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LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS
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CORNY FUN:
Corn-husking contests, zucchini races, pumpkin decorating, a corn roast – and much more – were part of the fun at the Royal City Farmers Market’s first ever Harvest Festival. The Sept. 13 event took place at Pacific Breeze Winery. Alex Stark, Royal City Farmer Market’s market assistant, husks corn at the Harvest Festival. For more photos, check out a gallery at www. therecord.ca. PHOTO JENNIFER GAUTHIER
SURVEY SAYS:
Sexually exploited youth getting younger By Cornelia Naylor
cnaylor@newwestrecord.ca
Sexually exploited youth in New Westminster and Burnaby are getting younger, according to a recent survey by the Burnaby-New Westminster Task Force on Sexually Exploited and AtRiskYouth. In February, local services providers who work with
youth tracked 180 young people deemed at risk of being sexually exploited either in person or online. Based on the data collected, 40 were suspected to have been sexually exploited and 24 were confirmed to have been targeted. “That’s when they’ve directly told the services provider that they are participating in activities related to
sexual exploitation, so the exchange of sexual acts for food, shelter, a ride, money, etc,” Burnaby social planner Rebekah Mahaffey told the Record. Of the confirmed cases, 21 per cent were under the age of 15 – up one per cent since the task force’s last survey in 2013 and five percent since 2011. “That’s been a trend
that’s been observed over the three counts,” Mahaffey said. The youngest person confirmed to have been sexually exploited was 12 years old. Another continuing trend revealed in the survey is a move away from street exploitation to exploitation online, according to Paige Freeman, director of youth
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rapidly, she said maintaining face-to-face contact with atrisk youth is critical for service providers. “If we have the relationships, then we know what’s happening and then we can access those media sites,” Freeman said. She said opening the lines of communication early is Continued on page 8
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programs for the Lower Mainland Purpose Society forYouth and Families. “It’s not in the public eye in the same way that it was, which makes it more challenging to intervene,” Freeman said. “A lot of it happens behind closed doors on computer screens, on phones.” Because the online world of sex exploitation shifts so
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