The Sexual Exploitation Working Group (SEWG) is an Edmonton-based leadership group collaborating to create awareness of sexual exploitation and its causes and impacts.

The SEWG recognizes vulnerabilities to sexual exploitation due to: age, ethnicity, sex, gender, financial desperation, migration, homelessness, prior childhood abuse or neglect, mental or physical health conditions, addictions, inter-generational trauma or any other circumstance that contributes to vulnerability.

The SEWG is a collaborative of community partners, law enforcement, municipal and provincial government, and REACH Edmonton, which work to:

• Facilitate information sharing regarding sexual exploitation in its many forms and to be a conduit for public education
• Raise awareness of contributing factors and support community and political response in addressing them
• Identify and work with new partners and community stakeholders as needed

The working group follows the United Nation’s definition of sexual exploitation:

“Any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially or politically from the sexual exploitation of another.”