Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation

Mission and Vision

CAASE envisions a community free from all forms of sexual exploitation, including sexual assault and the commercial sex trade. CAASE addresses the culture, institutions, and individuals that perpetrate, profit from, or support sexual exploitation. Our work includes:

• Prevention Education - We teach innovative, evidence based, and engaging curriculum across Chicago to empower students to become active allies in the movement to end gender-based violence.
• Public Policy and Advocacy - We advocate for local and statewide policies and legislation that expand options for survivors of sexual harm, hold perpetrators and systems accountable, curtail the criminalization of trauma behaviors, and prevent future violence.
• Community Engagement - We center communities most impacted by sexual harm. These efforts focus on committing time, space, and energy to listening to survivors so their experiences and expertise can inform our work and raise public awareness.
• Legal Services - We provide individualized legal advice, consultation, and representation following and related to sexual harm. Our attorneys assist survivors in criminal and civil matters.

Values

Social and institutional systems do not adequately serve survivors of sexual violation. Sexual violation disproportionately harms people from marginalized communities, including girls and women, people of color, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, people living in poverty, and immigrants and undocumented people. To best support survivors, CAASE confronts the inequities that fuel or intersect with sexual harm. Our dedication to this work is reflected in our values.  

• Dignity - We respect the inherent humanity of all people and strive to expand opportunities for personal autonomy.
• Accountability - We answer to survivors and collaborate with allies as we seek to hold those responsible for harm accountable.
• Progress - We create individual, institutional and cultural change by using innovative approaches to ending sexual harm. 
• Equity - We commit to building a world where every person, with consideration for their intersecting identities and unique circumstances, has the same access to opportunity and power.