How to Facilitate a Discussion about Child Sexual Exploitation in Your Community: A Facilitation Guide (Facilitation Guide) is a publication of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ). This material is made possible through funding from the NoVo Foundation under the Life Story Grant funding opportunity that focuses on strategies to address commercial sexual exploitation. The purpose of this Facilitation Guide is to provide judges with guidance on how to convene a group of court and community stakeholders to address child sex trafficking on a local level. The guide is intended to help courts and community stakeholders understand and discuss what puts minors at risk for sexual exploitation, also known as on-ramps into the life of trafficking. More importantly, this Facilitation Guide presents options for strategically planning the implementation of practices that engage youth in services to help them exit and recover from sex trafficking, also known as off-ramps. This publication is a new addition to the “Understanding the Scope of the Problem” section of our Resource Center for Courts on Child Sex Trafficking.
The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) developed a resource center to provide new and experienced judicial officers and courts with the tools they need to enhance their ability to address these challenging cases. This toolkit is organized by topic and includes Understanding the Scope of the Problem, Interpreting the Legal Landscape, Implementing Promising Practices, and Leveraging Judicial Leadership. The Resource Center was developed with the support of the NoVo Foundation, Rights4Girls, National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project (NIWAP) Awaken, National American Indian Court Judges Association (NAICJA), and consultants Honorable John Romero (Ret.) and Toni McKinley, MA, LPC.
The NCJFCJ would like to offer special thanks to the project partners and advisory committee members who provided guidance for the development of this Facilitation Guide. The NCJFCJ appreciates their passion and commitment to preventing child sex trafficking.