Community Engagement to End Child Sexual Exploitation (CEECSE)

The number of identified youth across Indiana who are exploited increased significantly in the years prior to 2020. In order to prevent and respond to this exploitation, the Community Engagement to End Child Sexual Exploitation (CEECSE) project worked with communities to build multidisciplinary alliances, assess current resources, develop action plans, and engage intentionally to address their specific community needs. This project addressed two challenges: matching the variety of educational materials or trainings needed by different stakeholders with existing resources as well as identifying needs that require additional resources or future development (more specialized training for service providers, etc.). This project worked with healthcare providers, law enforcement, local and state officials, educators, and community and faith-based organizations to convene local, state, regional, and national resources to build coordinated, well-informed and equipped local teams in these rural communities. Counties involved are Brown, Greene, and Putnam.