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On January 14, 2008, OJJDP Administrator J. Robert Flores addressed the Anti-Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Community Intervention Project's Training the Trainer Institute. The Institute, sponsored by OJJDP and held January 14–16 in Washington, DC, trained individuals from nongovernmental, law enforcement, and prosecutorial agencies in the DC metropolitan area. The attendees, in turn, are expected to facilitate similar training in their respective communities.

Administrator Flores informed the participants that for the past decade "the Department [of Justice] has made child exploitation issues an important focus of [its] activities." He explained:

Starting with its initial efforts to address child sexual exploitation through the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program and the FBI's Innocent Images National Initiative in 1998, the Department has expanded its efforts to include commercial sexual exploitation of children.

In 2003, OJJDP sponsored a summit on the prostitution of children. That same year, OJJDP provided funds to Atlanta and New York City to support efforts to address commercial sexual exploitation of children.

With the advent of Project Safe Childhood, which was launched by Attorney General Gonzales in 2006, the Department has organized the resources of Federal, State, and local law enforcement and prosecutors to aggressively attack child sexual exploitation.

The Department is working to develop a deeper understanding of this issue and to facilitate the exchange of information and promising practices and collaborative efforts among Federal, State, and local officials.

The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Community Intervention Project is supported by The Salvation Army, Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS, a nonprofit organization providing services to young women who are at risk for or have experienced sexual exploitation and violence), and the Polaris Project (an organization devoted to combating human trafficking and modern-day slavery). Rachel Lloyd, founder of GEMS, conducted the DC training. Similar training institutes took place in Chicago and Atlantic City, NJ.

In his remarks, Administrator Flores quoted President George W. Bush in stressing the importance of the training event:

In every region in the world, children can be vulnerable—not just here at home, but children everywhere. Each year, about a million girls and boys are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. Such trafficking is nothing less than a modern form of slavery; an unspeakable and unforgivable crime against the most vulnerable members of the global society. All these dangers put children at risk. All these dangers demand action to protect our children from harm.