je ne peux pas ecrire en francais, je m'excuse.

here is our strategic plan for coop activities and our industry association model. please feel free to contact me with any questions.
Section Five Strategic Plan

The following strategic plan encompasses a number of activities that sex industry workers felt would affect their health, safety and stability as a community. It is hoped that by moving forward with these activities the sex industry will stabilize and the numbers of sex workers forced to work in dangerous environments will be decreased.

Also, those sex workers who are not in the trade by choice could be offered alternate income sources and meaningful ways to re-integrate into the greater community and out of the sex industry.

1. Organizing Space
2. Sex Worker Umbrella Cooperative with a number of collectives that will become enterprises of the coop
Arts
Publishing
Catering
Consulting
3. Industry Association
4. Safe Work Site
5. Communications
6. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Each activity is outlined below in a framework of Planning, Implementation and Actors.

1. ORGANIZING SPACE

Physical space for sex industry workers to explore their ideas and see them to fruition is fundamental to sex worker community development.

In Jan, 2007 the VPD organized crime task force began an operation aimed at undermining gang activity in the lower mainland. This operation included uniformed police officers (sometimes 20 at a time) and licensing inspectors entering exotic show lounges in an effort to maintain high visibility and meet organized crime where they gather, apparently exotic show lounges.

During these “inspections” the tactics employed by the VPD and other NIST (neighbourhood integrated services team) members were both brutal and inappropriate in their treatment of sex industry workers.

These events prompted the sex industry community to take action. Four sex worker delegations went to the Vancouver Police Board and begged for these actions to cease. We were told we were viewed by the VPD as a reasonable casualty in the fight against organized crime and that the stability of the sex industry and some of its safest, highest paying jobs were not a priority.

Seventeen show lounges have closed throughout the lower mainland in the last few years including the Drake Show lounge located on Powell Street in the downtown east side. The exotic dancers at the Drake suffered more than most during these inspections and were the people who initially had the courage to come forward and ask for help.

The loss of this safe, stable work environment was a blow the sex worker rights movement in Vancouver and left a sense of desperation as the greater community continues to destabilize our industry with total complacency for our safety.

The City of Vancouver has purchased the Drake Hotel and Show Lounge. Vancouver sex workers would like to see this space returned to us as a place for our community to come together and begin to rebuild. This is NOT the planned location for the controversial safe work site. This would be a space for the sex worker community to explore all of the ideas outlined in this plan and to come together in a place they could call their own. A place that will be owned, designed, operated and profited on by the sex worker membership.

The political significance of the Drake Show Lounge for the sex worker rights movement is not lost on the sex worker community. To reclaim space we view as stolen would demonstrate the greater communities will to end the harmful tactics and actions taken against us in the past.

Phase One/Planning
Phase Two/Implementation Actors/ Who will do the work?
• Formalize a cohort of sex workers to work on the Expression of Interest letter to the City of Vancouver Housing department.
• Engage experts in the requirements of these applications for the sharing of knowledge and building of sex worker community capacity
• Stream line the Strategic plan to reflect the use of the space.
• Develop a list of stakeholders to approach for support of our occupying the space and our intended uses of the space.
 Finalize our expression of interest and the planned uses of the space.
 Engage all community stakeholders and present the plan.
 Follow up with stake holder groups and request letters of support for our plans.
 Submit the expression of interest letter, strategic plan and letters of support to City of Vancouver housing.  Sex industry workers
 BCCEC membership
 Allies with experience and expertise in obtaining properties that are controlled or owned by the government.

2. SEX WORKER COOPERATIVE

During the Developing Capacity for Change Project Vancouver sex workers expressed their desire to explore cooperative business models as a way to generate alternative sources of income, increase our health and safety, build community capacity, and begin to take control of our collective destiny. This cooperative will be a for profit endeavour with its membership guiding all decisions.

For the past six months Vancouver sex workers from the downtown eastside community have been working hard to create a framework for this cooperative and have finalized and formalized governance policies, decision making procedures, terms of reference, membership criteria, code of conduct, and conflict management procedures that will reflect what they envision as a community.

The cooperative cooperation will enable a number of sex worker community development activities such as;

Arts Collective

Sex work and art have always been intimately related. Most sex workers actively pursue art in the form of poetry, sketching, photography, fashion, painting and of course writing. This aspect of the cooperative has captured the imagination of the sex worker community with plans for development of a play, engaging artists from the greater community to share techniques in a variety of artistic mediums, providing physical space for sex workers to engage in art, finding a way to collectively market sex worker art, and ensuring the availability of tools for creating art.

