// New this year //

5 partnerships were struck with schools and community organisations across Quebec: École secondaire des Patriotes (St-Eustache), Externat Sacré-Coeur (Rosemère), Motivation-Jeunesse 16-18, Collège Notre-Dame and Maison des jeunes MAGI de Mercier-Ouest (Montreal).

Significant youth involvement in the project, as more than 70 children ages 12 to 17 and members of the various partner organisations volunteered to participate in activities throughout the year and more than 200 young people attended a conference on the topic at Externat Sacré-Cœur.

More than 20 workshops were held with children, during which participants identified the topics that need to be addressed in order to improve the prevention of sexual exploitation, such as: consent, healthy and equal relationships, manipulation and how to recognise it, nonconsensual sharing of intimate images, and abuse of trust.

Many of Quebec's key stakeholders in the prevention of child sexual exploitation in Quebec contributed to the project through an advising committee. They include representatives from the Ministry of Public Security, The Ministry of Education, the National Assembly, the Montreal Police Department, the Secretariat for the Status of Women, the Marie-Vincent Foundation and various civil society organisations.

Various prevention campaigns that ran in Quebec over the past five years have been analysed. The aspects considered included the media type, campaign tone, form of exploitation addressed, target audience, and more.

I believe my opinions can make a difference in this project.

- Participant in the Voices of Youth project

The youth project participants now feel more comfortable sharing their views and have improved their analytical skills and understanding of sexual exploitation, especially when it occurs online.

Innovative tools were used to make the discussions more dynamic and encourage participants to interact despite the sensitive nature of the topics at hand.