Pubdate: Thu, 07 Jan 2010
Source: Prince George Citizen (CN BC)
Copyright: 2010 Prince George Citizen
Contact:  http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/350
Author: Frank Peebles

COLD ADDS EXTRA DANGER TO SEX TRADE

The streets are cold places for the women who walk them selling their 
bodies, but when the mercury dips to this week's temperatures it can 
be especially cruel punishment.

Alison Paul and the volunteers of the New Hope Society were on 
24-hour alert for calls to their hotline in the cold snap. Women 
forced into survival sex have that number and were calling at all 
hours for rescue from the weather.

There were more calls this year than last, said Paul, New Hope's 
executive director, but they are coming from fewer individual women 
out on the street in the extreme weather.

"I'm seeing an improvement in those numbers," Paul said. "Pretty much 
we are able to make sure everyone is in for the night. It is much 
better than last year when we had two in particular who were 
continuously out there even at minus 45. Sometimes people are banned 
from the shelters for different behavioral reasons, and sometimes 
there simply aren't enough beds for emergency shelter in Prince 
George even though the shelters work really hard to find ways to get 
people indoors."

Paul doesn't know the reasons fewer women are getting stuck out in 
the cold, but suspects it has to do with innovative and diligent work 
done by the shelters run by Active Support Against Poverty, the 
Association Advocating For Women and Children, Phoenix Transition 
Home and others.

New Hope had more good news as 2009 gave way to the new year. Paul 
said the front line society has been operating long enough now that 
its programs and storefront facility (1046 4th Ave.) seem to be 
slowly getting ingrained in the minds of the vulnerable women they 
aim to look after.

According to their intake statistics, about 170 individuals have 
utilized the New Hope menu of services about 3,000 total times since 
March, 2009.

Virtually all of them, said Paul, are addicted to drugs or at risk of 
becoming addicted.

"We are sending a lot more women to treatment these days," she said 
on a positive note, but stressed that amongst the steps to success 
were many sad stories too. "The addictions piece is coming along, we 
are seeing improvements. I don't mind sending the same woman to 
treatment 10 times because that 10th time might be the one that 
sticks. We are really working with the addictions piece and the shelter piece."

The trend that is causing the most concern to the New Hope board, 
staff and volunteers is the demographic of the women working the 
streets and black market brothels.

"What is a little frightening is, the average age is dropping. They 
are getting younger. I have files on most of my women, we update 
their notes, it is always good to keep track of our girls, and we are 
noticing the overall age getting younger," she said. "We are alarmed by this."

In addition to the 24-hour hotline, New Hope's facility is open 
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. There 
used to be a weekend opening as well, but funding constraints have 
caused that to be lost. Paul said that is a big dent in their 
outreach abilities, and adds risk for the women they service, but the 
New Hope staff and volunteers are thankful to have another year's 
funding confirmed for what work they can do, and they intend to reach 
out to the community more than ever in 2010 to acquire more income. 
Anyone who can help is urged to e-mail Paul at  ---
MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart