Provincial dollars are being put into programs to prevent sexual exploitation and violence against women in the Sea to Sky Corridor.
On Friday (March 14), West Vancouver-Sea to Sky MLA Jordan Sturdy announced the Civil Forfeiture Office is handing $9,817 to the Howe Sound Women's Centre Society. The money is a part of a $5 million package to be put toward recommendations from the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry.
"This funding will provide vulnerable women in our community with greater access to education resources, better support for their personal safety and help with their transition to urban living," Sturdy said in a statement.
The money will go to programming that hits the prevention side of human trafficking and sexual exploitation, with a focus on aboriginal communities, said Shana Murray, the women's centre's community program manager.
In partnership with Children of the Street Society, the centre will put on workshops in the fall in Mount Currie, Pemberton and Squamish. The program will give young girls the tool kit of knowledge they need to prevent them from becoming victims, Murray said.
"There is [sexual exploitation and human trafficking] - we don't have an exact account for it, but it is definitely happening in the Sea to Sky Corridor," she said.
B.C. is one of two provinces that pioneered the use of civil forfeiture in Canada to deter unlawful activity by taking away the instruments and proceeds of crime. The office is self-funding and the proceeds from forfeited property are used to compensate victims and support crime prevention and remediation efforts.
Since its inception in 2006, the office has given back $16 million to community crime prevention organizations, victims of fraud and police departments, officials said.
