“Real men don’t buy girls.”

That’s what a new billboard, located at the corner of Kathleen and College streets, says in an effort to raise a dialogue about prostitution in Sudbury.

“People recognize that absent in all our work around prostitution is any analysis of men who buy sex under exploited conditions,” said Christine Schmidt, the campaign’s co-ordinator and the head of the Sudbury Women’s Centre. “We’re shifting the gaze from women to men.”

The sign’s location in the Donovan neighbourhood is no accident, Schmidt said. According to Robert Keetch, an inspector with Greater Sudbury Police, after police managed to reduce prostitution in downtown Sudbury by charging sex workers and their customers, the activity moved to the Kathleen Street corridor.

Insp. Keetch said prostitution has been a prominent issue in the Donovan since 2010. “It’s a challenge to us as a police service but also to the community,” he said. “It’s something that we’re actively addressing but we can’t do alone.”

Greater Sudbury Police has partnered with 11 local community groups to get the “real men” campaign underway.

“Enforcement is not the answer,” Keetch said. “It’s about building community support and engaging community partners to address the underlying root causes. And that’s what we’re doing.”

Keetch said Sudbury’s police force has tried to address the root causes that get girls involved in prostitution, and has taken an enforcement approach with the men who buy their services.

Crime Stoppers runs a local program to reform men who have been charged with soliciting prostitutes, and Keetch said they have never had any repeat offenders who have been through the program.

Schmidt said the new billboard is just one piece in a larger campaign to help change the behaviour of men who seek out prostitutes.

“Instead of asking why women are on the streets, why are men seeking services from women?” she asked.

Schmidt said the Sudbury Women’s Centre wants to set up a roundtable discussion on prostitution in the community in January. A seminar that will talk about the underlying factors of why some men buy sex from women is also in the works for May.

On Wednesday, many of the community groups that pushed for the billboard had a rally on Kathleen Street to raise awareness about the prostitution problem in the area and let local men know that it is not OK to buy sex.

The billboard will occupy the corner for the next month.

Jonathan.Migneault@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @jmigneault