1. "It Is Important for Everyone as Humans to Feel Important, ?" Findings from a Community-Based Participatory Needs Assessment with Street-level Sex Workers.
- Author
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Hall, Jodi, Donelle, Lorie, Laliberte Rudman, Debbie, Baumann, Julie, Weaver, Holly, Jones, Rosalie, Moulton-Sauve, Magdalen, Jenkins, Karen, and Trudell, Annalise
- Subjects
SEX workers ,NEEDS assessment ,COMMUNITY-based participatory research ,PUBLIC spaces ,PARTICIPATORY design - Abstract
A community-based participatory research design informed the development and conduct of a needs assessment with street-level sex workers within a mid-sized city in Ontario, Canada. The research question was: What would help street-level sex workers to live with enhanced safety and dignity within their community? Twenty-four women who accessed a peer-driven drop-in center (SafeSpace) participated in in-depth interviews. Observational data of items requested by women who accessed SafeSpace were also documented over a 6-month time period. The overarching theme of relationships was identified as vital to participants' ability to live and work with enhanced safety and dignity in their community. Subthemes included: Informal/formal surveillance: Relationships to public space(s); Nowhere to go for us: Relationships with/in community services; and You're given the time you need: Relationships in a peer-driven drop-in center for/with/by sex workers. Our findings demonstrate how central relationships are, particularly peer, to enhancing or diminishing sex workers' sense of dignity, self-worth, safety, and enhanced their access to services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
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