This lighter side of community development has given sex workers hope, will provide positive experiences outside of what they are faced with on the street and build understanding between the greater community and the sex worker community. Art is the great bridger of divides and can be the path to healing for the entire community.

Phase One/Planning Phase Two/Implementation Actors/ Who will do the work?
 Formalize cohort of sex workers for arts collective development team
 Adopt and refine policies for governance, decision making, project terms of reference, vision and goals to reflect the specific program needs.
 Identify mediums of art to be supported and explore how these disciplines could be available for use. Example- if a sex worker is a singer/ musician –we could set up a recording/film studio for producing that form of art or it may be as simple as space for people to paint and art supplies to paint with.
 Engage artists, production experts, and those with experience in organizing and promoting artists as a collective to share knowledge and increase sex worker community capacity to engage in, produce and promote themselves as artists.
 Develop a business plan inclusive of all identified mediums of art, their creation/production, promotion/sale. This plan should be in depth and describe an actual bricks and mortar space.
 Present final design for coop arts collective to the board of directors of the BC Cooperative of Sex Industry Professionals for formal addition as a department of the corporation.
 Secure the tools to engage in all identified mediums of art.
 Agree on a starting point/ project (the play-supper club) and develop a plan to see it to fruition.
 Secure funding for the development of this action.
 Implement the business/ promotional plan for this action.
 Work towards a public engagement / event to show case the diversity of the sex worker community’s creativity.  Sex workers
 Artists, experts in the promotion of art, experts in the production of art (plays)
 BCCEC members

Publishing Collective

Publishing rights and the laws governing creative or intellectual property are complex. Vancouver sex workers expressed a general sense of distrust in the system at large when discussing matters of ownership of their writing and other artistic creations. Through engaging experts in the publishing field, sex workers hope to design a sex worker owned and controlled publishing company that reflects their concerns and ensures the protection of sex worker creative and intellectual property.

Phase One/Planning Phase Two/Implementation Actors/ Who will do the work?
 Formalize a cohort of sex workers to form the cooperative publishing development team.
 Adopt and refine the terms of reference and governance structure to reflect the specific needs of the cooperative publishing enterprise.
 Engage experts in publishing, royalties, and the laws that govern publishing rights for the sharing of knowledge and increasing of sex worker community capacity around this business.
 Design a business plan for the coop publishing enterprise inclusive of all costs associated with running a business (wages, rent, hydro, book production, etc.).
 Develop a communication/promotion strategy.  Present final design for the coop publishing enterprise to the board of directors of the BC Cooperative of Sex Industry Professionals for formal addition as a department of the coop.
 Implement business plan and promotion of the enterprise.
 Sex Workers
 Allies/Experts from the business and publishing community.
 BCCEC membership
Catering Collective

Many organizations have formed catering companies as a way to generate funds. The lack of core financing for not-for-profit societies has long been a barrier to sex worker organizing. Too often sex worker priorities are dismissed or difficult to fund as finding the funding takes time and effort to secure. It is hoped that through all of these business endeavours the sex workers rights movement will finally be able to fund the actions we feel are a priority and decide what those actions are as a community

The operation of the catering enterprise could provide employment opportunities and tangible marketable skills to sex workers. Sex workers exiting the industry expressed that having nothing on their resume and having little to no experience made finding a job difficult. The experience of working in the many aspects of running a business will give sex workers the skills and experience they need to find employment outside of the sex industry.

