Apply to be a "Just Exits" Pilot Site
Just Exits for Survivors of Exploitation Competitive Solicitation for Technical Assistance
AEquitas is accepting proposals from state, local, and tribal prosecutors' offices in the United States to serve as #JustExits pilot sites!
Applications are due by 11:59 PM ET on December 23, 2020.
Learn more and apply now at http://TinyUrl.com/JustExitsPilotSite.
The Initiative
The Just Exits initiative is a partnership between AEquitas and a Survivor Advisory Council comprised of women with lived and professional expertise. The Initiative will transform justice by closing ON RAMPS to and building OFF RAMPS from sexual exploitation. We will do this by:
• Educating prosecutors and law enforcement about how exploiters force, manipulate, brainwash, and otherwise coerce victims to engage in illegal activity;
• Supporting prosecutors in their efforts to identify wrongful arrests and charges and to remedy wrongful convictions of exploited persons;
• Collaborating with communities to ensure that survivors can access services that offer meaningful life opportunities; and
• Measuring meaningful prosecution outcomes to ensure a just response.
The Issue
Sexual exploitation of women and girls involves myriad complex crimes and demands an informed justice system response—one that prioritizes survivor and community safety along with offender and institutional accountability.
Survivors who actively seek out the justice system’s intervention, as well as those who intersect with it collaterally as victims, witnesses, or as defendants charged with a crime, must be identified as such. The ability of prosecutors and allied professionals to do so is paramount for survivor empowerment, community safety, and prevention. Identification is the first step to creating exit ramps from exploitation.
Prosecutors can also help close on-ramps by identifying individuals intersecting with the system who are potentially vulnerable to exploitation and to factor that vulnerability into their interactions with them, directing them to appropriate resources and support.
Prosecutors are uniquely positioned to make these changes and to achieve justice for survivors. By identifying sexually exploited women and girls as survivors when they make contact with the system, making fair charging decisions, facilitating criminal record relief, and linking these survivors with services and support, prosecutors can clear the way to a different life path.
For an Overview of the Pilot Site Project, Length of Technical Assistance, Deadline, Eligibility, Technical Assistance, Project Narrative, Selection Process and to learn more about AEquitas and the Survivor Advisory Council visit: https://rb.gy/3tun2w
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