TEAM HITS THE STREETS TO OFFER HELP

It may be ignored by most people, but the truth is there are about100 women
and girls working in the sex trade in Prince Albert.

Fortunately for these women, there are people who refuse to close their
eyes to the problem and instead provide a friendly face and a helping hand.

Ruth Gillingham and Carrie McCloy are just two of the employees at the
Youth Activity Centre who work closely with the sex-trade workers.

Both provide youth with things such as food, as well as help with
addictions, housing and social services. Gillingham and McCloy also work in
the Outreach Van, which goes out four nights a week to provide sandwiches,
juice and condoms for people on the street.

"We give them support and options and let them make the choices," said
Gillingham. "There is no pressure. We're just letting them know there is
somebody out there who cares about them. We keep track of how they are
doing and it means the world to them."

While in the van, Gillingham and McCloy fill out a form to track the people
they see. They use a number system to chart age, whether they were given
food and/or condoms, level of involvement in the sex trade, level of risk
and referrals made.

The centre works with community partners including social services, mobile
crisis, addiction services, the police and the RCMP.

An intervention committee meets once a month to discuss the sex trade in
Prince Albert.

"We talk about any girls we are concerned about. It's a really good
connecting resource," said McCloy.

"The more we all work together the more we are able to help people."

McCloy said when the police have underage girls they don't want to charge
they call the centre.

"We go and pick them up and try to build a relationship with them," said
McCloy. "It's an excellent way to talk to them and find out what they are
doing on the street."

For Gillingham and McCloy, sex-trade workers would be better described as
sexually exploited youth.

"We don't call them hookers or prostitutes," said Gillingham. "The girls
are out there trying to survive and they are being victimized and exploited
by their families, pimps and johns."

McCloy said many times, the girls are being pimped out by family members,
boyfriends and husbands.

"The girls often work to pay the for the rent and the drugs for both of
them," said McCloy.

Gillingham calls this the vicious cycle.

"From the girls we talk to, they get into it in most cases because they
became addicted to drugs," said Gillingham. "Someone provided them with the
drugs and then pimped them out."

Most of the sex-trade workers are addicted to dilaudid, ritalin, crystal
meth or cocaine.

"In order to get their fix, they go out and work," said McCloy. "Then, of
course, after you've done something like that, you want to forget it so you
get high."

Gillingham said there is no profile for a john other than the fact that
they're victimizing someone.

"People would be very surprised. It's not just scummy, hairy,
sasquatch-looking guys out there doing it," said Gillingham. "It's family
guys, married guys, retired guys and young guys."

Gillingham and McCloy often work as the go-between to the police for the
girls. They file bad date reports and provide other information to the
police on behalf of the sex-trade workers. Recent stories of prostitutes
being killed in Vancouver and Edmonton have made safety a priority for
sex-trade workers in Prince Albert.

"When they go up to a car window, they usually don't know who they are
getting in with or even if they are coming back," said Gillingham. "A lot
of the girls will work together in terms of watching each others' backs."

Gillingham has worked at the centre for three years and in that time knows
of two girls who have left the sex trade. McCloy knows of two who are
currently on their way out.

"I have never met a girl that says she wants to keep doing it," said
Gillingham. "They all have a goal. That Pretty Woman scenario is a crock,
it's a lot of hard work to get out.

"The one thing that really bothers me as a worker is the way society treats
the girls," said Gillingham. "They've had coffee, fruit and rocks thrown at
them. They've been called names and been assaulted.

"That's the one message people really need to see is that these are human
beings."