End of a Fellowship, start of an era

Wrapping up my Fellowship activities and next steps

That’s a wrap!

Yesterday, I delivered my final presentation to the Kenneth Myer Innovation Fellowship (KMIF) Committee, the KMIF Alumni (previous Fellows), Directors of The Myer Foundation and Trustees of the Sidney Myer Fund. This is an opportunity to showcase my achievements and milestone throughout my Fellowship. As I am long overdue to report on my Fellowship Substack, I wanted to share my progress here as well.

My fellow 2022 Kenneth Myer Innovation Fellows Adam Davids (to the left) and Jamal Elsheikh (to the right).

Background

When I found out I was one of the finalists for the 2022 KMIF Fellowship, I was gobsmacked. Although I gave my pitch a solid effort, because of the stigma associated with sex work, I assumed my application would never seriously be considered a candidate. But times have changed with the decriminalisation of sex work in Victoria. When I won, I was equal parts surprised and in dread. I said I could make sex work safer, now I had to deliver. I pierced past my trepidation to see this opportunity for what it was; a gift, a chance, to do something I’ve wanted to see happen. With pride, I took on the responsibility and role to make sex work safer.

First half of the year

I took my commitment to make sex work safer seriously. I am a results-oriented person, and for me to have true, long-lasting impact on this industry, I needed to take a step back from my own lived experiences and put into consideration the lived experiences of other sex workers.

The first half of the year can be broken down into four components.

Research

For me to fully appreciate and understand the pain points, the struggles, the health and safety concerns of sex workers today, I needed to conduct research. I needed to better understand the landscape in which sex work operated. I created a qualitative research design, completed an ethics application to ensure the safety and integrity of participants, and interviewed 19 sex workers over 40 hours. Not only was I interested in the risks they faced, I was interested in their risk mitigation strategies, what was working, what were the protective factors? If I could identify and flesh out the problems, I could fashion a solution that likened what was already working. I tested a few prototypes, and gained insights into what sex workers wanted or needed.

There were themes experienced by every single sex worker. These themes impact how a sex worker experiences safety and health in the workplace. The problem was, there were too many problems, I couldn’t solve it all.

Building Community Capacity

My research left me with assumptions, implications, findings, themes and trends that needed to be tested and validated. Sex workers are a diverse and isolated population, to bring them together is like herding cats.

I ran monthly in-person gatherings and observed the exchange of key safety and health information between workers. Sex workers were grateful for this social opportunity as they had no little to no opportunities to connect with community. These spaces indicated the need for community connection, the willingness from sex workers to engage with community, and a lack of infrastructure to deliver safe spaces.

Online, my reference group of 26 tested ideas and validated assumptions. With every round of feedback from my reference group, and other sex workers, I refined the focus on problems and potential solutions.

My research and community building highlighted common trends that effected all sex workers: stigma, discrimination, disability or neurodivergence, financial insecurity, isolation or marginalisation. If we want to add another layer of complexity, these issues are amplified by intersectionality.

This led me to a breakthrough in my line of thinking. No single product or device can solve these issues, there isn’t a catch-all solution, at least not in this very moment. My ideas and prototypes up until this point may be helpful for the future, but for now, we need community cohesion, not gadgets and gizmos.

Decriminalisation of sex work is the first step to address these issues, but hardly the last. What then, is the next step? To begin addressing these issues we need a holistic community-centred approach. And for me to provide that, I needed to network.

Networking

If you want to improve community cohesion, you need to be part of the community. You need to share yourself for others to feel comfortable sharing with you. You must be vulnerable and brave. This was hard for me, as the stigma and discrimination I’ve experienced as a sex worker conditioned me to be hyper-independant and solitary in nature. But it’s no good, it may protect me and keep me safe from bad things, but it also robs me of the opportunity and connection for good things.

I reached out to all the stakeholders: community leaders, advocates, organisations, government bodies, decision-makers, you name it. This networking rewarded me in ways I can’t describe. I attended the European Sex Workers Alliance first Congress and I was taken back by the struggles of our European counterparts. Most of their resources are dedicated to getting decriminalisation over the line, because they can’t do anything more significant until they have a legal framework that allows them to. Compare that to the Australian experience, it was clear that decriminalisation isn’t a fix-all solution. Decriminalisation isn’t implemented onto a fresh canvas, it replaces a framework that once destroyed individuals, fractured the community and divided sex workers from government, other communities and the rest of society. I sent stakeholders my research findings, to demonstrate this, but they each had their own agenda or portfolio to contend with. Collaboration seemed a foreign concept, a byproduct of culture before decriminalisation.

Through this networking, and the insights it gave me, I saw my role as a bridge builder, filling in the gaps in services or community wherever I could. Sex workers also noticed the connections I was making, and came to me as a trusted point of contact to resolve their problem, whether or not I was fit to solve them. I average a new sex worker contacting me everyday with a crisis, support request, information seeking, professional knowledge, referral or advice.

While it’s an honour and privilege that so many trust me, the problem is, I was spreading myself too thin. And it was beginning to take a toll on my mental health as well.

