We’re working to create a world where no person is bought, sold, or exploited. Read more about our latest efforts here.
Thank you to everyone who joined us last week for The Revolution Starts with Conversation: The 5th Annual World Without Exploitation Youth Summit. We were blown away by the engagement and participation from the attendees. Thank you to all who attended, supported, and gave their time and expertise to make this event a reality.
Join World Without Exploitation on Wednesday, July 13th, 2022 from 9am to 4pm at Brooklyn Law School for an in-person educational youth summit. Youth advocates, experts, and survivor leaders will discuss their experiences and expertise on main-stage panels and in interactive workshops. This free event is open to youth ages 15-28 who want to learn and take action to end sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.
Writer and activist Chris Stark - a longstanding World Without Exploitation (WorldWE) ally - has a new novel out. We can’t wait to celebrate it! Called “beautifully woven and gut-wrenching” by New York Times bestselling author William Kent Kruger, and “a heartbreaking wonder of gorgeous prose” by PEN/Hemingway award winner Mona Susan Power, Carnival Lights tells the story of two Ojibwe cousins who leave their reservation for a new life in Minneapolis.
All over the world, women and girls from the most discriminated communities are over-represented in prostitution and human trafficking. Poor, Indigenous, migrant, asylum-seeking, displaced women, those from the lowest castes and from ethnic, religious and racial minorities are the first victims of pimps and sex buyers. But how can we get beyond a simple analysis of the prostitution and trafficking systems in terms of sanitary risks as is typically done?
Comedian John Oliver produced a segment championing full decriminalization of the sex trade. In it, he compared prostitution to making sandwiches at Subway and made jokes at the expense of survivors. 24 survivor leaders came together to send John Oliver the clear message that he got this so very wrong.
Human trafficking and sexual exploitation aren’t just global issues. Far too often, they are a family issue. According to the US Department of State, interfamilial trafficking accounts for 31% of child sex trafficking cases in the United States. The challenge this poses for those seeking to prosecute such cases is clear. A child’s loyalty to and reliance on the family structure make familial trafficking difficult to identify. Children are rarely comfortable – and are sometimes unwilling – to testify against a family member. And economic circumstances oftentimes contribute to a set of conditions that fuel interfamilial trafficking.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, January 11, is Human Trafficking Awareness day. At 7 pm eastern, World Without Exploitation will hold our second annual virtual benefit, Celebrating a More Equitable World. Together, we will celebrate five years of World Without Exploitation bringing people together to change hearts, minds and laws about the sex trade. Along with several inspiring creative performances, we will be honoring three extraordinary movement leaders: Audrey Morrissey, the Associate Director of My Life My Choice, a program of the Justice Resource Institute; Mary Mazzio, the visionary filmmaker behind the award-winning documentary “I Am Jane Doe,” which is a powerful indictment of the online sex trade; and Matthew Kodsi, a co-founder of the World Without Exploitation Youth Coalition and a next generation movement leader.
During “Celebrating a More Equitable World,” World Without Exploitation’s second annual Virtual Gala, we’ll be lifting up the movement leaders and change creators who are using their uniquely powerful voices to create change. The gala will be emceed by actress Reshma Shetty, a longstanding movement ally, and will feature a musical performance by singer-songwriter Chelsea Cutler, whose Late Show With Stephen Colbert performance is a must-see. In addition, we’ll showcase staged readings of a new work by playwright Katie Cappiello and the creative ensemble at The Voices and Faces Project.
Since its inception, World Without Exploitation has been committed to creating a space where a diverse community of activists, advocates, artists, survivors, and direct service providers could come together to create a world where no person is bought, sold, or exploited. During the last year, that fight has taken on new urgency as we have worked to confront the degree to which racial, economic, and social inequality have driven the sex trade and disproportionately impacted Communities of Color.
Activist and author Brenda Myers-Powell, the co-founder of Dreamcatcher Foundation and a longstanding World Without Exploitation (WorldWE) ally, has a new memoir out. We can’t wait to celebrate it! "Leaving Breezy Street," a powerful account of Brenda’s life in and journey out of the sex trade, has been praised by Peabody Award-winning journalist Alex Kotlowitz as “Remarkable…Myers-Powell emerges on the other side not only intact but as an inspiration," and hailed by Publisher’s Weekly as a “page turner from start to finish.”
