What We Do
Youth Commitee
The ECPAT-USA Youth Committee brings together New York City teenagers, ages 14 to 18, who want to learn more about and get involved in combating the trafficking of children for sexual purposes.
The Youth Committee Project recruits participants from New York City schools; provides them with an overview about commercial sexual exploitation of children’s rights, child sexual exploitation, child trafficking, and child sex tourism; and supports them in their efforts to teach other youth and the general public about these topics.
Youth Committee participants are led by Columbia University School of Social Work student interns and interns from other universities. They lead the high schools students through stages of understanding about the causes of child sexual exploitation and trafficking, the complexities of the issues and activities to help combat it. The youth are asked to create and carry out their out outreach and awareness projects. Activities carried out by the Youth Committee in the past include outreach and awareness raising in Union Square Park, designing and painting murals for public display and conducting a survey of their peers’ knowledge of children’s rights.