Consolidation

Towards the end of the first half of the year, I had enough information, consultations, data, experiences, conversations, testing, validation to consolidate this knowledge and propose a solution.

I proposed the cycle of economic disempowerment. I found financial insecurity the most pressing issue for sex workers that I was best placed to resolve as part of this Fellowship. To do this, I would need to create an economic empowerment program.

Let’s say I completed the economic empowerment program today, how would I put it in the hands of every sex worker to action? I couldn’t, I needed a framework, a structure, in which it deliver this peer-to-peer education, as well as some sort of accountability mechanism to ensure the work got done by the sex worker. That’s when the idea of Bigger Sister Channel came to me.

If I could create a platform, some sort of infrastructure, where sex workers could package all their professional knowledge and skills, and pass this onto other sex workers, this would resolve more than economic disempowerment. This practice is common between sex workers, and a protective factor, and I wanted to scale it up past the current practice of sharing knowledge behind closed door where the most vulnerable sex workers cannot access.

All sex workers are good at one thing. If we each took turns teaching our one expertise, than perhaps when it comes to doing everything, as we must do as small business operators, perhaps it is no longer a daunting task. There’s a Turkish saying that keeps repeating in my mind: you are only as strong as your community.

With decriminalisation, peer-to-peer education no longer attracts repercussions from the law. So why then, must this practice remain behind closed door? My face and voice is trusted in the community, I could use it to deliver not only economic empowerment but any other topic a sex worker wanted to share with the community and felt they couldn’t because of privacy and confidentiality.

I was onto something, and I got to work creating this community project.

Inception of Bigger Sister Channel

Turns out, launching a community project is easier said than done. It took me some time, more time than I’d like to admit, to finally enlist the help of others to do this work with me.

Everyday, I reverse-engineer this individualistic mindset that has me conditioned to believe I must do everything myself. It’s no good, for me or the community around me. Once I had my team of five sex workers, each doing what they’re good and passionate about, I finally experienced a functional workflow that was getting somewhere. On a more personal level, I felt committed and comfortable being a leader.

I never thought of myself as a naturally-born leader. Quite the opposite, I recoil at that level of responsibility, and I dig my heels in at the mere suggestion of taking it on. If anything, I consider myself more a usurper, the type who will step up if a leader is actively causing harm or damage to the people they are leading. Then I’m compelled to overtake them; no way am I letting someone hurt others when I know can do a better job.

In this instance, I’m not a usurper, I’m not replacing anyone, but I am leading a group of sex workers somewhere they want to go, and who need guidance to get there, when no one else wants to lead them. Fine, I’ll do it then. I’ll build the bridges, I’ll fill in the gaps, I’ll light the way, I’ll protect their voices and identities by positioning myself in between them and any dangers. As someone with privilege, I consider this my social responsibility.

But it’s not all work and sacrifice. Before I had my team around me, I felt I had to know everything and do everything. It was simply too much for one person. Everyday, I felt the pressure to deliver and lost the capacity to. I was overwhelmed, strung out, falling apart with a smile on my face. But once I had the team around me, my focus narrowed. No longer did I feel I had to know everything, I only needed to be one step ahead of my team, to better lead them. I didn’t need to do everything, I needed to invest in my team and give them capacity to thrive in their roles.

That was how I got the community project up on its feet. It still needs time to learn to walk, but I finally understand what I need to do. You are only as strong as your community, I keep reminding myself. I couldn’t be prouder or happier with the team I’m organising around me.

Economic Empowerment for Sex Workers

On top of being Managing Director of Bigger Sister Channel, it’s my job to design, package and deliver the economic empowerment educational module, and I have absolutely no experience with teaching, production, presenting or finance. Although I’ve managed to do weekly videos for Bigger Sister Channel, to familiarise the community with the concept, and start the practice of openly skillsharing and peer-to-peer education, I have put a pin in the economic empowerment module until after the Launch Party.

I need time for myself and my researcher Tilly, to really nail the design, development and delivery of the program. We need it to be engaging, interactive, easy to consume, measurable, impactful. I defined financial wellness, and the components that determine it, and we’re now designing the materials for financial attitudes, our first unit of education. By the end of it, I want anyone who has consumed this information to have the skills, knowledge, understanding, practice and further resources to improve their financial attitude. The way I figure, if you can’t get a grip on your mindset when it comes to money, things like literacy, capabilities, behaviours, won’t matter because you can’t engage with the topic positively.

I’m hoping to release this episode soon after the Bigger Sister Channel Launch Party.

I’m also hoping I will have the capacity to do a new interview with a new sex worker every month on the Community Podcast and monthly financial skillsharing workshops. This will be complemented with collaboration with financial experts and professionals, and recommendations to sex worker friendly financial products and services.

I’m proud of what we’ve managed to achieve so far, even if we’ve only scratched the surface.

Expanding Programs on Bigger Sister Channel

Because all my background work and research indicated financial insecurity as an immediate problem that needed to be solve, this was my focus.

