The Parliament Building in Ottawa
In June, Brainstorm’s Kerrie Penney and Barry Chugg found themselves in Ottawa making a presentation to the Roméo Dallaire Senate Committee against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children. How did that happen?
Well, last year Dr. Susan McIntyre walked into the Brainstorm office in Calgary and said, “I need to start a movement and I want you to help me.”
After snorting coffee through our noses we took the time to listen to this mad woman and quickly became infected by her enthusiasm and deep knowledge of the field to which she has devoted her career.
Since 1982, Sue has been immersed in the work of combating the abuse of children through the sexual exploitation trade. Her doctoral, The Youngest Profession, The Oldest Oppression involved extensive research that revealed that a vast majority of young people involved in the sexual exploitation trade had histories of abuse prior to entering the trade.
Her post doctoral journey with Woods Homes and her own company, The Hindsight Group, led her to the realization that a dramatic paradigm shift is needed to combat the problem. The helping community has always focused on the supply side of the sexual exploitation trade this is, getting young men and woman off the streets and into safe, nurturing environments. Sue’s work began to focus on the demand side the need to find ways to begin to reduce the demand for these services. In all the dialogue, which literally stretches back over the millennia, this has never been addressed.
The people at the Hindsight group realized they faced a daunting task: they needed to start a societal movement to reduce demand. Their work moved on to focus on the best practices common to programs which had dealt with social issues of similar magnitude such as drug abuse, family violence, smoking and teen alcoholism. This research resulted in the creation of The Blueprint which identified 37 best practices that made these campaigns successful in varying degrees.
That’s when Sue came to us and for nearly a year we’ve been learning about the sexual exploitation trade and developing a plan. In 531 BC Lao-tzu said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Well, our first step has been to create something called Understand Demand.
Although the movement will grow to embrace many tools and tactics, the first step for Understand Demand will be the creation of a powerful e-learning tool to demonstrate in a pilot test with a group of junior high school aged children in Calgary that attitudes that result in demand can, in fact, be altered. Understand Demand has established a partnership with Boys and Girls Club Community Services to facilitate the pilot.
This baby movement has already created enough of a stir that we were invited to present to Senator Dallaire’s committee. This group, comprised of professionals from every part of the nation, embraced Understand Demand as a practical tool to help them in the battle against the commercial sexual exploitation of children.
The next step in the Understand Demand movement will be to secure funding to begin work on the e-learning tool. The journey has been poignant and exciting so far. We believe the road ahead, though full of challenges and obstacles, will allow all four Brainstorm partners to use our skills and experience to truly make a difference.
Someone once called Sue McIntyre “dangerously infectious”. We agree and are happy we caught the bug!
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