History
The Ending Exploitation Collaborative was created by and with survivors of commercial sexual exploitation to model a more collaborative, survivor-led approach to address commercial sexual exploitation in King County.
Recognized for the cross-sector collaboration already underway throughout King County, Demand Abolition’s Cities Empower Against Sexual Exploitation program provided funding to the EEC in 2014, enhancing the collaborative approach to ending demand for commercial sex. From that funding, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office (KCPAO), Organization for Prostitution Survivors (OPS), and Businesses Ending Slavery and Trafficking (BEST) formed Buyer Beware.
With strong success from the beginning, the EEC later assembled a diverse range of additional stakeholders, including representatives from the Seattle City Attorney’s Office (SCAO), Seattle Against Slavery (SAS), the Washington Attorney General’s Office (WA AG), and Center for Children and Youth Justice (CCYJ). Each partner was invited to join based on their active efforts to increase awareness on holding buyers of sex accountable, educate the community, and increase support services to survivors.
Since 2014, the Ending Exploitation Collaborative has been instrumental in shifting policy, uplifting awareness, and modeling best practices for survivor-centered leadership across the movement to end commercial sexual exploitation. Through the EEC, the Washington State Attorney General’s Office, Seattle City Attorney’s Office, and the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office have collaborated to reduce the criminalization of survivors and redirecting the focus of law enforcement and prosecution toward sex buyers.
This shift is highlighted by the graph below, where we see a complete inversion of prosecutions, in King County, regarding these two populations between 2010 and 2020.
Patronizing vs Prostitution Charges in King County
Year 2010 - 2020
Core to its mission, the EEC has inspired collaboration to mobilize survivor leaders, engage employers, innovate through technology, and build interventions focused on primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention across Washington State.
The Organization for Prostitution Survivors, Businesses Ending Slavery and Trafficking, Seattle Against Slavery, and Center for Children and Youth Justice strengthened these efforts, supporting the advancement of the Equality Model throughout Washington State.