PART pursues initiatives that will enable more women to quit prostituting to survive. It advocates for laws that no longer favor the typically male customer and trafficker over the woman who is prostituted. PART pursues programs that would divert women from jail and prison systems into rehabilitative programs that can restore their lives and keep families intact. It seeks to create programs that offer supportive housing while survivors’ lives are in transition, and laws that permit access to jobs as women turn their lives around. PART staff and leaders also work on efforts to educate the community at large about prostitution, including the cost – human and financial – of not providing restorative alternatives.

The following initiatives are underway in 2009-10:

Encourage use of First Offender Probation
PART staff educates law enforcement agencies as well as survivors about this alternative sentencing option, available because of a 2007 law proposed and advocated by PART. It allows judges to order probation for adults who complete rehab after being charged the first time with felony prostitution. Authorities in Cook County file 95 percent of the felony prostitution charges in Illinois. This is a measure aimed at job access and recidivism. Enactment would help correct a sentencing disparity that results in disproportionate felony-level convictions of prostitutes over the customers or pimps whose money supports the offense.

The policy specialist will continue to educate Cook County court officials, particularly probation officers, on how to use the new law and work with them on new county plans to track its effectiveness. PART staff also created a palm card that explains the law and offers resources. Released in September 2008, PART has distributed 2,000 palm cards in English and 500 in Spanish. Ally agencies are assisting in distribution on Chicago’s South Side and West Side.

Organizing survivors of prostitution
PART works with women who recently left the sex trade. Most of the women who get involved are now in their 30s, 40s and 50s. They survived a sex trade that roped in many of them while still in their teens. Most PART project leaders are African-American – with street prostitution still the focus of law enforcement efforts, more poor women of color are charged and imprisoned for prostitution. By the time these women are paroled to halfway houses, most have spent years mired in street-level prostitution – coping with homelessness, substance addictions, abused by pimps and customers. Most are mothers, though many have children now grown or no longer in their daily care.
 
The community organizer ran monthly outreach at three programs serving survivors and women ex-offenders, with periodic outreach at several other sites. Outreach reached more than 50 women a month. A leadership committee of 10 to 15 survivors meets at least quarterly to plan their street outreach and other initiatives.

A housing program for mothers convicted of non-violent crimes
PART advocated for a 2002 law that would allow women convicted of non-violent offenses in Cook County to be sentenced to a residential treatment program. The program would serve 48 mothers of dependent children who would otherwise be sent to state prison. PART has worked since then to get the program funded at the state level, with advocacy support from several allies including the Cook County sheriff’s office, which would oversee the program.
From 2006-2008, funding was approved by the legislature but later vetoed by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. In the past year, PART has worked with State Rep. Karen Yarbrough (D-Maywood) and the Illinois Department of Human Services to secure funding for a pilot program, but progress has stalled due to the ongoing state budget crisis.

Monitoring enforcement of the new Cook County prostitution ordinance
PART joined women’s activists in speaking out on the provisions of a county ordinance, adopted in December 2008, that allows fines of $500-$1,000 for customers, pimps and panderers. The policy specialist will help monitor that the law is not used against women in prostitution, with the fine revenue directed to the sheriff’s women’s services office, as promised.

Assist End Demand Illinois
PART joined with allies on the PART Steering Committee to support the launch of the anti-trafficking campaign, End Demand Illinois, in September 2009. 

Public awareness
PART will continue efforts to promote community understanding and public awareness of the resources available – and the resources still needed – to help survivors of prostitution. This includes panel discussions and screenings the 2006 documentary, Turning a Corner. Updated in fall 2008, the 56-minute film is a collaborative effort between PART, its survivor/leaders, and Beyondmedia Education of Chicago. In four years, PART has hosted more than 45 full screenings, reaching more than 2,200 people in Chicago, Evanston, Maywood, Springfield, and Washington D.C. A 13-minute version is also used for classroom trainings. The film was cited by Time Out Chicago magazine as one of the two best U.S. documentaries released in 2006.