Four weeks after the province announced StreetReach, a program that would co-ordinate the work of 25 professionals and 22 community resource centres to protect youth from sexual exploitation, it’s not clear how these resource centers have come together.

The Knowles Center and Marymound, two partners in StreetReach, opted not to comment citing that their relationship with the StreetReach program was not yet well formed.

“We’re still in development,” said Jennifer Berry, interim co-ordinator of StreetReach. “A lot of the agencies have already been working with these kids.”

Once fully formed, StreetReach will be a forum for resource centers to agree on basic strategies to prevent child sexual exploitation, said Berry.

“We’re looking at having a number of agencies that are experts in their own right coming together to have basic agreements rather than operating independently,” she said.

Sonia Prevost-Derbecker, executive director of All Nations Co-ordinated Response Network, said StreetReach is looking to mitigate risk in the lives of vulnerable youth, which are youth “at risk of crime, street involvement, and high-end addiction,” she said.

Outreach workers – along with Child and Family Services, the Winnipeg Police, and Missing Persons Unit – are out on the streets, working with vulnerable youth.

“The outreach workers know the youth on the street ... they would see them being picked up by johns,” said Prevost-Derbecker. “It’s [their] job to get to know the community and get to know who’s at risk and vulnerable.”

The Downtown BIZ, an organization targeted at helping those in the downtown community, has seen a positive effect since its launch. Rick Joyal, manager of safety and development with the Downtown BIZ, said the focus is on looking at poverty and giving people a hand up by providing money for food and employment.

Joyal said programs that are targeted towards helping people are nice, but it’s a day-to-day process.

“There are youth and aboriginals that need help,” he said.

Joyal expressed concern that an addition of city programs may not be making any new changes. “I think a lot of programs are well intended but there are [many] duplicate programs,” he said.

Prevost-Derbecker said if StreetReach has as good an outcome as is anticipated than “other provinces will want to take them on.”

Published in Volume 64, Number 10 of The Uniter (November 5, 2009)