Survival sex workers face multiple levels of violence, including bad dates, spousal abuse, harassment and abuse from the public, and police brutality.

The Violence Prevention is on-the-spot emergency support and prevention-based education workshops around relevant, contextual safety issues in the lives of survival sex workers.

The Violence Prevention Safety Workshop Groups

• Teach confrontation management skills
• Train participants in self-defense for extreme situations
• Educate participants about relevant laws, such as the concept of reasonable force and the right to defend yourself
• Re-frame societal stigma – work on avoiding the internalization of society stigma (for example, the “you deserve it” mentality)
• Emphasize using instincts recognizing that survival sex workers tend to have remarkable, innate intuition because they work in high-risk environments
• Encourage the participants to share their own violence prevention strategies with each other to keep the information current and useful – the expertise of the participants are integrated into the program to be passed on in future groups
• One-on-one safety planning for participants not comfortable in group settings
• Keep participants updated on bad date sheets and any sexual predators known to police