A nationally-recognized anti-exploitation program will honor Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley this week for his work to protect the child victims of commercial sexual exploitation.

Conley will be honored at Turn on the Light: Coming Together to End the Exploitation of Girls, a fundraiser to support the My Life My Choice program, at the Copley Square Hotel.

My Life My Choice provides mentoring and prevention services to Boston-area girls who are victims or at risk of becoming victims of commercial sexual exploitation. The program has trained thousands of youth service providers nationwide to identify exploited youth and connect them with support services.

Conley, a career prosecutor and Suffolk County District Attorney since 2002, is a leader in Massachusetts efforts to stop child exploitation, protect its victims, and prosecute the pimps who perpetrate it. In 2005, after extensive research and consultation with the Children’s Advocacy Center of Suffolk County and other child protection experts, he launched the Teen Prostitution Prevention Project to identify exploited youth, terminate prostitution charges against them, and instead divert them to health care and social service providers. The program has twice been named one of the Top 50 Innovative Government Programs by a Harvard University think tank.

Known today as Support to End Exploitation Now, or SEEN, the program has identified more than 400 exploited teens in Suffolk County alone and provides the framework for policies Conley is pushing statewide: earlier this year, he drafted An Act Relative to Safe Harbor for Exploited Children, which if enacted would provide advocacy and services for sexually exploited youth, terminate any prostitution-related charges against them, and require a multi-disciplinary assessment of their needs.

That response is in stark contrast to Massachusetts’ current laws, which allow the criminal prosecution of prostituted youth arrested in sex-for-fee cases – even if they are too young for legal consent to sexual activity.

Conley is a strong supporter of another bill that would define and outlaw human trafficking in Massachusetts. Massachusetts is currently one of only four states without such a law, which would go hand-in-hand with legislation protecting its young victims.

Thursday’s event is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. at XHALE, located inside the Copley Square Hotel at 47 Huntington Ave. Members of the news media are welcome to attend.