The BLAST Project (part of Yorkshire MESMAC Group of Services) is the UK’s leading male only sexual exploitation and provides services nationally and supports boys and young men locally in Leeds and Bradford.

I am the project coordinator of the BLAST Project and I have worked for the project since 2009. At a recent conference I spoke about how boys – not just girls – can be groomed and sexually exploited. I was surprised at the responses made by some professionals who said that they knew it happened to boys, but that they thought it was more of an issue for girls. When I asked why they thought this, they responded by saying that services across the country are supporting a lot more girls than boys. I accepted this to be true and replied by saying that this is because services are set up for girls and professionals are generally more worried about girls. The affect of this means that girls disclose that they are being sexually exploited and that they will engage more effectively with services compared to boys and young men. This does not mean that it is happening less to boys and young men.

The BLAST Project supports boys and young men who have been, are being, or are at risk of being sexually exploited. This includes a number of young men who experienced grooming and sexual exploitation when they were children but never told any statutory services. Unfortunately many professionals believe that because services are working with more girls than boys that sexual exploitation exploitation is more of an issue for girls, without giving consideration as to why boys do not engage or disclose exploitation.

As part of the BLAST Project’s national development work two films have been made. One is called ‘Same Risk, Different Gender’ which is a 30 minute film aimed at encouraging professionals to make their practice inclusive of and accessible to boys and young men. The second film is a two minute clip aimed at creating mass awareness of how grooming and sexual exploitation can happen to boys as well as girls. A link to this is below:

Phil Mitchell
Project Coordinator
The BLAST Project
The UK’s Leading Male Only Sexual Exploitation Project
0113 2444209
07921 372896
[email protected]
http://www.mesmac.co.uk/blast
Twitter: @theblastproject
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/blastproject

Our new DVD and Resource Pack, THINK AGAIN – highlighting the grooming and sexual exploitation of boys and young men is available to order now! http://mesmac.co.uk/blast-resources