A sex worker who was instrumental in coordinating interviews for the SPACES project passed away this weekend.  I cannot name her here but would just like to  acknowledge her contribution to the sex worker rights movement. She was a tough cookie and a stabilizing force in the lives of those she spent time with.  She passed over to the sounds of drumming and the womens’ warrior song.

Her passing reminds us that we lose a lot of warriors along the path to social inclusion, rights and justice for sex workers. For many, the change does not come fast enough.

Here is the link to the City of Vancouver’s Action Plan to improve the health and safety of sex workers. Documents include their responses to Bill C-36, the Bedford Decision and the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry.

They identify among their priority issues: to align bylaws to improve the health and safety of sex workers, expanded shelter options and increased support to sex workers, including transition support.

Here is a link to the latest summary of Bill C-36 for those of you who are interested. The Federal Justice Committee will reconvene September 15, 2014.

Many of you may have questions about the Bill C-36 that was tabled yesterday and how this will affect sex work and sex worker rights, health and safety.

Please see the Pivot Legal society site for an explanation of the main provisions of B-36. And view Katina Pacey’s interview with the CBC.

A press conference was held this morning in which partner organizations PIVOT Legal Society, Sex Workers United Against Violence (SWUAV), Gender & Sexuality Health Initiative (GSHI) and the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS shared their report entitled “Sex Work Should Not Cost Me My Life.”  The full report is forthcoming. Please see the Pivot Blog for details.

Also, have a look at an associated research study entitled: “Criminalisation of clients: reproducing vulnerabilities for violence and poor health among street-based sex workers in Canada–a qualitative study.”

The SPACES data collection phase ends next Friday, May 9th at 2 pm PST.

We want to take this opportunity to thank individuals and organizations for the tremendous support you have provided to this project.

We extend a heartfelt thank you to project participants. You have taken the greatest risk in coming forward and generously sharing your experiences. We laughed and cried together and sometimes just sat in silence…puzzled or speechless! Research is dependent on your openness and we thank you for contributing to knowledge development in this area.

We would like to thank our allies who work within community organizations (WISH, MAP, PACE, HIM, HUSTLE, SWAN, SAFE Collingwood, TNT, BCCEC, WCCSIP, FIRST to name a few) and sex work venues (that cannot be named here). You all opened your programs in partnership to us and we are very grateful for this.

It’s Not Too Late!

If you are a Male provider, a Buyer who enjoys time with Male Providers, a Venue Manager (or someone who informally rents out space to an industry professional for work), a Support Staff Person or a Driver and you would like to be interviewed, please contact us before the closing date.

• Interviews usually take about 45 minutes;
• Your confidentiality is guaranteed and not limited in anyway;
• Pick a coffee shop, restaurant or most any location where you feel comfortable for an interview;
• You will receive a $25 honorarium to respect your time.

If you are a Male Provider or a Buyer who has already been interviewed and you would like to refer a friend or colleague who is also a Male Provider or buyer, you can still do so. There will be a $25 honorarium for the referral once the interview has been completed.

We will continue communication through this blog and other industry sites to keep you posted on when our first report describing the scope of the SPACES project will be available to the community. We plan to have this report done during the summer.

We will also post when the preliminary findings are ready for industry professionals, buyers, managers and support staff to review and comment on.  We will establish a process for feedback that may involve one-on-one or group sessions where we will discuss what we found and obtain your insights and direction on how information can be best utilized in the spirit of advancing health and safety in the industry.

As always, your privacy is paramount, so however the process for feedback is structured we will be sure to include options to maintain confidentiality for participants.

Hi Everyone,

We’ve been busy interviewing off-street providers who identify as male. There is quite a range that includes men who are open to providing services to other men exclusively, or to men, couples and women or to women only.

We want to thank those of you who have shared your insights about how you engage in industry safely and how you learned to do so.

Interviews may last between 30 and 60 minutes.  Audio files will be transcribed and then destroyed. A small stipend of $25 will be provided to participants.

We continue to seek the following kinds of people for interviews:

• Male providers;
• Buyers;
• Managers (incl. those who provide space informally, for people to work safely); and
• Support People (security, drivers, booking personnel).

All interviews are confidential. Only the person who interviews you will ever know you took part. Your interviewer will never reveal the identity of participants to anyone inside or outside of the project.

Contribute your unique experiences so that others can learn from you!

If you are interested, please contact us.

Be well,

The SPACES Team

SPACES is now rounding 3rd base and heading into the home stretch of our data collection phase. Gotta love sports analogies!

People have been sharing what they’ve learned about life in general through being in the industry, their tips and strategies about health and safety, and all kinds of funny stories. Never a dull moment! Meeting research participants has been spectacular.

If you are a buyer, manager or support person (security, driver, booking staff) of any gender please contact us for an interview.

If you are a male provider, we want you! We are very interested in hearing about your experiences in the sex industry and the things you do in order to engage safely. SPACES is proud to announce our partnership with HUSTLE and Health Initiative for Men (HIM), two fantastic support services for gay men in our communities.  Please check HIM out!

We would like to chat with “Managers” but this sounds really formal. We are interested in speaking with traditional agency owners, Madams, venue supervisors, PI’s or pimps AND those who may, informally, rent out a room in their apartment to a friend to turn a date.

You may not see yourself as having in any ‘control’ over your friend’s work but you are providing a SPACE for them to work in safety. Helping someone who works in the industry in any way could qualify you as a ‘support person.’  For example, you could be the designated emergency contact person for a friend who does out-calls.  These are roles and activities that are invaluable to providers but are largely unknown and misunderstood by people from outside of the sex industry.

Hope to hear from you soon,

The SPACES Team

Hi Everyone,

Please join us for the 23rd Annual Women’s Memorial March on February 14th. People of all genders are welcome to attend.

See link for details:

http://womensmemorialmarch.wordpress.com/2014/01/15/23rd-annual-march/

Also check out BWSS’ series on Rabble ‘Why We March’ where you can read the stories of why this march is so important to women from across Canada.

SPACES (Sex, Power, Agency, Consent, Environment & Safety) is proud to announce that we have had fantastic feedback from female providers. You are a very insightful and resourceful segment of the sex working population and we would like to thank you for and acknowledge your contributions to this research project.

As of February 1^st 2014 SPACES will be transitioning to the final phase of data collection where we would like to hear from providers who identify as male.  We are making this shift because we are examining how gender may relate to health and safety practices. Providers who identify as female may still contact us after February 1^st.  The voices of women providers will always be included and respected!

Just as before we would love to chat with buyers, managers and support staff (security, drivers and booking personnel) of all genders.

If you have already been interviewed and you know of anyone who fits these categories, please get in contact with us. You can accompany the interview and an honorarium will be provided to you and to the person who you refer.

If you are new to the study and curious about participating, please feel free to contact us.  We would be happy to answer any of your questions.

After this last stage of interviewing, we plan to reconnect with interested research participants and begin sharing preliminary findings to hear what you all think of what we found and to collectively decide upon next steps.

Interviews may last between 30 and 60 minutes.  Audio files will be transcribed and then destroyed. A small stipend of $25 will be provided to participants.

Please keep your eye on our blog going forward and as always contact us with any questions, comments or concerns.