Professional Resources | Support For Allies, Friends and Family | Academic and Policy Resources
Professional and Community Resources for Sex Workers*
*Currently, all local resources are targeted for an NYC-based population.
Sex Worker Safety and Health
- Screening 101
- Tricks of the Trade, L. Synn Stern. [A great, expansive resource on not only sexual health, but in safety to prevent violence. Written specifically for sex industry professionals.]
- Health and Wellness Strategies for Folks in the Sex Trade; Tips for Us, by Us, from Persist Health Project
- How to Talk to Your Medical Provider, from Persist Health Project
In case of Arrest
- Emergency Response Worksheet: Prepare for the possibility of Arrest A planning worksheet for individuals to fill out to help plan for the possibility of arrest.
- Don’t Panic…Plan! A note on how a community can come together to support a member in case they are arrested.
- In Case of Arrest…What NOT To Do! Ten tips from an attorney on what not to do in case you are arrested.
- What Can I Expect if I am Arrested? The Legal Aid Society breaks down what to expect in case of arrest.
- Map of the Criminal Injustice System Streetwise and Safe’s great interactive walk through from police encounter up through trial with know your rights information and a helpful walk through of the system as you may encounter it.
Legal Resources
International Institute of Buffalo
864 Delaware Avenue
Buffalo, NY 14209-2093
Tel: (716) 883-1900
Fax: (716) 883-9529
Sex Workers Project, Urban Justice Center
123 Williams Street, 16th Floor
New York, NY 10038
Tel: (646) 602-5695
Fax: (212) 533-4598
Health & Counseling Resources
Frost’d
Harlem, South Bronx and Brooklyn
Tel: (718) 292-7718
Needle exchange, Counseling
Positive Health Project
302 W. 37th Street 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10018
Tel: (212) 465-8304
Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center
Needle Exchange, Counseling.
25 Allen Street
New York, NY
Tel: (212) 226-6333
New York Harm Reduction Educators Bronx
Needle exchange, Counseling, Mobile Services.
953 Southern Blvd, Suite 302
Bronx, NY
Tel: (718) 842-6050
NY Harm Reduction Educators Manhattan
Needle exchange, Counseling, Mobile Services.
1991A Lexington Ave, New York NY
Tel: (212) 828-8464
Callen-Lorde Community Health Center
356 W. 18th St.
New York, NY 10011
Tel: (212) 271-7200
Citiwide Harm Reduction
Needle exchange, Mobile Services, Counseling.
226 E. 144th St.,
Bronx, NY 10451
M T Th F 9am – 9:30pm; W 12pm-9:30pm
Tel: (212) 292-7718
Anti-Violence Project
Bilingual hotline.
240 W. 35th Street, Suite 200
New York, NY
Tel: (212) 714-1141
Safe Horizon
50 Court St., 8th Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Tel: (718) 943-8631
Fax: (718) 943-8653
Youth-Focused Resources
The Ali Forney Center
Tel: (212) 206-0574
Provides Housing services for LGBT Youth, 16 – 24
The Door
121 Avenue of the Americas, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10013
Tel: (212) 941-9090 X 3280
Fax: (212) 941-0714
Green Chimneys – Runaway & Homeless Youth Programs
Tel: (212) 491-5911
Provides residential, educational, and social service programs to LGBT Youth and their families
Health and Education Alternatives for Teens (HEAT)
Tel: (718) 467-1718
Provides comprehensive medical care for HIV+ and at-risk youth, 13 – 24
Safe Horizons’ Streetwork Harlem Drop-In Center
209 W. 125th. St.
New York, NY 10027
Phone: 212.695.2220
Provides emergency services, medical services, counseling and legal services
Safe Horizon’s Streetwork Lower East Side Drop-In Center
33 Essex St
New York, NY 10002
Phone: 646.602.6404
Provides emergency services, medical services, counseling and legal services
Blogs, Books, and other Media for Sex Workers
Blogs & Publications, General
- Tits & Sass
- Bound, Not Gagged
- $pread Magazine (production ended as of Fall, 2011)
- Research for Sex Work, produced by the Global Network of Sex Worker Projects
- Hos, Hookers, Call Girls and Rent Boys ed. David Henry Sterry (2009) [Autobiographical Essays]
- Rent Girl, Michelle Tea (2004) [Autobiographical]
- Paying for It, Chester Brown (2011) [Autobiographical account by a client]
- My Red Light Story, a blog maintained by a provider and a client.
Movies, Films, Art & Performance
- Pay As You Go: An Evening of Sex Worker Short Films
- Sex Worker Cabaret (NYC)
- Sex Workers Art Show (National tour)
- San Francisco Sex Workers Film & Art Festival
- Live Nude Girls Unite (Vicky Funari, Julia Query, 2000)
Other Organizations supporting Sex Workers
New York
North American Task Force on Prostitution (NTFP)
A network of Sex Workers, Sex Worker’s rights projects, and allies.
The North American Task Force on Prostitution (NTFP) was founded in 1979, to act as an umbrella organization for prostitutes and prostitutes’ rights organizations in different parts of the United States. In 1994, its purpose was expanded to involve organizations and individuals who support the rights of prostitutes and other sex workers.
2785 Broadway #4L, New York, NY 10025
Tel: (212) 866-8854
Prostitutes Of New York (PONY)
A support and advocacy group for all people in the sex industry
PONY is a support and advocacy group for all people in the sex industry. We welcome all current or former sex workers, including male, female or TS/TV prostitutes, erotic dancers, nude models, x-rated actors, peep show performers, phone sex workers, S&M/B&D professionals, strippers, madams, and so on.
