This presentation provides an overview of harm reduction approaches for working with women in the sex industry. It defines key terms like sex work and harm reduction. It discusses the realities and risks of street-based sex work, as well as strategies to reduce harm like screening clients, safe sex practices, and developing safety plans. The presentation emphasizes meeting women with compassion and not judgment, avoiding coercion, and creating safe spaces free of stigma. It offers recommendations for how women's centers can support this population through case management, financial planning, and addressing exploitation risks. Overall, the presentation aims to promote discussion, understanding of diverse experiences, and applying harm reduction to benefit vulnerable groups.

1. Welcome!
Please take a moment to reflect on the
following question
“Why do you work at The Women’s
Center?”
Write your answer on the piece on the
index card.
I do hope to share a few anonymously.
We will get started in a few minutes!

2. “No Bad WomeN
Just Bad LaWs”
harm reduction basics for abortion
providers working with women in
the sex industry
Presentation by: Lindsay Roth, Project SAFE
with support from Kahn Miller, Project SAFE and the Sex
Workers Outreach Projects of NYC and Philadelphia

3. THIS IS A SAFE SPACE
S o me g u i d e l i n e s
• Confidentiality: What’s shared here stays here,
what’s learned here leaves here.
• One Mic
• Make Room, Make Noise
• Ouch/Oops
• If you don’t know - ask!
• Speak from the “I”
• Avoid assumptions
• Please do not record this presentation. (The
slide show with bibliography and notes will be
made available)
A big thanks to SWOP- NYC/SWANK for sharing their guidelines with us!

4. Objectives
• Explain the mission of Project Safe
• Promote critical discussion sex work
• Answer questions about risks associated with
sex work
• For audience members to gain an
understanding of harm reduction theory and
how it can be applied to a variety of settings,
especially when working with “vulnerable
populations”
• Consider possible interventions at the
women’s center

5. Who We Are,
What We Do
• All volunteer, grassroots harm reduction group for
working women in north Philly
Kensington:
• One of the poorest neighborhoods in Philadelphia
with prominent open air markets for heroin,
powder and rock cocaine, street-based sex trade
• HIV/AIDS rate for zip codes 19125 and 19134
some of the highest in the city. City wide
Philadelphia has HIV/AIDS rate three times higher
than the national average.

6. This Includes…
• Late Night Street Outreach
• Bad Date Alerts
• Home Deliveries
• Case Management
• Health & Safety Tips
• Overdose Response Training
• Rape and Assault Referrals
• Women Identified-Only Drop-In
• Bilingual Services

7. The Women's Centers:
What do you do?
Why do you do it?
Why does it matter?

8. So what do the terms:
Mean to you?

9. Who Is A Sex Worker?
•
•
•
•
•
Webcam
Escort/Independent
Profession Dom
Profession Sub
Stripper/ Exotic
Dancer
• Outdoor Worker
• Pornographic
Performer

10. More Examples of Sex Work
• Prostitution
•
• Escorting
•
• Indoor and Outdoor •
work
•
• Webcam work
•
• Professional
•
domination
• Professional
submission
•
• Sugar daddy/mommy
situations
•
• Survival sex
Phone sex
Pornography
Erotic Modeling
Fetish work
Working at a club
Owning a
club/brothel/venue/w
ebsite
Stripping/Dancing/
Burlesque
What you say it is!

11. What is Sex Work?
sexual acts performed in exchange for money,
food, housing, substances, security, or anything of
necessity or value. People engaging in sex work
can be of any age, race, gender, nationality,
sexuality, or class, and enter the trade through
choice, coercion, or circumstance.

12. What is Work?
Work is the opposite of Leisure and
something we may prefer not to do, but get
paid for.
(Keith Grint, The Sociology of Work)

13. Sex Work: some terms
•
•
•
•
sex work
sex trade(s)
survival sex
"choice, circumstance or coercion”
(Also, honoring a sex worker's language,
when speaking about sex worker(s).)

14. Continuum of Risk
Not OK for Anyone, Ever (In the History of
Ever)
OK for Some (Over There, Far Away)
Fine , But not Preferred Practice
Good for Others, Not Good for Me
Good for Others and Good for Me
What is “risk?” What are our
own anxieties or discomforts?
How do these things in flux?

15. Street-Level Sex Work
• Cis-Women, Trans-Women, Cis-Men/ All Ethnicities/ All Ages
• Some have “pimps/madams” some have “boyfriends,” some
are on their own, others use a buddy system.
Some Benefits:
•
•
•
•
People work within a community
There is a network of help/social services
There is mobility
There is a flexible schedule, ideal for mothers, people with
disabilities, people with other jobs, etc.
• “Open Air Drug Market” promotes a community of safe users
who take the time to get clean works or clean their works.
Also, an OD is acknowledged and addressed.

