May Progress, June Forecast
What I've done, what I plan to do
To be transparent and accountable to the sex working community, here’s my monthly progress and forecast. Not only does this keep you in the loop, but it also keeps me on track.
May Review
The Fellowship technically starts in May. However, May also happened to be the final month of my Masters in Public Health. With all my assignments due May/June, I took time to wrap things up before diving into the Fellowship
Nevertheless, here’s a list (not in chronological order) of my progress in preparation for the Fellowship.
I attended the Fellowship induction with my two other 2022 Fellows. This was an opportunity for Jamal, Adam and I to introduce ourselves and our respective projects (I’ll write a blog post about them later). The program managers from the Sidney Myer Fund & The Myer Foundation gave a rundown about what to expect for the following year.
Organised professional headshots to put a face to the name. This was my first time ‘officially’ showing my face as Estelle, so a big move!
I wrote my bio for the Myer Foundation website. I was sure to include my religious background because I feel representation matters, and I am in a position of privilege to challenge people’s assumptions about sex work and religion.
Part of the Fellowship is being paired with an esteemed mentor from the For Purpose sector. I was matched with an incredible mentor with an impressive background, skills and experience. I will be learning a lot from them.
I enlisted the support of WhyHive for project management and delivery. I also wrote a blog post about them which you can read here.
I entered a 1 minute pitch contest for a co-working space and won! This awards me with a dedicated year-long desk to work from. I’ll be based at CreativeCubesCo in Carlton.
I connected with a previous Fellowship recipient and am building a working mentor-mentee relationship with them. It’s good to have someone by my side who has trekked this track before.
I was contacted by a researcher who has funding to conduct research on the sex industry in Victoria. I connected with them and learned they were affiliated with an organisation that has a troubling history. Later, I will write about the implications of this meeting.
I set up all my programs/apps for project management. Signed up to Slack for communications, Google Calander for diary management, Trello for project management, Excel for long term forecasting, Google drive for data storage with two-point-authentication.
I kept my head just above the water in terms of general administration, communications, emails etc.
I connected with someone working in the autism field about how to better understand and identify my disability needs. This helps me identify and communicate accommodations in the workplace.
I wrote the first draft for invitations to sex workers for the consultation stage of the project. This required me to consider ethical implications, sampling, and stratification, compensation etc.
I wrote a draft email to send to other Australian sex worker organisations to inform them about what I’m doing. I’m hoping they will be enthusiastic about my new role and happy to assist me.
I wrote draft questions for the consultation groups that will help me define the problem and ideate for solutions later on.
June Forecast
These are some of my general plans and to-dos for the month of June.
Write a submission for the consultation process on the decriminalisation of sex work in Queensland (I will post this submission here later).
I will attend an Alumni gathering with the Myer Board. This is an opportunity to connect with past Kenneth Myer Fellowship recipients and celebrate the achievements of last year's Fellows.
I will attend a For Purpose networking event organised by Kilfinan, which is the organisation that matched me with my mentor.
I will release the invitation for sex workers interested in contributing to the consultation process. To make sure this invitation reaches as many sex workers as possible, and captures a variety of diverse experiences, I will tap into known peer spaces and sex worker networks.
I will email Australian sex worker organisations to introduce my work and hopefully garner their interest and support.
I will settle on dates to hold consultations and organise the space to conduct these consultations.
I will open a calendar for anyone to connect with me and offer office hours in Carlton for any sex worker who wants to walk in and talk to me about my project.
I will get my key swipes and dedicated office sorted for my Carlton office at CreativeCubesCo.
I will develop a social media strategy to get the message out there about the work I’m going and share my advocacy and reach.
I will attend a pitch training session organised by the Myer Foundation as part of my Fellowship.
I will work out a system to organise and record my expenses.
I will also determine a schedule to update my Fellowship blog. Some items I hope to cover include a Values Statement about the guiding principles from which I will operate, and some personal reflections on my previous experience in project building.
I will set up a strategy and weekly goals for networking and relationship building at all levels (governments, For Purpose, sex work, grassroots sectors).
I will build on my mentor-mentee relationships.
I have a list of relevant reading materials to get through.
And I think that is it from me. Feel free to comment or contact me directly about any items on my June forecast (yes I know we’re almost at the end of the month).