NUM receives funding from the National Lottery Community Fund to tackle the cost of living crisis
7 February 2024
We are delighted to share that NUM has been awarded funding from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, delivered by the National Lottery Community Fund to support charities and community organisations in England at the front lines of dealing with the increase in the cost of living.
This funding will enable NUM to enhance services until the end of March 2024, specifically to:
- Provide out-of-hours brief intervention support until 7pm Tuesdays-Fridays and 1-4pm on Saturdays
- Provide emergency vouchers for sex workers to purchase food and toiletries, in partnership with other sex worker-led and sex worker-serving organisations across the UK
- Provide fuel bank credit to sex workers in need of support with utilities costs
- Upskill our casework team, funding a racialised case worker to obtain an ISVA qualification and provide even more specialist support to diverse sex workers
The cost-of-living crisis has been devastating for sex workers, and comes alongside the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and fuel crisis. Sex workers report increased financial anxiety, reduced income, reduced choices in the clients they see and increased fears around violence.
NUM CEO, Dr. Raven Bowen, said:
“More people are turning to sex work for survival in the face of low and stagnant wages, job losses, insufficient benefits, and in response to rising costs of housing and basic needs, Populations most affected include low income single mothers; students from disadvantaged backgrounds; and (dis)abled, racialised and migrant populations. We are grateful for the investment by government to support us in getting resources to marginalised communities of sex workers during this difficult time.”
We will use this funding to mitigate some of the impacts of the cost of living crisis on sex workers, providing casework support to access the resources they need, and to prevent, as well as heal and recover from, violence.
