Outreach workers partner with police to help protect girls at risk

A coalition of outreach workers is working with police to help keep some of Winnipeg's most vulnerable youth safe from sexual exploitation, but there aren't enough resources to keep many at-risk kids off the streets for good, they say.

The Winnipeg Outreach Network, with 18 member organizations, searches out and finds the kids at risk and builds relationships with them, working to get them to safe spaces but with only one six-bed safe house for girls in the city,the problem is sometimes there's no place to put the kids who are ready to accept help, they say.

"As the police, we can go in there and investigate, do our job, meet with the victim, identify the predator and make an arrest," said Staff Sgt. DarrylRamkissoonwith the Winnipeg police special investigations unit.

"We don't have the information or ability to deal with the victim prior to and after [the crime], and that's where WON is helping us out tremendously."

Outreach workers are on the streets at all hours, looking for "the most at-risk girls" in the city, said Melissa Stone, the organization's co-chair and an outreach facilitator for sexually exploited youth at MaMawiWi ChiItataCentre.

"It's every day, every night," Stone said."We make sure that all times are covered."

WON started up a few years agoand its member organizations includingNdinawe, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection and the Child and Family All Nations Coordinated Response Network (ANCR) have eyes on the streets and a focuson keeping at-risk youth out of harm's way.

Outreach workers from member organizations meettwice a month to share information about kids who are missing, new faces, descriptions of familiar johns on the street,neighbourhoods where there's a higher risk of youthbeing exploited and other details that bolster their ability to protect vulnerable youth..

Stone and workers fromNdinaweare out until 3 a.m. most nights of the week, sitting in cars or walking around the inner city.

Not easy to build trust

Getting at-risk teens to open up to WON workers isn't easy, Stone said, recalling a 13-year-old girl who only shared details of her story with them after months of trying to get her to talk.

Like Tina Fontaine, the 15-year-old girl whosebody was foundin the Red River in 2014,the 13-year-old girl was under the care of Child and Family Services but ran away frequently, Stone said.

She was being sexually exploited when Stone first approached her. It took eights months of attentive listening, gentle prodding and sincere support before Stone persuaded the girlto move into MaMawiWi ChiItataCentre's safe house.

There, Stone and others help exploited youth access care, addictions services and other supports.

"She's now 21 and we are super close," Stone said.

Relationships are essential to gettinggirls to come forward and provide the information needed to charge the men who are exploiting them, she said.

"They've been hurt by every adult and when you're out there every day on the ground chatting with them, buying them a coffee, handing them some tobacco," you're building trust, she said.

"Once they have that trust in me then I can say, 'It's OK, I will be with you.'"

Only 6 beds

Stone and others often take sexually exploited youth to the Ma MawiChiItataCentre safe house, the only such house in the city. They loop inANCRand the Winnipeg police, who then go to the safe house to interview victims.

But the safe houseonly has six beds, and when they're allfilled, kids picked up during WON patrols or by police have nowhere else to go but to be dropped off at temporary emergency shelters, Ramkissoonsaid.

"It's frustrating" when that happens, Ramkissoon said, becausepolice lose an opportunity tostart the rehabilitation process with the youth right away.

"If I can phone up Melissa and Melissa will say, 'OK, well, we have this space,' then I know that victim is in good hands. The follow-up will be there. But when we have to find an emergency placement, we lose that. We lose the ability to start building the rapport with the victim."

Thoseyouth are at a high risk of slipping through the cracks and ending up back on the streetbefore police can persuade them to identify and helpbring charges against predators who have exploited them, saidRamkissoon.

"They [victims] may not have the trust in police. We don't have the rapport with victims; we're walking in as total strangers, whereas WON might have an already established rapport ... because they've had previous dealings with these victims."

'Bridge that gap'

Outreach workers from WON member organizations have taken part in several workshops put on by Ramkissoon in recent months to help them becomebetter able to spot signs of a child who is being sexually exploited.

The course, which took place again this week,isalso about trying to establish stronger lines of communication between the force and grassroots groups like WON, he said.

"Nobody was communicating, and we're now starting to communicate a lot better," said Ramkissoon.

"Doing this, we kind of build partnerships, establish networks, and it's starting to pay off."

WON's ability to build relationships fills a gap in police services.

"I can think of various reasons why sometimes the victim wouldn't want to talk to police. WON can help us build that rapport and bridge that gap."

'Have to show compassion'

WON members are also creating a resource guide for kids on the streets thatshould be ready in the coming weeks.

TheWinnipeg Foundation and Manitoba's Office of the Children's Advocatefundedthe development of the guide, based on a similar guide used in Toronto. It will include a map toWON member organizations and contact information for youth in distress or in need of shelter, food or clothing.

It's being printed on durable card stock in the hopes that youth, many of whom don't have cellphones or access to computers, will carryit around with them.

You have to show and build that trust and relationship with them. It doesn't happen overnight, but when you're out on the street, you have to show compassion- Melissa Stone

Though there's excitement about the resource guide, whatWON needs most is a drop-in centre and additional safe houses, including one for exploited adults, Stone said.

There aren't nearly enough people doingthe kind of work Stoneis doing, she said. Her outreach worker position atMaMawiWi ChiItataCentre is the only such position at that agency.

Apart from the need for more funding and resources, Stone said she hopes the general public understandsthat exploited youth need to feel accepted and supported before they will agree to be helped.

"You have to show love," she said. "You have to be open-minded. You can't be critical. You have to show and build that trust and relationship with them. It doesn't happen overnight, but when you're out on the street, you have to show compassion."