But almost immediately after launch, Rain Morgan reached out to me about SkillSharing Workshops. She wanted to do them monthly and rotate through different themes and topics. At first, I didn’t like the idea, because I felt I was already doing too much with the economic empowerment program, and it was off theme. But after sitting on it a bit longer, I thought why not at least trial it. Support Rain, call it a Pilot Program, and see what data comes from it.

Turns out, the Pilot Program is much more popular and in demand than the economic empowerment program. In fact, there are countless sex workers who are an expert in one thing, who would love to present as an expert in a workshop format.

So far we have covered copywriting (by yours truly), SEO with Natalia Violet and Marketing Brand Kits with Charlie Bear, with our next workshop a BDSM one. These workshops will be converted into digital resources for those who could not attend these workshops.

Interesting, I think to myself. I wonder what other programs Bigger Sister Channel could deliver, if only sex workers were given the support and infrastructure to.

Operations & Collaborations

I remember once, I asked a teacher whether I should study the humanities or science. She responded with: ‘what do you think we need more of? Technology or peace?’

It’s true, collaboration is hard. I’m still learning how to best propose collaborations, how to set it up to be effortless and rewarding. It doesn’t come naturally, it’s a skill I’m refining as I go.

I can’t share it here, but there are ongoing collaborations as part of Bigger Sister Channel. We have fourteen or so sponsors for our Launch Party. We have sex workers lined up to share their stories, expertise and advice. We have experts and professionals willing to share their knowledge and skill to troubleshoot problems within the community. We’re working with companies to make services and products safer and accessibly for sex workers. But for us to really harness and leverage these collaborations, we need a smooth workflow and strong operations framework.

Overseeing the operations of five sex workers doesn’t come naturally, while everyone wants to help and work in a team environment, we never have. We have no experience. We’re all highly independant and conditioned to rely only on ourselves. Now we have to depend on each other, trust each other, ask for help and support, be honest about our capabilities, communicate and report to someone, be accountable. This is a huge shift to the way things were once done.

To keep track and ensure my team gain personal value from their professional roles, I completed three-month growth plans with them. It was like writing my own biography, we all had the same problems, we were just at different stages in processing/managing them. I can be critical and hard on myself, which is fine, but as soon as I saw it in my team members, it gave me the ick. It was gross, ugly, incredibly unattractive to see The Critic bring down these talented sex workers. And for what? It didn’t make them any better, it just put them in a constant state of shame. It didn’t help them or anyone around them. It was just bullying for the sake of bullying. It’s no good. But who was I to judge, when I’m the biggest critic of myself? How hypocritical of me.

For my team to respect me, for them to listen and take me seriously about dismissing the inner-critic, I must lead from example. And in this way, I was forced to be more compassionate towards myself because why would my team listen to anything I say, if I’m not doing it myself. I am just as accountable to my team as they are to me.

These are some of the operational achievements and milestones that you wouldn’t know of and they are difficult to document in monthly reviews and forecasts, as they are ongoing. It may seem like I wasn’t making myself transparent and accountable on this blog as I promised when I started my Fellowship, but it wasn’t because I was skirting any responsibility. It’s because my team replaced the need for this blog. Rather than reporting monthly, I facilitate weekly meetings with my team, to ensure operations are going smoothly and this is enough for now.

I’m confident the framework of operations offer enough feedback points for us to improve and correct any mistakes.

Next Steps

If you haven’t already, please RSVP for the Bigger Sister Channel Launch Party on the 29th June, if you are a sex worker, sex worker adjacent business, or have supported me or Bigger Sister Channel. This is where we will share our milestones, achievements, and exciting news. It’s an opportunity for the community to connect, network and celebrate. There will be goody bags and raffles with many, many prizes.

While there’s cause to celebrate, there remains opportunities for improvement. Currently, we are inundated with requests from sex workers who do not know where else to turn and we need an improved referral system to direct them. We want to strengthen referral pathways to direct sex workers to appropriate spaces, services and organisations.

I am designing the social enterprise business and monetisation model and by the end of the year, I hope to implement it. We need multiple streams of income to expand our community project and ensure our long-term viability, impact and scalability.

A successful monetisation model with enable me to build the core team's capacity to optimise workflow and operations. We are currently experiencing more demand than we can keep up with and need to expand staff within the core team.

There’s so much more ground to cover, but these are the key aspects I will be focusing on for the near future.

Thank you!

Thank you to 510+ subscribers of this blog for following me along on this journey. It’s been quite the journey. I never expected any of this to hit my lap, but I’m glad that it did and I’ve done the best I can with this opportunity.

This will probably be my last post on this Substack, but if you’d like to continue to follow me and my work, I will continue my work through Bigger Sister Channel.

You can follow Bigger Sister Channel on Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, TikTok, Website (sign up for Newsletter), Substack. And tonight (Wednesday 21st June) at 6pm I’ll be on my first Twitter Spaces to introduce myself and the team if you’d like to tune in.

Kindest regards,
Estelle Lucas