Improving services for sex workers
Gaps in the provision of services
Disclaimer
In my last post, I mentioned the preliminary findings of my research. Many contacted me to learn what those preliminary findings are. Since the report is de-identified, there’s no reason why I can’t share it outside the intended audience. This preliminary finding was sent and shared to all organisations and institutions in frequent contact with sex worker who I have connected with for my Fellowship.
When reading these findings keep in mind that I do not share any positive findings from my research and I have only highlighted findings that I felt were outside the scope of my Fellowship but within the scope of stakeholders. The intention of these preliminary findings was to draw attention to issues that stakeholders may, or may not, be aware of because it takes time to address these issues. I wanted to get the ball rolling and to offer my support. These findings are not an evaluation of the current services for sex workers in Victoria, they are just common thoughts and feelings cited by participants of my research.
Executive Summary
The cohort of 20 sex workers (Appendix A) identified a number of common themes and painpoints that are relevant to all stakeholders involved with sex workers in Victoria. These experiences offer insights into challenges and identified opportunities for stakeholders to collaborate and secure the health, safety, human rights and dignities of sex workers in Victoria.
Pain Points
Almost all sex workers interviewed identified need for services. More importantly, most sex workers did not access current services because of fear or frustration. Recurring themes include:
Little knowledge of the existence or function of services;
Confusion in navigating the current infrastructure;
Inaccurately describing available services;
Unable to access community through services;
Disappointment around rapport building, communication, response, referral or timely response from services;
Feeling it impossible to gain a helpful response or referral from services;
Lack of accommodations or understanding of disabilities from services;
Feelings of distrust and disillusionment with services;
Fear of judgment or rejection for ‘not being a victim’ or ‘being too privileged’;
Fears around how personal and private information is secured and protected;
Fear that accessing and associating with services will ostracise participants from their sex worker community;
Feeling powerless with no formal or accessible avenues to provide feedback;
Disappointment that feedback to service providers amount to no response, care or change;
Fear that sex workers would be cut off from their community or services if they expressed any critical feedback to services or community;
Little information or transparency into organisational structures of service providers, trajectory or decision-making processes;
Little knowledge of opportunities, or disappointed at the lack of opportunities, for sex workers to be meaningfully involved or consulted with on the operation of service providers;
Unwilling to take on service provider roles, or be involved with service providers, because of perceived backlash from the sex working community.
Opportunities
Despite frustrations, most sex workers saw decriminalisation as prospect for change. These painpoints are preventable and stakeholders are best placed to take action and mitigate these recurring themes.
Government can support systems-level coordination and collaboration between service providers by providing guidelines, evaluation, timeframes, accountability mechanisms, communication channels, and resources, that sex workers are made aware of;
Systems to monitor and administer accountability mechanisms. Transparent evaluation of the effectiveness of support systems to prevent systems from falling into disrepair or neglect. Information and outcomes of these systems must be easily accessible to the wider sex worker community;
Easy to access agreements between service providers that clearly map and define each other's expectations, roles, limitations, services and function to better triage sex workers and appropriately refer them to other services. This maximises use of limited resources and improves navigation of referral pathways.
Information made more easily accessible for sex workers about service providers limitations, approach to culture, how services are administered, decision-making processes, accountability or feedback mechanisms, response timeframes, organisational structures, grievance procedures, opportunities for sex worker involvement, timelines and regular updates. When determining service limitations, Appendix B can serve as a point of reference as is outlines current gaps in services.
All service providers to agree on protections for the safety, privacy and mental wellbeing of sex workers pursuing, or currently in, service provider roles - whether that be in their organisation or another. This promotes inclusion and orientates growth of organisation structures in the direction of the global gold standard.
Agreed upon language and communication strategy that clearly outline how services communicate, characterises and differentiate their services from other services. This clears up confusion and builds expectations, clarity and direction for sex workers seeking services.
Repetitively, sex workers wanted to be involved, and this was validated by 100+ expression of interest forms in response to a callout for long commitment interviews. This demonstrates an interest and demand that can be leveraged to ‘buy-in’ sex workers into low-commitment, open-forum, paid collaborative opportunities with stakeholders, such as reference groups.
Creating online private spaces for sex workers to be involved with service providers. This will increase feelings of inclusivity and value amongst sex workers with service providers. If service providers need this space secure and password protected, they can license the intellectual property of current technology designed for sex workers, such as Red Files, to create a technologically secure online space under their name.
Anonymous feedback options for sex workers to give feedback about services. Service providers to demonstrate how they have improved from this feedback. This will encourage more feedback from sex workers and improve service engagement.
Online and social media strategy from stakeholders for greater presence, engagement and promotion. Educational material on support systems and the improving infrastructure, as well as cross-promotion of other services, will increase awareness and enable sex workers to safely share information about services amongst their networks.
Promotional material can be disseminated through advertising directories (websites that most independent sex workers source clients) or during outreach to establishments. Referral lists can be expanded to be made more easily accessible and available online.
Transparent and easy to access updates of any changes and improvements to the system. Transparency empowers the sex worker community and provides a point of accountability.
Next steps
The research to make sex work safer illustrates how stakeholders can be involved in improving the current systems of support. The data demonstrate how sex workers are missing out when they don’t have to be. These pain points can be addressed when stakeholders coordinate and work collaboratively on their shared vision of health, safety and human rights of sex workers.
Sex workers are a diverse population and any data that provides insights is valuable for evidence-informed decision-making. I can provide some representation by sharing the research from the Fellowship and I am open to facilitating conversations with the sex working community for any stakeholders seeking to implement improvements.
Appendices
Appendix A - Demographic of participants included in qualitative interview.
Appendix B - Gaps in the provision of services and accessibility to services. [Redacted].
Appendix A
Demographic of participants include:
Underage, survival or ‘for favours’ sex work experience;
Culturally and linguistically diverse (first generation and migrant);
First Nations sex workers;
Varying mental health conditions;
Physical or chronic disabilities;
Ages from 22 years old to 47 years old;
Varying experiences in work settings such as illegal/legal brothels, agency, online, touring regionally/cities, stripping or independent sex work;
Genders including cis-female, non-binary, transgender male, transgender female;
Less than one year's working experience to over 25 years working experience;
Those currently experiencing life crisis.