Every day, we are inundated with headlines detailing the proliferation of sexual exploitation crimes throughout Arizona, from high-profile cases involving sex traffickers to predators seeking to commit unthinkable acts against vulnerable children in our own communities. Regardless of where you call home, these types of crimes are occurring and their ripple effects on victims, family members and the community at large cannot be understated.
While this is a grim reality, there are interventions deployable at the local level that can aid in curtailing sexual exploitation crimes. CEASE | Arizona aims to equip cities and towns with these tools, starting with training for municipal staff and leveraging that education into action. Municipalities are encouraged to fulfill the requirements to become a CEASE Designated City or Town, which requires that 75% of staff become trained on the CEASE curriculum, a commitment to annual re-training, and integration of the training videos into new-hire onboarding.
Our goal is to build a network of cities and towns across Arizona all committed to ensuring that Arizona is a place where no one is bought, sold or exploited. We achieve this through collaboration with municipal governments, training, policy recommendations, and public messaging about the harms of commercial sexual exploitation.
Sex trafficking is a local problem, requiring local solutions. We hope you’ll join us in this fight.
If you are interested in learning more about becoming a CEASE Designated City or Town, please contact Michelle Rucker, CEASE Program Director at Michelle@aatn.org or (602) 881-0937.
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