Safer Way Out honoured for work combatting human trafficking

Safer Way Out, A collaborative initiative aimed at taking action against human trafficking, was honoured with the Edmonton Soroptimist Club’s 11th Joy Award on April 12.

Soroptimist International Club of Edmonton is one of Edmonton’s oldest service clubs for women, celebrating 90 years of service in 2026.  The club’s 11th Joy Award was presented to the Safer Way Out partnership to recognize their efforts to end human trafficking and improve the lives of women and girls in Alberta. While the award is usually given to an individual for their personal and professional work, this is the first time it has been presented to a collaborative project.

Safer Way Out was a collaborative initiative focused on delivering survivor-centred support and driving systemic change in the fight against human trafficking. Partners included in Safer Way Out included Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT), Catholic Social Services (CSS), Centre to Empower All Survivors of Exploitation & Trafficking (CEASE), and REACH Edmonton.

Within this evolving landscape, Safer Way Out functioned as both a service delivery initiative and a catalyst for system change, demonstrating what is possible when survivor voice, community expertise, and law enforcement work in intentional partnership.

This federally funded project was unique in that it brought together partners and survivor advocates to work on this issue with their complementary skills and expertise.

REACH Edmonton’s role as a backbone organization was repeatedly highlighted in the project’s evaluation as keeping the partnership engaged and on track, and as a key enabler of progress.

One partner told the evaluator: “I just want to say that this has been very easy, and I don't know if it's the players, which it could be, but I'm going to attribute it to the fact that REACH is a really, really good backbone support.”

One of the tangible results of the project was the creation of the first Safety Network Coordinator role, which worked directly with ALERT. This role gave people trying to exit human trafficking a non-law-enforcement person to connect with who would act as their liaison, and connect them to services and supports.

A defining feature of Safer Way Out was the Project Advisory Circle, a group composed of survivors of human trafficking, facilitated by REACH Edmonton. The Project Advisory Circle embedded survivor voice throughout planning, implementation, and evaluation. The Project Advisory Circle model demonstrated the importance of moving beyond consultation toward meaningful, sustained engagement with lived experience. Survivor input shaped program decisions, challenged assumptions, and grounded the work in survivor realities. For Project Advisory Circle members, participation offered opportunities to contribute to systemic change, build skills, and influence provincial conversations about trafficking response. The Project Advisory Circle model stands as a strong practice example for future initiatives, underscoring that survivor voice is not ancillary but essential to effective, ethical anti-trafficking work.

“The Project Advisory Circle created a meaningful opportunity for lived experience voices to be present at the table, not as token contributors, but as essential guides,” one interviewee told the evaluator. “The value wasn’t just in offering opinions, it was in being able to challenge assumptions, name blind spots, and ground strategy in lived truth.”

Launched in 2021 and concluding in 2026, the initiative operated alongside the development of Alberta’s Human Trafficking Task Force recommendations, the expansion of provincial investments, and the eventual establishment of the Alberta Centre to End Trafficking in Persons (the AC).

While the project ended in March of 2026, the connections, relationships and learnings continue to contribute to the work of the group in combatting human trafficking in Edmonton.

“It really reinforced our relationships with one another,” says Holly Hallborg, a Director at REACH Edmonton. “We’re all still working with each other on other things. This project helped us to understand each other’s work on a deeper level.”

The Soroptimist Club’s Joy Award included $5,000 donation, which will continue the partner’s work in the community to support survivors of human trafficking.