Phase One/Planning Phase Two/Implementation Actors/ Who will do the work?
 Formalize a cohort of sex workers to form the coop catering development team.
 Adopt and refine terms of reference and governance structure to reflect the specific needs of the coop catering enterprise.
 Engage experts in running kitchens, restaurants, food safe, accounting, book keeping, proper food storage and preparation and promotion of restaurants for the purpose of sharing knowledge and increasing sex worker community capacity.
 Examine types of training available to people interested in working in the food and beverage industry and arrange workshops for the members who wish increase their employability and to insure all standards as far as health and safety are met by the coop catering company and it’s employees/owners.
 Develop an in depth business plan for the coop catering enterprise inclusive of rent, hydro, wages, menu, and all other costs associated with running the business and the possible markets or events we could host to increase our business, e.g. Dancers for Cancer, SEXPO, and International End Violence against Sex Workers Day.
 Examine revenue sources for community economic development and the actual opening of the business..  Present final design for coop catering enterprise to the board of directors of the BC Cooperative of Sex Industry Professionals for formal addition as a department of the coop.
 Secure funding to open business.
 Secure a location with an inspected kitchen or renovate to bring location up to code.
 Implement training programs for members and begin preparing to open to the public
 Implement communication strategy around the announcement of the opening of our business.
 Host the opening event and continue from there running the business.
 Sex Workers
 Allies who specialize in restaurants, business, food safe training, accounting, and promotions.
 BCCEC members
Consulting Collective

For years sex industry workers have lectured at universities, trained police officers, trained middle and upper management employees for the federal government and acted as consultants to many other government and private bodies in matters related to sex work.

Sex workers are rarely paid for these consultations and no standardized curriculums exist. Standardization of these curriculum’s and the setting of a minimum wage would demonstrate the value of the sex worker consultants experience and time and allow more sex workers to experience the empowerment of being heard in these environments.

Phase One/Planning Phase Two/Implementation Actors/ Who will do the work?
 Formalize a cohort of sex workers for the development of a coop consulting enterprise and standardized curriculum for groups identified by sex workers as in need of training about or sensitizing to sex worker issues.
 Adopt and refine terms of reference and governance structure to reflect the specific needs of the coop consulting enterprise.
 Engage experts in the development of curriculum and the engagement of criminalized or marginalized populations within an academic environment.
 Develop standardized presentations and curriculum tailored to each support agencies specific role in relation to sex workers including; Nurses, Women’s studies, Sociology, Police, City Councillors, Criminology students, Media and any others identified by the development team.
 Design an awareness package (inclusive of wages for presenters) and strategy to promote the presentations and curriculum to universities, colleges and support agencies.
 Design a list of potential clients/community partners for the sex worker designed/delivered presentations.
 Present final design for coop consulting enterprise to the board of directors of the BC Cooperative of Sex Industry Professionals for formal addition as a department of the coop.
 Implement the communication/promotion strategy with potential clients of the consulting business.
 Begin familiarizing members with the curriculum and presentation so they may engage in presenting.
 Facilitate public speaking work shops with members to increase their comfort level and confidence when making these presentations.  Sex workers
 Experts in curriculum development.
 Academics
 BCCEC members

3. INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION

During the Developing Capacity for Change Project sex also expressed how an industry association, industry stabilization and occupational health and safety training for sex industry workers could give sex workers the tools to make safe decisions about their work and impact their health and safety.

Labour Standards and occupational health and safety have been the rights of Canadian Workers for over 100 years. The sex industry and its workers have however never enjoyed the privileges of being acknowledged for providing a safe work space or been able to complain about dangerous conditions. This has forced the system at large to impose what it believes is right for sex industry workers with disastrous results for decades in the BC/Yukon region.

Recently the targeting of Health Enhancement Centers and increased enforcement against Exotic Show Lounges has once again jeopardized the safety of Sex Industry Workers. The need for a community based process through which the sex industry can govern itself and have input to its future and stability has never been more urgent.

Over the last six months sex workers have also engaged union development experts in exploring what this organization might look like and have come up with the following action plan;

Phase One/Planning Phase Two/Implementation Actors/ Who will do the work?
 Formalize a cohort of sex workers for the Industry Association Development team
 Engage Union Building Experts to share knowledge and increase sex worker community understanding of basic union and trade association models and how it may support sex industry workers health and safety
 Meet with the development team to draft a plan for structure, vision, purpose, mandate, and implementation for the branding-complaints process, standardized health and safety training and industry wide minimum labour standards (which most businesses already surpass) with a focus on Industry stabilization (sex industry workers acknowledge that if there are no businesses-there are no jobs and therefore stabilization and promotion of our industry must be first and foremost
 Prepare report and a preliminary draft terms of reference for broader sex industry community dissemination
 Engage all stake holders including
Business owners
Sex consumers
Sex industry workers
To ensure inclusion of all voices and opinions on how to stabilize the sex industry and what the terms of the industry association should be.
 Develop 3 or 4 choices for an association seal and name so consumers, sex workers and business owners may chose the final choice by vote. All ideas in this regard will be considered but the BCCEC will commit to developing 3 or 4.
 Design a communications strategy to raise awareness of the existence of the industry association in particular in the greater community.  Formalize the terms of reference for the industry association including vision, mandate, purpose, governance structure, decision making procedures, complaints process, accountability measures, minimum health and safety standards, and standardized health and safety training.
 Circulate widely to all stakeholders for final scrutiny.
 Formalize a list of sex industry professionals and business owners etc. who have agreed to the negotiated standards and signed on as members of the industry association.
 Implement Industry association seal and name so consumers, sex workers and business owners may benefit from the recognition of the minimum standards.
 Implement complaints process ensuring all stakeholders abide by the negotiated standards.
 Implement communications strategy so the greater community understand the significance of sex industry stabilization and what the industry association seal represents.
 Sex industry workers
 Sex industry business owners.
 Sex Industry consumers
 Coastal Health
 BCCEC members

