Supporting Women's Alternatives Network (SWAN Vancouver) Society

Published purpose

This 30-month project will support a feminist response and recovery to adress the current impacts of COVID-19, through systemic change. Supporting Women's Alternatives Network (SWAN Vancouver) Society will achieve this by thorough consultation with immigrant and migrant sex workers, community-based agencies, and media consultants to identify and analyze examples of problematic reporting. SWAN Vancouver will develop surveys and produce results to feed into the creation of a media kit and guidelines for journalists. They will identify trainee media outlets and specific journalists to raise awareness with targeting media's representation of immigrant and migrant sex workers’ post pandemic. An external evaluator will be consulted throughout the project to assist with planning, projections, and to evaluate the overall impact. At the end of the project, the organization will have contributed to addressing systemic barriers by: advancing inclusive policies and practices; encouraging more equitable and effective sharing of resources; increasing networks and collaboration to accelerate systemic change; supporting positive distribution of authority, voices, and decision-making power; and addressing persistent and harmful gender norms and attitudes to support women and gender equality. This project will partner with local and national media outlets to shift the representations of immigrant and migrant sex workers. The intended outcome is the adoption of responsible, ethical, evidence-based journalism that is imbued with accuracy, objectivity, freedom from bias, integrity, and respect in mainstream media.