Started as a true grassroots initiative, 2023 marks RESET Society’s 34th year of providing a lifeline for women wanting to exit sexual exploitation. RESET provides immediate, safe, rapid exit programming and 24/7 comprehensive individualized support to women and girls fleeing sexual exploitation and sex trafficking from across Canada. RESET programming enables girls, women, and their children, to stabilize, heal, reconnect, and not only exit sexual exploitation and sex trafficking but also positively and completely rebuild their lives.
The three phased EXploitation Intervention & Transition (EXIT) Program at RESET holistically support Participants in their journey from exit and stabilization, to healing, capacity building and life-skills development, through to transitioning into independence and empowerment. The EXIT Program includes:
· Phase One: i-EXIT
Phase One (i-EXIT) is a rapid-exit program providing an immediate safe space for exit from sexual exploitation and the risks inherently linked with it. Exiting sexual exploitation often includes high-risk violent situations, crisis, and fear. i-EXIT creates a safe and stable environment for the first step in exiting. This Phase consists of three, 24/7 supported spaces at a secure residence where women stay for 30 days while their immediate needs are assessed and they are supported in stabilization, with regular meals and sleep, access to medical care to address physical and mental health concerns, support to address legal issues, personal goal setting and support to address addictions; childcare provision is also secured during this period, if required.
· Phase Two: EXIT
After initial safety and stabilization is established in Phase One, women (and their children) move on to the second phase of the program called EXIT. EXIT includes 12+ months of comprehensive, individualized, wraparound life-skills and trauma recovery programming in tandem with 24/7 supportive housing. This phase builds on the early stabilization achieved in i-EXIT and ensures women and their children continue to be safe from violence, avoid harmful substance abuse, and work toward positive mental health. Phase Two is focused on recovery from exploitation and trauma through individual support and daily group life skills learning, providing the foundation for reintegration into the community at large.
· Phase Three: Community Support Outreach
The third Phase of our programming includes an individually tailored combination of employments skills development, and training, support in returning to school or advancing in education, long-term support in the community, and housing search support for accessing independent, safe, community-based, affordable and long-term housing. Participants are encouraged to build a network of natural supports in the community including connecting with peer mentors who are accessible to Participants on an individualized basis. Community Support Outreach is provided on an ongoing, individualized basis and a 24/7 crisis line is also available for any women currently or formerly involved in the program.
Funding would go to support the continued delivery of the EXIT Program. A Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis for the EXIT Program in 2022-2023 indicates that for every dollar invested in the EXIT Program, over $12 in social and economic value is created. Key outcomes include decreased involvement in the sex trade, decreased homelessness, decreased harm from substance use, decreased experiences of violence, decreased exposure of children to harmful situations, decreased emergency system use, increased ability to stay together as a family, decreased child welfare system involvement, and decreased criminal justice system involvement. In 2022 RESET was also named a Top 5 Impact Calgary Charity by Charity Intelligence Canada. This list is based on charities operating in Calgary that have demonstrated the highest value created per dollar spent to help Canadian donors find charities making the greatest impact.