4. SAFE WORK SITE

Sex workers in the Downtown East Side of Vancouver have expressed their need for a safe place to work. The most fundamental things enjoyed by Canadian workers such as a toilette to use while on shift are not available to the sex workers in the east end.

The trial in the case of the missing women has put the spot light on the dangerous conditions that the sex workers on the street face every night and the sex workers themselves have called for the immediate stabilization of their safety.

An indoor venue where sex workers could bring their clients could greatly increase a sex workers ability to negotiate or refuse dangerous work. Sex Workers in the downtown east side are asking for the opportunity to demonstrate the impact we believe bringing the sex trade in off of the street will have on the health and safety of the entire community.
During the Living in Community Project residents and business owners impacted by street level sex work expressed their greatest complaints were;
 The residual mess- condoms and other garbage
 The public violence- every one agrees that the level of violence endured by survival sex workers is unacceptable.
 sex in plain view- looking out your window and seeing sex workers and customers together.
 And their children being faced with sex workers on the street while out in the community or on the way to school

It is hoped that by bringing the trade in off the street these issues will be greatly impacted. With a place to dispose of condoms and to entertain clients out of the public eye, the health and safety of ALL community members it is hoped will be impacted.

This Safe Work Site will be completely designed by, owned by, profited from, voted on and controlled by the sex workers themselves and reflect what a safe work environment means to them. The Safe Work Site will require a focused effort to find public support and secure the required Amnesty from the Criminal Code of Canada.

Phase One/Planning Phase Two/Implementation Actors/ Who will do the work?
 Formalize cohort of sex industry workers for the safe work site development team
 Adopt and refine terms of reference and governance structure to reflect the specific needs of the coop safe work site.
 Engage experts in business planning, design and construction to share knowledge and build sex worker community capacity.
 Develop a business plan inclusive of construction costs, costs of materials, rent, utilities, employee costs and a design for staffing the site.
 Seek legal amnesty
 Develop a community communications strategy to ensure sex consumers and sex workers know the site exists and what is offered for services, support and how to become coop members should they choose to.
.  Present final design for coop safe work site to the board of directors of the coop for formal addition as a department of the coop.
 Secure space for the site.
 Oversee construction of the necessary facilities and ensure sex worker inclusion and skill building when it comes to the construction work.
 Implement the continuum of supports to be available through the safe work site (street nurses, specialized clinic, diversion to other resources, supplies-condoms, etc., laundry)
 Once open, implement the sex workers community communications strategy.  Sex Workers
 Experts in harm reduction
 Health professionals
 BCCEC members
 Construction/building experts.

Amnesty for Safe Work Site

To obtain amnesty from the criminal code of Canada requires an Act of Parliament through the same procedure as law making.

A first reading of a proposed bill takes place followed by a second reading 48 hrs. later. After this the bill may go to committee or be passed forward to Parliament for a third and final reading before being passed as law and granting us amnesty from the Bawdy House Provisions of the criminal code of Canada.

It was agreed that an amnesty limited to within the walls of the safe work site would be our goal. This limited amnesty could allow the greater community to revoke the amnesty or re examine the benefits of the safe work site and ensure accountability for the impacts of the safe work site. ALL stake holders (including residents, police, business owners and sex workers) will be engaged in the design of the amnesty bill and its limitations.

