Claudine O’Leary

Hello! I’m a Chicago-based community educator and independent consultant. I provide training and technical assistance, including curriculum design, leadership development, and stakeholder engagement. With Rethink Resources I aim to build skills and strengthen community responses to support teens and adults impacted by the sex trades (including sex trafficking), street economies, and beyond. I’m a lived-experience expert with over 30 years of youth advocacy, program leadership and effective collaboration to inform my work.

Find some of my current and past work below:

I’m teaching an online UW-Milwaukee course ‘Supporting Youth and Adults Impacted by the Sex Trades’ on October 23rd, 2024

I co-create and co-host a free monthly virtual series on topics related to supporting teens impacted by the sex trades

I co-created a worksheet called Finding Your Strengths for teens definitely or potentially impacted by the sex trades

I co-created a guide on building a strong team to support teens definitely or potentially impacted by the sex trades

I co-created a youth resource card in Milwaukee that focused on resources for teens dealing with survival needs, court involvement and other struggles. We update it regularly here

Want to create a youth resource card that includes young people dealing with difficult situations? I co-created a guide that includes advice from teens

I’m one of the founding members of CRAY (Collaborative Rapid Advocacy for Youth) in Milwaukee and continue to provide technical assistance and training

I co-created the Milwaukee Bad Date Sheet back in 2009 and it’s still going strong

I created and led Represent, co-creating leadership groups with teens and advocating for youth impacted by the sex trades and street economies when dealing with different systems in Milwaukee from 2013-2023

I co-created and led the Young Women’s Empowerment Project for girls and young women in the sex trades and street economies in Chicago until 2006

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