Tel: (212) 713-5678
The Red Umbrella Project
The Red Umbrella Project is founded on the belief that storytelling is a building block of movement building and solidarity. People who have spent time in the sex industries know all too well the social and legal stigmas that prevent us from being treated with the dignity and respect we deserve. While researchers, the media, and myriad others fill up page after page with stories about the sex trade, the voices of people who have lived this reality are consistently denied and erased.
PROS Network, New York City
The PROS Network (Providers and Resources Offering Services to sex workers) is a coalition of sex workers, organizers, direct service providers, advocates, and media makers. We exist to collaborate on programs and campaigns around sex work-related issues in the New York metropolitan area. We work with people of all genders who, by choice, circumstance, or coercion, engage in sexual activities for money, food, shelter, clothing, drugs, or other survival needs. Grounded in principles of social justice and human rights, the PROS Network embraces a non-judgmental, harm reduction approach.
Brunch and Bitch
A resource for dancers to come together and find community support.
National
- HOOK Online (Resources for male sex workers)
- Desiree Alliance – the U.S. sex workers’ rights conference (July 2010 in Las Vegas)
- SWOP-USA
Resources For Allies, Friends, and Family
- How To Be An Ally to Sex Workers
- How To Be An Ally to Outdoor (Street-Based) Sex Workers
- Every Ho I Know Says So: Advice on How to be a Good Partner/Lover to Sex Workers
Outreach
Academic and Policy Resources
New York City-based Sex Work
- Sex Workers Project, Behind Closed Doors: An Analysis of Indoor Sex Work in New York City (2005)
- Sex Workers Project, Revolving Door: An Analysis of Street-based prostitution in New York City (2003)
- Clement, Elizabeth Love for Sale: Courting, Treating, and Prostitution in New York City, 1900-1945, University of North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill (2006)
- How Many Juveniles are Involved in Prostitution in the U.S.?, Crimes Against Children Research Center, University of New Hampshire, 2008.
- Ric Curtis, et al., Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in New York City, Volume One: The CSEC Population in New York City: Size, Characteristics, and Needs, Center for Court Innovation, John Jay College and the Department of Justice, December 2008.
- Bernstein, Elizabeth. Temporarily Yours. University of Chicago Press, 2007.
- Chapkis, Wendy. Live Sex Acts. Routledge, 1996.
- Dewey, Susan. Policing Pleasure: Sex Work, Policy and the State in a Global Perspective. NYU Press, 2011.
- Ditmore, Melissa. Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work. Greenwood Press, 2006.
- Ditmore, Melissa. Prostitution and Sex Work. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2010.
- Kempadoo, Kemala & Doezema, Jo. Global Sex Workers: Rights, Resistance and Redefinition. 1998. New York: Routledge.
- Nagle, Julie. Whores and Other Feminists. Routeledge, 1997.
- Weitzer, Ronald. Sex for Sale: Prostitution, Pornography, and the Sex Industry. Routledge, 2000.
- Weitzer, Ronald. Legalizing Prostitution: From Illicit Vice to Lawful Business. NYU Press, 2011.
Sex Work, Migration and Trafficking in Persons
- Augustin, Laura Maria. Sex at the Margins: Migrants, Labour Markets, and the Rescue Industry. 2007. New York: Zed. Print.
- DeStefano, Anthony. The War on Human Trafficking: US Policy Assessed. 2008. Rutgers. Print.
- Doezema, Jo. Sex Slaves and Discourse Masters: The Construction of Trafficking. 2010. New York: Zed. Print.
- Sex Work and Violence, [English and Russian avail.] ed. Nel van Beelen & Aliya Rakhmetova, Research for Sex Work, Global Network of Sex Worker Projects (NSWP), 2010.
- The Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women offers a number of publications on trafficking as a subject and policies of anti-trafficking.
- The Road North: The Role of Gender, Poverty and Violence in Trafficking from Mexico to the US., Sex Workers Project, September 2012
Sex Workers and Public Health
- Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women (GAATW), Women, Mobility and Reproductive Health, (2005).
- Shannon, Kate and Joanne Csete, Violence, Condom Negotiation, and HIV/STI Risk Among Sex Workers, Journal of the American Medical Association, (2010) 304(5): 573-57.
- United National Development Programme: HIV, Health and Development, Sex Work and the Law in Asia and the Pacific, 2012.
- World Health Organization, Violence Against Sex Workers and HIV Prevention, Information Bulletin Series, No. 3, UNAIDS, (2005).
End Demand-style Policy
- Casella, Emilia; Martinetti, Irene; and Sastrawidjaja, Stephan. “Critique of Focus on Demand in the Context of Trafficking in Persons: A Position Paper of the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center.” Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center. 2007.
- Julie Ham. “Beyond ‘Supply and Demand’ Catchphrases: Assessing the Uses and Limitations of Demand-Based Approaches in Anti-Trafficking.” Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women (GAATW), 2011.
- Rachel Lovell and Ann Jordan. “Do John Schools Really Decrease Recidivism? A methodological critique of an evaluation of the San Francisco First Offender Prostitution Program.” Sept 9, 2012.
Additional Resources
- Academic Resources: from SWOP-Chicago
- Inviting SWOP-NYC/SWANK to Present or to be on Panels at your University or School – Please review this document prepared for SWOP-Chicago before contacting SWOP-NYC/SWANK.
- Sin City Alternative Professionals’ Association: Very extensive list of resources on sex work, both nationally and internationally