Phase One/Planning Phase Two/Implementation Actors/ Who will do the work?
 Formalize a cohort of sex workers for the “Bill of Amnesty” development team
 Engage law makers and experts in criminal law to share knowledge and increase sex worker community capacity and knowledge of how laws are made and government works
 Draft a “Bill of Amnesty” for submission to parliament.
 Design a communications plan to ensure all stakeholders are included in disseminating the draft bill to ensure all voices and concerns are addressed and the limitations of the amnesty negotiated with all community members including VPD, Community Policing, Residents, Business Owners, Sex workers outside of development team, Federal, Provincial, and Municipal Politicians, Sex worker support agencies, Religious organizations
 Implement communications strategy and present strategic plan, draft bill of amnesty to the greater community.
 Finalize the bill of amnesty ensuring all stake holders concerns are addressed.
 Follow up with all stake holder groups for the purpose of obtaining letters of support for the finalized bill for amnesty.
 Submit to parliament for the final law making process.  Sex workers
 Allies in criminology and law
 BCCEC members
 Political allies

5. COMMUNICATIONS

In order for sex workers to rally the support necessary to see these actions through, a broad and in depth series of community engagements and strategic communications need to take place.

These types of lobbying campaigns can be extremely complicated and time consuming but sex workers agreed that answering questions and explaining our plans were the only way for us to find support within the greater community.

Phase One/Planning Phase Two/Implementation Actors/ Who will do the work?
 Formalize a cohort of sex workers for the communication strategy development team.
 Develop a list of stakeholder groups and possible supporters with whom the strategic plan will be shared.
 Design a presentation on the sex worker cooperative and this strategic plan for public and private hearings in particular in regard to the controversial safe work site and the amnesty needed for it to operate.  Contact all identified stakeholders/potential supporters and arrange a time for presentation of strategic plan.
 Engage community in public forums and present the strategic plan.
 Record all comments and concerns for consideration as these plans move forward.
 Prepare a report detailing all of the concerns, ideas, and support from sex industry stakeholders and the greater community.  Sex workers
 BCCEC members
 VPD? BIA?-for panel discussions during community engagements and for us to show the support we already enjoy from different areas of the community.
6. POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER

The BCCEC engaged experts in the effects of trauma and complex post traumatic stress disorder. Dr. Laurie Haskill outlined the physical and emotional symptoms of being a trauma survivor and ways that people could learn to cope with the aftermath.

All of the sex workers who took part felt that to one degree or another we were experiencing the symptoms of complex post traumatic stress disorder.

Very little work has been done to research the levels of PTSD experienced by sex industry workers in particular those who work in the dangerous street level environment. Some sex workers had been on the street for more than 30 years and had endured and witnessed unimaginable violence and hardship.

Sex workers expressed that this environment was akin to a war zone and that the levels of PTSD affecting us could be compared to those affecting soldiers who have served in a war zone, Vietnam war veteran’s or holocaust survivors.

The residential schools disaster has also had a great impact for first nation’s sex workers. The long term support necessary to see meaningful recovery for the first nation’s people is currently under resourced and awareness about PTSD is very limited.

The children of trauma or holocaust survivors show marked symptoms and trauma of these levels will affect generations of people for years to come.

The Ministry of Justice and Victims services have agreed to further explore barriers to sex workers finding the support they need and working on an awareness campaign around the symptoms of and treatments available for complex PTSD.

Phase One/ Planning Phase Two/Implementation Actors/Who will do the work?
 Formalize a cohort of sex workers to become the PTSD awareness campaign development team.
 Engage experts in PTSD and support for the victims of crime/trauma for the sharing of knowledge and sex worker community capacity development around these issues.
 Identify holes in current available treatments and barriers to accessing support for sex workers.
 Based on the BCCEC findings on the occurrence of PTSD amongst sex industry workers, design an awareness package for support agencies, police, justice system, nurses, ambulance drivers etc.
 Design a plan to address problems within the current support system and fill the gaps that prevent any meaningful recovery for sex workers who have been the victim’s of trauma.
 Develop a list of support services/agencies that should be targeted for the awareness campaign.  Implement the awareness campaign and present plans for filling the gaps in service.
 Promote the awareness package with all support providers in a broad one on one communication strategy as well as in a panel discussion format for larger groups.
 Implement the actions necessary to fill the gaps in service and remove the barriers that have prevented sex workers from accessing support in the past.  Sex workers
 Ministry of Justice
 Victim’s Services
 BCCEC members