OUR WORK | POLICY

ORGANIZING & POLICY REFORM

End Demand Illinois

End Demand Illinois (EDI) is a multi-year organizing and advocacy campaign to transform Illinois’ response to prostitution and sex trafficking. EDI reflects the philosophy that sexual exploitation of women and girls in prostitution will never end until our community focuses its resources on providing specialized services to those harmed and holding accountable those who create the demand for the domestic sex trade – the traffickers, pimps, and people who buy sex.

CAASE launched EDI in September 2009 and we are following a multi year work plan. Over the next several years, EDI is engaged in the following activities:

• organizing and training survivors of prostitution and trafficking to serve as public spokespeople for the campaign;
• gathering statewide arrest and conviction data on prostitution;
• creating and advocating for public policies and legislation to achieve the goals of the campaign;
• educating the community, public policy makers, and opinion shapers about the campaign and need for reform; and
• researching and proposing a model statewide infrastructure of supportive services for survivors of prostitution and trafficking.

CAASE is the lead agency for EDI, and our collaborations strengthen the campaign in critical ways. CAASE has five campaign partners: Our campaign partners have important responsibilities within the campaign and bring unique expertise to each activity. The Polaris Project is a national anti-trafficking policy and advocacy organization and co-chairs EDI’s Policy Committee. Polaris provides research, legislative drafting, and policy consultation. The Voices and Faces Project is an advocacy organization in the anti-rape movement and provides End Demand Illinois with invaluable survivor voices, as well as communications and outreach expertise. The Schiller DuCanto and Fleck Family Law Center at DePaul Law School provides research on prostitution and trafficking in Illinois and will perform the formal evaluation of the Cook County Sheriff’s Trafficking Response Team. The Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault (ICASA) serves as the fiscal agent for the Novo grant, participates in statewide organizing efforts, and provides expertise on Illinois policy and legislative strategy. The Women of Power Alumni Association (WOPAA) is a nonprofit service organization working within the Cook County Sheriff’s Department of Women’s Justice Services. WOPAA will lead EDI’s Survivor Organizing efforts.

EDI has a Steering Committee that provides invaluable guidance, advice, and community engagement for the campaign, and many members sit on EDI sub committees. In addition to the campaign partners, the Steering Committee members are: CLAIM, The Dreamcatcher Foundation, Pillars, Project IRENE, Protestants for the Common Good, Rape Victim Advocates, The Salvation Army, The Prostitution Alternatives Round Table of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, and YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago.

Advocacy Partnerships with Area Law Enforcement

Cook County Sheriff’s Office: CAASE is creating a blueprint for a model “demand deterrence” protocol for the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. The goal of this effort is to ensure that those who solicit commercial sex are appropriately arrested, prosecuted and deterred from future solicitation, as well as designing and launching a pilot community engagement campaign to deter commercial sexual activity.

Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office: The End Demand Illinois’ Policy Committee is working collaboratively with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office to promote state legislation that would end the practice of prosecuting minors who have been prostituted, and instead ensure that exploited children receive a safe home and services. The bill would also give police and prosecutors new tools to go after pimps, traffickers, and people who buy sex - an important first step in ending the demand for the commercial sex trade.

 

Improving Cook County’s Response to Sexual Assault

In November 2009, CAASE launched an organizing and policy effort to ensure that Cook County provided resources to support area rape crisis centers. In May 2010, the County approved $275,000 in grants to support Rape Victim Advocates, Pillars, YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago, Northwest CASA, and Mujeres Latinas en Acción