Our Story – Why We Exist

Human Trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes in our country with 93% of Canada’s trafficking victims coming from within Canada (RCMP, 2014). More than 75% of people working in the Canadian sex trade were first exploited as a child (McIntyre, 2002).

#NotInMyCity’s vision is to prevent, disrupt, and end child and youth sexual exploitation and trafficking in Canada. Our mission is to raise awareness, create a platform for collective action, mobilize communities, and facilitate transformational systems change in Alberta and across Canada.

#NotInMyCity launched in 2017 by conducting extensive consultation with initially over 30 stakeholders and partners—including RCMP, Calgary and Edmonton Police Services, Indigenous groups, government departments, visionary businesses, numerous nonprofit community agencies, as well as the sectors of Justice, Health, Children’s Services, and Education. As a result of this consultation, ten key learnings were identified including the need to develop a common definition of human trafficking, improve data, increase public awareness, collaborate on an integrated continuum of care for at-risk youth, create evidence-based education for service providers and prevention, and engage with vulnerable populations, such as Indigenous communities.

#NotInMyCity’s activities are guided by five strategic directions that support and facilitate collaborative systems level change, as described below, under “Our Programs.”

#NotInMyCity’s list of partners is continually increasing. Significant gains have been made towards the key issues identified in 2017 through the ongoing collaboration and dedication of all partners. Through our deep-rooted value of collaboration, #NotInMyCity has grown to fill the role as a facilitative organization in the anti-trafficking sector in Calgary and throughout the province.

We are dedicated to bringing about transformational and sustainable change at the grassroots, practice, policy, and legislative levels so that victims of this horrific crime can access services they require to heal, move forward, and lead healthy and productive lives.

Our Impact – What We Do

#NotInMyCity brings key partners and stakeholders together to engage, facilitate, and advocate for the mobilization of a strategic, integrated plan to disrupt, prevent, and end human trafficking with a focus on child sexual exploitation and sex trafficking.

Consistent with the research and value of the work of facilitative organizations, #NotInMyCity provides collaborative leadership, supports Integrative practice, provides education and learning opportunities to key sectors, raises awareness in a variety of domains, and engages in research, data, and evaluation.

In a short period of time, #NotInMyCity has been able to go from talking about an issue to doing something about it. People are having meaningful conversations, organizations are sitting together at the table and the issue of sexual exploitation and sex trafficking is increasingly being addressed with a sense of urgency, collaboration, and purpose.

How We Do It

#NotInMyCity has created Five Key Strategic Directions, with an Operational Plan to support and guide action steps for each strategy. These directions include:

1. Empowering Individuals with Lived Experience: Engaging with and respecting the voice and experience of Survivors in the development of strategies and programs.

2. Building Community Awareness and Action: Increasing public awareness and education across Canada working in partnership with government, community organizations, airports and businesses/corporations.

3. Supporting High Risk Youth: Developing a Community Response Model to ensure youth receive the full continuum of care they require to heal, move forward and lead healthy and productive lives.

4. Advancing Leading Practice: Establishing partnerships with researchers, content experts and national/international organizations to advance understanding and mobilization of leading practices and outcomes.

5. Addressing the Unique Needs of Vulnerable Groups: Supporting frontline work with socially and economically disadvantaged populations to identify and action priorities to reduce risk and improve access to resources, with a focus on Indigenous Peoples.

What You Can Do

You can Be An Ally with #NotInMyCity by taking different actions:

• Wear our yellow rose and share the work of #NotInMyCity
• Join us this summer for #SeeingYellow
• Follow us on social media @NIMCally and help us get the word out
• Support our work as an individual or business through funding or partnership

Tags: "Not In My City", Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking, Sexual Exploitation, Cyber Trafficking, Paul Brandt