National Campaign to End Demand
With a strong and committed group of partners, Demand Abolition is launching a multi-year, multi-stakeholder campaign to eradicate demand for commercial sexual exploitation in the United States and to cultivate a culture that does not tolerate the buying and selling of bodies. This collaborative effort will bring together practitioners, law enforcement personnel, survivors, academics, corporate leaders, and policymakers to begin a national dialogue on demand and to identify and implement pragmatic, evidence-based, sustainable demand-reduction interventions.
As a first step, Demand Abolition contracted Abt Associates, Inc. to develop several possible frameworks that will create the foundation for a national action plan to guide this ambitious initiative and to mobilize action. Through the leadership of Dr. Michael Shively, Abt conducted a landscape analysis to assess current demand-reduction programs, practices, and policies; highlight gaps; and identify untapped resources. The challenges and opportunities of Abt’s strategy recommendations were examined during a May 2010 national planning meeting, hosted by the Embrey Family Foundation and Hunt Alternatives Fund, of some 70 experts from around the world.
As a next step, a steering committee, made up of members across sectors and disciplines, studied the Abt report to emerge with recommendations for a national action plan. We’ll move into the last phase of strategic planning in the fall of 2010.