Urgent Plea from PACE Society
Dear Friends,
We are writing to you on behalf of Prostitution Alternatives Counselling and Education (PACE) Society in Vancouver. As a local not-for-profit agency, we rely on fundraising, government funding, and private donations to sustain our organization and the people it serves. Right now, we are writing to plea for your help. Due to the current economic crisis, we are experiencing extreme funding shortfalls, and are at risk of having to permanently close our doors. Economic hard times affect everyone, but especially those most marginalized in our communities. Our members need our organization even more at this time, as other supports in their lives are diminishing. If we are forced to close and deny them the stability, safety, and advocacy they receive from PACE, it would truly be a tragedy. We urgently ask that you donate whatever you can to help us stay open during this recession.
As a potential donor, it is important to us that you understand what our organization is about, what our mandate is, and who benefits from our services. PACE is an organization that helps people involved in the survival sex trade to make profound changes in their lives. We employ a strengths-based approach to empower our members to help themselves make positive choices. We assist them with life skills, so that although most of them are coping with obstacles such as poverty and trauma, they have the opportunity to achieve the goals they set for themselves. PACE encourages its members not to see themselves as victims of circumstance but rather as autonomous individuals capable of choosing their own path. The survival sex trade is hazardous for the workers, however, at PACE our members are offered a safe place for one-on-one support, violence prevention training, health and legal education, and community building. Our services are literally a lifeline for our members and there would be an enormous hole left in their lives should we be forced to close our doors.
There are two different ways that you can support PACE:
1- By making a secure online donation by accessing our website, http://www.pace-society.ca and clicking on the “Donate Now” button. That will take you to the Canada Helps website, which will prompt you for your payment information.
2- By writing a cheque, and either dropping it off or mailing it to:
PACE Society
49 West Cordova Street
Vancouver, BC
V6B 1C8
All donations are confidential and tax deductable. Additionally, if you wish to volunteer to help with fundraising, we would be very happy to hear from you.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this request. By supporting PACE, you are supporting the human rights, dignity, and safety of sex workers. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to call us at (604) 872-7651, or email at pace-admin@telus.net.
Please forward this email to anyone you think would be interested in helping.
Warm regards,
PACE Board, Staff, and Members
3RD ANNUAL WOMEN’S HOUSING MARCH
Sat June 13 @ 1:30 pm
Starts outside Downtown Eastside Women Centre
(302 Columbia- corner Cordova, just west of Main)
On Saturday June 13 at 1:30 pm, join women in the Downtown Eastside Women
Centre Power of Women Group in the 3rd Annual March for Women’s Housing and
March Against Poverty! Everyone welcome!
We are marching for:
- Social Housing, Childcare, and Healthcare for all!
- No more Evictions and No more Condos in the DTES!
- People Before Olympic Profits!
- Stop Criminalizing the Poor!
Although we are still suffering in shelters and on the streets, we are not
yet defeated! We are making our voices heard, we are bringing empowerment
into our lives, we are fighting for positive change, and we are expressing
the humanity of our neighbourhood. We hope all of you will join us.
For more information contact project at dewc.ca or call 604-681-8480 x 234.
We are also seeking endorsements, please contact us if you would are
interested in being added to a list of supporters.
On facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=80841139629
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* Power & Perspectives: An Interview with Power to Women group
http://knollpaper.wordpress.com/current-issue/gender/power-perspectives/
* Election won’t change lives of Downtown Eastside women:
http://straight.com/article-216138/harsha-walia-and-andrea-pinochet-
election-promises-won%3F%3Ft-change-lives-downtown-eastside-women
* Downtown Eastside Women Ask Politicians for Housing Swap
http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/1286
The Power of Women Group is a group at the Downtown Eastside (DTES) Women’s
Centre, located in the DTES of Vancouver (the poorest off-reserve postal
code in Canada). We are a group of women from all walks of life who are
either on social assistance, working poor, or homeless; but we are all
living in extreme poverty. Our aim is to empower ourselves through our
experiences and to raise awareness from our own perspectives about the
social issues affecting the neighbourhood.
Many of us are single mothers or have had our children apprehended due to
poverty; most of us have chronic physical or mental health issues for
example HIV and Hepatitis C; many have drug or alcohol addictions; and a
majority have experienced and survived sexual violence and mental, physical,
spiritual, and emotional abuse. For indigenous women, we are affected by a
legacy of the effects of residential schools and a history of colonization
and racism.
Craigslist Faces More Prostitution Controversy
NEW YORK – Seven people accused of publicizing a New York City
prostitution ring over Craigslist have been indicted, adding to pressure on the
online classified site to vet its ads.