16. Disadvantages
– Stigma/Shame apparent due to lack of privacy
– Supply/Demand – low wages, lack of solidarity
– The Screening Process:
• Women have about 2 seconds to get a date because
– The is always some one willing to do it for
cheaper/faster/whatever
– They don’t want to be seen
– They need money
– Cops will arrest them for Loitering
– Dates happen in: Cars, Rented rooms, Abandos,
Parking lots, Vacant lots, Clients homes
– There are no safety precautions, these men are
complete strangers. Occasionally there are
“regulars”
– Men go to street walkers because they know just

17. What is Harm Reduction?
• A public health theory addressing
behaviors that carry risk.
• We all do things we know are bad for us,
and only the individual can decide what
measures to take to mitigate harm
• Those who engage in these behaviors
should have a leading voice in any
organization or program they utilize

18. Stages of Change

19. Harm Reduction:
There is a rainbow of options
between chaos or abstinence
Screening
Clients
Safe Sex
Staying sober
during dates
Seeing only
Regulars
Oral Only

20. WHAT CAN WE DO HERE?
• Safety Planning in case of Arrest
– Plan for kids, pets, legal representation
– Check out Plan, Don’t Panic @
www.redlightchicago.org
• Budgeting
– Help women develop a finical plan or connect them
with someone who can
• Check out a PROS Network
– PROS [Providing Resources and Services to
Individuals Involved in the Sex Trade] is a network of
sex workers, direct service providers, legal, medical
and mental health professionals, advocates and
organizers.

21. A Note about Exploitation, Coercion
and Trafficking
•
•
•
You can screen for exploitation and coercion: it is a violation of worker’s
rights
Many women may not report abuses because of very valid and real fears:
– It is an intimate partner or family member
– They fear the police/fbi/immigration authorities
– They fear retribution
– They have been traumatized by both their oppressor and/or systems of
oppression
DO NOT violate their trust again. But let them know there are services to
help them:
– National Human Trafficking Hotline 1-888-373-7888
– Text BeFree (233733)
– The National Domestic Violence Hotline 1-800-799-7233
– Child Line or relevant statewide agency

22. Appearance
•
•
•
Wear shoes you can run in
Avoid scarves necklace and bags that can be used to hold or choke you
War clothing that can be left on during sex in case you have to run away
Negotiation
•
•
•
•
•
Stick to a price list and time limit
Pick your own parking spot our hotel
Have a supply of condoms and lube
Get money up front
Use the same stroll/ places you are familiar with
The Car
•
•
•
•
•
•
Approach from the driver’s side
Arrange services and locations while outside car
Circle the car looking for other passengers
Take down the license plate or pretend to do it
Do not fasten the seatbelt
Wave goodbye to someone and shout the time of your return – or pretend to
Oral Sex
•
•
•
Learn to put a condom on with your mouth
At ejaculation, keep pressure on condo with your lips to prevent leakage
Gargle with mouthwash or liquor afterwards, but do not bursh your teeth
Vaginal Sex
•
•
•
•
•
•
Keep area well lubricated with water-soluble lubricant
Use birth control
Do not douche or use vaginal-drying substances
Position yourself on top, facing customer
Keep hand on base of penis to keep it hard and avoid spillage
After ejaculation, remove penis from vagina immediately
Anal Sex
•
•
•
Try to avoid this act by charging so much customers cant afford it – it has greater risks
Use extra lubricant
Use female condoms
SelfDefense
•
•
•
•
•
•
Do NOT carry weapons
Use your voice and speed (eg scream, hit car horn)
Attack body areas that are easily injured (eg, throat, eyes, testicles, shins)
Run away against tract, towards lights and people
Work with friends
Tell work makes about bad costumers

23. Create a SAFE Space
• Area or forum where a marginalized
group is free of standard
stereotypes, discrimination, and
tactics of silencing
• Physically safe: free of law
enforcement/other institutions,
potential clients and assault
• There are guidelines: “trolling” should

24. what not to do
• Don’t offer advice
unless asked but DO
recognize behavior
change that comes from
within
• Don’t assume a singular
identity; don’t generalize
• Don’t try to do it all at
once; the small things
count
• Don’t exploit the space
or the participants
• Don’t undervalue the
lack of trust in social
services and police

25. Other Resources
• Persist Health Project NYC
• St. James Infirmary (San Francisco)
• SWOP-USA (especially SWOP-NYC, SWOP-Chicago’s
websites)
• www.stripperweb.com
• The Sex Workers Project NYC (good legal resource)
• VANDU, Nothing About Us Without Us
• Young Women’s Empowerment Project (Chicago),
Girls Do What They Have To Do To Survive:
Illuminating Methods used by Girls in the Sex Trade
and Street Economy to Fight Back and Heal
• Youth United for Change (Phila), Pushed Out: Youth
Voices on the Drop-Out Crisis in Philadelphia

26. Applications at the Women’s
Centers
• Get into groups
• Discuss how TWC can better serve women
in the sex industry
• Use the worksheet as a guideline
• Be ready to share!

27. Thank You!
Please stay in touch
Lindsay Roth
443-370-7626
215-701-9398
lindsay.a.roth@gmail.com