Our Mission & Vision

Our mission is to end all systems of prostitution and sex trafficking worldwide. This is accomplished through a comprehensive set of laws, exit programming, and education and awareness of the many socio- economic and situational factors that render people vulnerable. Our expertise comes from almost twenty years of front- line work and advocacy.

Our vision is a more equitable world where no one is bought or sold. A vision of social justice built from the collective power of survivors; a bottom-up movement, guided by those most impacted.

Our Story & History

Cherie Jimenez, an activist and survivor of the sex trade founded the EVA Center in 2005 in response to the overwhelming need to provide comprehensive resources and support for those wanting out of the sex trade. Exiting out is often complicated and many women that come through the center experienced multiple forms of abuse and traumatic life events that require specific supports and access to real opportunities. Ms. Jimenez directed the Center until November of 2023, and now works with EVA Center’s global partners. To continue the EVA Center’s mission through authentic survivor led programming, Desiree Demos is now leading the Center as an activist and survivor.

As important as it is to provide access to safety, healing and resources, it is also critical to work for change, shifting away from arrest to resources for those caught up in the sex trade and to decrease demand of buyers. As survivors, and organizers, our goal is to provide support for those most impacted to not only to create positive change in their lives but to be able to organize on their own behalf, to transform the conditions and systems that lead to intergenerational cycles of exploitation, and violence.

The EVA Center started as a Center and in 2017 opened one of the first emergency shelter programs for women and their children. A safe place for those who have endured multiple traumas, loss of their children, poverty, and exploitation. A place to learn and grow, acquire new skills, and reunify with their children.

In 2019 the EVA Center along with our international partners launched the first survivor led legislative campaign here in the state of Massachusetts. We brought leaders, activists, survivors to join us for a special event to bring attention to the need for an Equality Model type legislation that works to shrink the sex trade that also ensures exit options for those who want out. The campaign continues through the EMMA Coalition.

The EVA Center is unique in that it is part of a global movement. The Center is a member of CAP, Coalition to Abolition of Prostitution, that consists of 35 frontline organizations from around the world, all advocating for Equality Model legislation.

What We Believe

EVA Center believes:

• that the Nordic type model of human rights, which decriminalizes all those who are prostituted, provides exit services and makes buying people for sex a criminal offense in order to reduce demand, is the best approach for ending the sex trade.
• that prostitution is a harmful practice that exploits the economic and social powerlessness of women and girls.
• that women and other marginalized groups are caught in cycles of violence and exploitation that are the result of inequality, disempowerment, and isolation based upon patriarchal and cultural gender norms. We work to challenge these norms.