Empowering Young Men In Ending Sexual Exploitation

The Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation has seen some big changes this summer! We’ve hired a new Prevention Manager, Shalini Mirpuri, and brought on a new Educator, Jose Corea. With fresh eyes on our curriculum, we spent the summer revising our signature Empowering Young Men and Empowering Young Women curricula in order to maintain cultural relevance for our students.  Now that the school year has begun, the CAASE educators are already engaging students with the new activities.  While the lessons will continue engage students in critical discussions about gender inequality, it has been revamped to include an in-depth look at consent, the commercial sex trade, and broader systems of oppression that lead to violence against women and marginalized populations. Previously a four-session curriculum, it has expanded to five-sessions to provide ample time for discussion and awareness-building activities that will lead to the necessary culture shifts to end rape culture.  

Empowering youth to be allies for gender justice is at the heart of the Prevention Department’s work.  Prevention starts with equipping students with the skills and knowledge to bring about this cultural shift. Our partners have noticed this.  With #MeToo being a primary topic of conversation, our school partners are looking for supplemental education that doesn’t shy away from these difficult conversations. Students are longing for this too. They continue to surprise us every day with their maturity, interest, and passion for ending sexual harm. They’re seeking meaningful and impactful ways to change the norms so that they can build a safer world for everyone. We’re assisting them on that journey.

The recent growth of the Prevention Department comes with endless opportunities for growth for our students too. Just in the last few months, we've doubled our number of partner schools from the previous year. In addition to maintaining our numerous school partnerships, we are making strides to work with youth in other venues like park districts, art centers, and libraries.  We hope to inspire young people to think beyond the possibilities of their classrooms, and imagine how they can eliminate violence and harm from their entire community.