September, October, November Review, and December forecast
It's been a minute
After a 7-week holiday, I am back in action with my Fellowship.
During my break, I made time to attend the European Sex Workers Alliance first Congress in Brussels, Belgium. But when it came to sitting in front of a laptop, both my mind and body checked out in protest, unwilling to cooperate with my demands. I reluctantly accepted my mortal limitations and this brought me to a revelation: I can’t do this alone. Alone, there are many things that can go wrong, and there’s no one here to pick up my slack.
But if I want to mobilise a team, their question will be, of course, what’s in it for me?
To answer this question, I must move forward from my investigations, research and empathise stage. I am now entering my business planning and concept building.
September, October, November Review
As mentioned in my last post, I went on holiday in September. However, what was not expected was the death of my aunty in Australia. What this meant is that most of my attention reoriented from the Fellowship to my family. Because we’re Muslim, there are timely religious requirements that must be followed. I supported my family through their grief while they supported me through mine. When all was done and dusted, I went back to Turkey and was present for my mum and other aunties/cousins.
As someone who puts family before all else, I felt compelled to spend every moment with my family in Turkey. I don’t live in the same hemisphere as them and my time with them is numbered. While this means I am now over one month behind my timeline, it also means I am not riddled by guilt and regret that would have, without a doubt, weighed me down.
It is now nearing the end of November and I have a lot more clarity about what the outcome of my Fellowship will be. For this quarterly review:
I have established a monthly routine of community gathering for sex workers in Melbourne.
I wrote the preliminary findings of my research, with a specific focus on the gaps in the provision of services for sex workers, that I felt were outside the scope of my Fellowship to address. I sent this out to all organisations and government departments that interact with sex workers regularly. To the surprise of no one, none of these groups leapt up at the opportunity to do more work.
Before I went overseas, I met with my team about how to analyse the data. I started reviewing the 40 hours of transcriptions, which I am still cleaning for data analysis. Turns out that to analyse data, it can take a lot of time, almost as if data analysing is a profession in of itself. It’s a shame that the content is sensitive and I cannot subcontract out this gruelling task.
While I haven’t completed the full data analysis, there are themes and trends that are clear cut and prominent across the board. I have moved forward under these premises. It just so happens that I am not confident that my prototypes are suitable as a starting point. None of my prototypes are a ‘bad idea’ so to speak, in fact all of them are essential, but I do believe, having conducted this research, I will increase my chances of success with these prototypes if I focus on creating solution that relates to all sex workers. My prototypes target specific occupational hazards, but there are overarching factors that directly relate to how a sex worker experiences safety. In terms of solutions, and what is currently working, skill-sharing proved to be a protective factor, a practice that is familiar and trusted among sex workers. These are just some of the nuggets of knowledge from my research that stripped back my assumptions that sex workers needed a tool and instead oriented me to root causes of precarious working conditions.
I finally did my expenses!
Upon landing in Australia in November, I walked straight into a support panel meeting organised by the Myer Fellowship Board. This was helpful for me because they reaffirmed my feelings around recreating the wheel. I don’t like the idea of repeating work that’s already been done and the panel helped me realise that I was under no obligation to create a technological tool, my obligation is to address the issue at hand.
I attended the European Sex Workers Alliance first Congress and the Australian Scarlet Alliance National Forum. Both events were a great opportunity to build on my knowledge, make connections and build relationships and networks.
I completed my Mid-Term Progress Report for the Myer Fellowship Board which I will share on this blog later.
December Forecast
I’m hoping by the end of the year I’ll have an iron-clad plan formulated. In the New Year, I intend to execute that plan with a hunter's precision. Here’s what to expect:
In my last forecast I mentioned that I wanted to validate the findings of my research by creating and releasing a quantitative survey form. While I still believe this is a worthwhile venture, the outcome of my Fellowship will have this option more organically built in. This may render this validation stage unnecessary.
I originally wanted to mobilise sex workers who had sent me expression of interests forms and do a co-design session. There’s still merit in doing this but I need to be clear about what I’m asking people to do.
I still have a 23-page post about Project Respect sitting in my drafts. I told them I would release this post during my holiday unless I saw a concrete commitment to improve from them. While words were exchanged, I haven’t had the time to follow up on this as it’s a low priority.
I’m still analysing the data. I’m about 3/40 hours into it but I am hopeful I will have splendid Powerpoints to share by the end of the year.
Create a business plan with a long-term viable financial model. I am also mapping out everything that I want to cover within the six months left of my Fellowship. I do plan on stepping back from the project’, so to speak, as I would love to support other sex workers safely step up to the mic.
I mentioned I’m doing everything I can to avoid recreating the wheel. Part of this means I am connecting with for-profit teams and collaborating with them to make their product accessible to sex workers. This, I think, will be a better use of my time and much more sustainable than doing something from scratch with little resources or backing.
I really want to get sponsors on-board with my ideas/outcome/outputs from my Fellowship. Big sponsors, like big banks or accounting firms. I’m unsure on how to approach this but I will figure it out soon enough.
And just to keep you guessing, I’ll also need acting lessons and to find a sex worker video producer (I have a meeting next week). Why do I need acting lessons? Because I’m autistic and not a natural in front of the camera. Why will I be in front of a camera? You’ll see.
I feel like I’m missing so much for this forecast but I’ll leave it there for now. I will post my Mid-Term Progress Presentation soon which should inform you and give a better idea of the direction I am heading in. I would also love it if the community was with me every step of the way. I’m so excited to share it with you!