CSEC Demonstration Project. Follow-up T&TA support to a TBD set of communities as part of professional development and capacity building initiative expected to commence early 2006.

The SAGE Project will launch an intensive, two-year training and technical assistance project to assist OJJDP in building capacity of selected governmental and non-governmental organizations that address the needs of victims of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC).

Specifically, SAGE will provide hands-on training and technical assistance to OJJDP's Atlanta and New York demonstration projects and other OJJDP-identified jurisdictions. Additionally, SAGE will facilitate skill-building seminars at four to six OJJDP-sponsored regional trainings for community-based organizations, criminal justice entities and legislators. These sessions will be designed to foster best practices for the prevention of CSEC and for recognizing and treating the psychological outfalls of trauma and abuse in commercially sexually exploited youth. Following each regional training SAGE staff will be available to provide additional, more comprehensive, on-site technical assistance to communities and organizations. Which communities and organizations receive additional assistance will be determined through a competitive proposal process.

The purpose of this effort is to help local government, criminal justice and community-based organizations replace approaches that emphasize the arrest and prosecution of children who have been sexually abused, raped, trafficked, kidnapped and/or otherwise harmed through CSEC with protection and webs of seamless services to help victims rebuild their lives free of abuse.

It is expected that this fundamental shift in priorities will also engender enhanced investigations and better prosecutions of the real perpetrators: pimps, procurers, traffickers, exploiters and consumers'the 'demand side' of the prostitution equation.

NCA/NCF