CSEC Advisory Board proves the power of lived experience
The Board, which welcomed its fourth cohort this summer, provides technical assistance on efforts to combat the commercial sexual exploitation of children and to support survivors
By María Contreras, Senior Community Policy Associate for the Collaborative Responses to Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) Initiative at the National Center for Youth Law
I’m familiar with the discomfort or unease that often grows from thoughts having to do with personal trauma.
Thankfully, I’m also keenly aware of the power that those lived experiences can hold.
Through my work with California’s Commercially Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC) Action Team, a group created to bring together experts and key stakeholders to combat the commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) of youth, I’m frequently inspired by the strength and insights of those with lived experience. This is especially the case with the CSEC Action Team’s Advisory Board, which is made up entirely of lived experience experts and has been a major driver in improving policies and practices since its creation eight years ago.
As the Advisory Board welcomes its fourth cohort of members this summer, let’s take a closer look at why the board is so critically important, why Californians with lived CSE experiences are essential to the discussion and should be heard, and why we should all support the board’s ability to continue its work in the years ahead.
Before diving in, it’s important to note that I, like the members of the Advisory Board, am a survivor and an advocate. Although the board members and I share the ability to bolster our advocacy by drawing from our lived experiences, we don’t all share the same experiences or thoughts about solutions.
This diversity — in background, identity, experiences, location, and other areas of professional and personal expertise — and the members’ ability to see the bigger picture is what truly fuels the board’s ability to help create change.
Invaluable expertise
The CSEC Action Team Advisory Board has been recognized by the California State Legislature for its leadership in CSEC-related matters and is a pioneering force for change. The board has pushed for innovative approaches even when others may not be ready to hear them, and its members have helped create spaces that didn’t previously exist to uplift new ideas and spark honest, upfront conversations.
The board members provide their expertise on topics including:
- Policies to identify and serve youth experiencing CSE;
- Prevention and intervention strategies and services;
- Placement and housing services and supports;
- Curricula for training;
- Individual cases, and so much more.
The board is proof that lived experience experts can improve context and understanding, leading to better policies and service provision. The board members bring unparalleled value to developing and implementing effective CSE protocols and procedures and ensuring that they’re grounded in the experiences of youth.
Here’s just a sampling of some of the impacts of the board’s third cohort, which served from 2021 to 2024 and carried out more than 120 consultations:
- Worked with multiple counties to evaluate programs and brainstorm ways to support youth impacted by CSE;
- Partnered with the California Department of Social Services to create and update trainings, including a series of Trauma Informed Language webinars and a CSEC 101 training;
- Served an integral role in the evaluation of California’s Opt-in CSEC Program, and a report about the program that will be presented to the California State Legislature; and
- Presented at a Child Welfare Roundtable.
Continuing to make a difference
Along with the amazing progress that board members have helped lead, they’ve also reported fantastic feedback about their experiences on the board. Members have described the board as the most trauma-informed survivor space in which they’ve been involved, comments for which I’m particularly proud.
The board has evolved a lot in the years since NCYL created it. It is clearly making a substantive impact, as evidenced by the number and breadth of consultations, and, perhaps most notably, by its organic growth into a community of support, love, healing, and JOY. And not just for members — I, too, have felt it.
Here are just a couple testimonials from past members of the board:
As a senior community policy associate, my role is to ensure that policies and practices are driven by community and lived-experience expertise. It’s a job I don’t take lightly. Holding space for others with lived experience and being able to translate that into change together requires being inclusive, compassionate, consistent and responsive to the needs of the board, individual members and others in the field. To do so effectively, I draw from personal experiences, including from my time training in public policy at Mills College, where I learned to use an intersectional lens, and as a direct service provider at WestCoast Children’s Clinic.
It was at WestCoast Children’s Clinic where I learned from other advocates and mentors how to center youth and lead with empathy. I walked alongside many kids navigating exploitation and learned so much from them about what it means to truly listen.
I’ve also leaned on the strong team around me. My colleagues at NCYL and on the CSEC Action Team and Advisory Board have supported me to do the work, and each has brought their own multifaceted expertise. I also recognize, like we all should recognize, that survivors of CSE are whole people with expertise and experiences beyond their exploitation or involvement in the commercial sex industry. Each board member, in addition to their incredible advocacy, is also a leader in their own communities. They’re business owners, executive directors, direct service providers, parents, healers, artists, chefs, and so much more.
I consider it a privilege to get to know and work with them.
The board is a groundbreaking and invaluable resource with expertise that we should all be utilizing to improve the lives of children and youth impacted by exploitation — and to prevent children from experiencing this type of exploitation. To truly do this, we need to recognize the power and knowledge lived expertise brings to the work and center it as early and as often as possible. We must make space for survivors to lead. The Advisory Board is proof of the power they wield, and it’s vitally needed by many young people who feel voiceless or hopeless or like there’s nowhere safe for them to turn.
I, like the members of the board, know the feeling.
María Contreras is a Senior Community Policy Associate for the Collaborative Responses to Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Initiative at the National Center for Youth Law. In this role, Maria aims to ensure that state policies and practices to identify and serve youth impacted by commercial sexual exploitation are driven by community and lived experience expertise.
