Violence Prevention

The Violence Prevention program at PACE combines on-the-spot emergency support for issues around violence and a broader, prevention-based initiative which involves group workshops around relevant, contextual safety issues in the lives of survival sex workers.

Relevant issues around violence for survival sex workers include, but are not limited to: bad dates, spousal abuse, violence experienced in the course of a work shift (e.g. Rocks being thrown from car windows), and police brutality.

The Violence Prevention Safety Groups:

• Teach confrontation management skills
• Teach self-defense for extreme situations
• Cover laws (e.g. the concept of reasonable force and the right to defend yourself)
• Re-frame societal stigma – work on avoiding the internalization of society stigma (e.g. “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

The program also offers one-on-one safety planning for people who are not comfortable in group settings.

“I know women who have used the skills they’ve learned and may have saved their own lives.” - Patti Bennett