responsive for girls, including cisgender females, transgender females, and transgender males or nonbinary individuals whose experience of exploitation happened due to their gender identity or sex assigned at birth

  • Developed, written, and receives regular review and updating by survivors of exploitation

  • Designed to be co-facilitated by a survivor of exploitation

  • Provides an in-depth look at participants’ vulnerabilities and helps youth shift if they are already on the path towards exploitation

  • Highly effective in congregate care settings for both secondary and tertiary prevention

  • Rigorously evaluated through a National Institute of Justice grant, and shown to be effective in reducing risk of exploitation

Certified Facilitator benefits include:

  • Membership to our Online Community provides ongoing support and contact with other facilitators across the country. 

  • Access to My Life My Choice webinars.

  • Data collection tools and customized reports.

  • Continued support, consultation, and technical assistance from My Life My Choice staff.

Facilitators from 36 states and Canada have been trained to use our Curriculum to run Exploitation Prevention Groups with marginalized girls in their programs and communities. Get trained to become a Certified Facilitator today. 

 

Prevention Solution Model

Since 2002, My Life My Choice has been offering groundbreaking programs and trainings. In that time, we have amassed extensive experience and knowledge and pioneered best practices for prevention. Experience tells us that awareness is not enough. Effective prevention encompasses changes in attitudes, knowledge, and skills. To accomplish this, we’ve identified three key strategies:

  • Shift knowledge, attitudes, and behavior among those at greatest risk. 

  • Shift practice and policy within the congregate care facility to be able to most effectively reduce the risk of primary victimization or re-victimization. 

  • Sustained program-wide change: Long-term implementation and best practices of the PSM leading to a reduction in CSEC.

Having a consistent evidence-based model has raised awareness of CSEC within the agency. We needed a way to address prevention, not just assessment and treatment, and it gave us a framework to really talk about the youth we were serving and the issues we're seeing. Having a model that goes from prevention to intervention is a comprehensive way to look at youth affected by CSEC.

Ken Klein, Vice President of Northeast Housing and Emergency Services at Valley Youth House, Bethlehem, PA

Partners in Prevention

Prevention Solution Fellowship

The My Life My Choice Prevention Solution Fellowship is awarded to five congregate care programs nationally and five in Massachusetts each year. This unique opportunity aims to build capacity and increase impact in the area of human trafficking prevention on a national scale by supporting organizations serving high-risk youth in implementing our research-based, gender-responsive, and survivor-informed Prevention Solution Model. Prevention Solution Fellowship partners gain invaluable skills and tools for effective program-wide CSEC prevention through engaging multilevel in-person and online training and consultation.

Eligible organizations must:

  • Commit to all five multilevel trainings, consultation, and three All-Partner meetings; 

  • Demonstrate an existing investment in combating the issue of CSEC in their programs; 

  • Demonstrate a plan for sustaining the practices, policies, and CSEC prevention programming of the Prevention Solution Model beyond the Fellowship period; 

  • Be a residential/congregate care program serving female-identified youth age 12-18.

Massachusetts Fellows

2023/2024

2021/2022:

National Fellows

2023/2024

2022/2023:

2021/2022:

2020/2021:


Male Allies Standing Up

Male Allies Standing Up is comprised of men from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds working together to shift perceptions and behaviors among their peers.

See our Webinar as we discuss the role of men in ending the commercial sex industry, in Part III of Preventing CSEC: Stopping Exploitation Before it Begins.

Or contact us if you are interested in partnering with us.