Several years ago, as a member of City Council and chairman of its Law Committee, I was part of a planning committee to deal with prostitution--proactively.
For close to a year, a group of us from all sectors worked to come up with a comprehensive solution to prostitution. No surprise, most women caught up in prositution are in dire straits primarily due to drug addiction. The drug habit is primarily what feeds the criminal behavior, along with other factors. And those were the underlying causes we sought to address.
This committee led to the creation of the Off the Streets program, which is an intervention program for women caught up in prostitution, providing intensive services for women who choose this path, rather than simply having them repeatedly jailed and released, year after year. I've been to one of the OTS "graduations," and it is deeply moving to see the life-altering changes this program makes for women who were only recently on the street.
Not only is the program working, it was recently recognized as one of the top three programs in the country (out of hundreds of applicants) by the Mutual of America Foundation. According to the organization reviewing the application, OTS is the "best collaborative they have ever seen!"
Congratulations to all members of this partnership (judges, social service agencies, Sheriff's Department, law enforcement, etc.), but particularly Cincinnati Union Bethel, which manages this model program.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
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2 comments:
For the first time in my life I saw what I think was a prostitute in Colerain Township. I just couldn't believe it, but there she was, standing there with that stoned look in her eyes, skirt way too short for her age, skinny, hair a mess,... It was obvious what she was doing.
Right down the street is the Red Carpet Hotel. It has become a haven for teen parties, drug trafficking, prostitution, and a hide away for the most desperate all throwing their money together to get a room. Sad.
Then we have these entire families living in the Suburban Hotels - the school bus actually stops at both these places because they know kids are living there. Something is really wrong here.
We need a task force in Colerain to prevent it from becoming a part of the problem and to reach out to these people before they throw their lives away
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Affordable housing and jobs might help !
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