Advocacy Normalizing Sex Work through Education and Resources Society

Published purpose

This 19-month project will support a feminist response and recovery from the current impacts of COVID-19, through systemic change. ANSWERS will achieve this by hosting Town Hall sessions to complete a participatory needs assessment, offering workshops and networking sessions for sex workers to help establish and maintain support systems, organizing a multi-day Assembly to bring together sex workers and various stakeholders (police, legal representatives, health practitioners, etc.) to share their personal knowledge and lived experiences, and developing an educational resource about the sex work industry in Canada to inform policies and programs. At the end of the project, the organization will have contributed to addressing systemic change by increasing networks and collaboration; increasing the support systems and resources available to sex workers to assist them in ending violence against them; supporting positive distribution of authority, voices, and decision-making power; and reducing stigma that creates barriers for accessing supports and services for women and those who often face multiple marginalization factors. The project will engage women and those with lived experience in each component of the project. Key project partners include the City of Edmonton and HIV Edmonton. Other ally agencies will be engaged as appropriate. The supplemental funds will be used for to pay for Interpreter costs in order to have bilingual workshops. This would ensure that the events are as accessible as possible and would also be reflective of the bilingual aspect of their assembly project.