Room Service Entertainment, operating from the borough of Queens,
continuously advertised in the erotic services section of Craigslist, New York
state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.
The ring operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and serviced all five
boroughs in New York City plus surrounding areas, employing numerous “bookers,”
drivers, and prostitutes from June 2007 through December 2008, Cuomo’s office
said.
The seven were charged with enterprise corruption and face a maximum of 25
years in prison if convicted.
Craigslist said last week it would replace its “erotic services” ads with a
new adult category, where ads would be closely screened, following pressure by
state authorities due to the killing of a masseuse in Boston who advertised on
the site.
“Until Craigslist gets serious about putting real protections in place, it
will continue to be an environment where criminal operations thrive with
impunity,” Cuomo said on Wednesday.
Jim Buckmaster, chief executive officer at Craigslist, said the activities
described by Cuomo took place in 2008, “well before Craigslist eliminated erotic
services and commenced manual screening of all ads posted to adult
services.”
Separately, the website said it sued South Carolina’s attorney general in
federal court, seeking a determination on its right to publish ads and a
restraining order against Attorney General Henry McMaster.
McMaster has repeatedly threatened to prosecute Craigslist and its executives
regarding classified categories he said could be used to solicit prostitutes,
Craigslist said in a statement.
Service
Anti-prostitution campaign leads to 57 arrests
ctvtoronto.ca
Study shows male sex-trade workers need more support
Updated Sun. May. 17 2009 1:23 PM ET
The Canadian Press
CALGARY — Matthew Taylor is one of the lucky ones. After eight years selling his body on the streets of Vancouver, he was able to find the support he needed to get out of the sex trade and now he runs an outreach program for male prostitutes.
“I decided it was time to be found again. I’d gotten pretty lost. I got out because there were folks there willing to open doors for me when I had decided that I had enough,” says Taylor, who grew up in Ontario but moved to Vancouver in 1996.
Taylor, who is now 40, had been both a male escort and a cross-dressing transsexual worker, both on and off the street. Since then he has helped found HUSTLE: Men on the Move, which provides support for men involved in sex work in Vancouver.
His story is echoed in a new report entitled Under the Radar: The Sexual Exploitation of Young Men, which found that men in the sex trade often end up alone and without support.
The report’s author, Sue McIntyre, had previously conducted extensive research into the plight of female sex workers, but realized men had been largely forgotten.
“I’ve had a fair bit of guilt about it — that it was ignored for so long,” she says.”People don’t even see them, they don’t notice them. Even when there are outreach programs in a lot of different cities that do work with this population, they’re usually geared more for working with young women in the trade.”
Taylor agrees that organizations and services see men as an afterthought. “I don’t think (people) can wrap their head around sex work and that men are vulnerable and can be exploited.”
McIntyre sought input from 157 male sex-trade workers in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba and concluded they have no exit strategy. Her report, which paints a bleak picture for men who work as sex-trade workers, suggests comprehensive changes.
For most of the sex-trade workers it is “survival sex” — having enough money for food, shelter, clothing and often to support addictions. Although many are gay, others are “gay for pay.” More than 99 per cent of their customers are men, and they work for an average of nine years — double the time of their female counterparts.
“Young women can birth a baby, have a desire to have a child and that brings back state and family support. Young men do not have that option … it’s not something people are celebrating,” says McIntyre.
Seventy-five per cent of respondents reported sexual abuse and 85 per cent were physically assaulted before they ran away from home. They reported feeling shame and self-loathing. Even social workers who work with sex-trade workers report being uncomfortable dealing with them.
“That was really alarming for me. There’s an underlying sort of homophobia that goes with it,” says McIntyre.
Taylor says another reason why men are alone is that society has conditioned them to be strong and silent.
“Men are supposed to … feel no pain, not show their weaknesses and have greater perceived physical strength, says Taylor, who got into the sex trade at 31 because he wanted to belong. Addictions followed before he finally left three years ago.
In Alberta, efforts have been made to improve the plight of sexually exploited young men.
“If you look at the ratios of males-to-females that we provide support to, I think they’re equally as successful at exiting,” says Sarita Dighe-Bramwell, with Alberta Children and Youth Services.
“I think the difference is we don’t recognize enough of the males,” she says, adding that help is now being provided to more boys.
McIntyre’s report recommends specialized programs to help male prostitutes get out and says that should include detox and rehabilitation beds, housing and help finding other employment.
It also says there should be mentoring programs and adds that staff working with young men in the sexual exploitation trade should be provided with gender non-conformity training.
“People need to know that this population exists and stop ignoring it,” says McIntyre.
