NUM is excited to announce that we have received funding from Trust for London under their Decent Living Standards priority stream for our Changing the Game project.

This project will bring together a working group comprised of experts who will participate in the inventorying of available vocational services, identify gaps and needs, and participate in joint advocacy to decision-makers for policy changes and input into how resources are directed to facilitate the improvements to living standards that sex workers desire.

We will also map and engage London-based ‘exit’ and mainstream vocational support services, and sex worker-led groups, in developing a digital heat map and offline materials necessary to aid sex workers in contemplation and planning for life changes.

If you would like to hear more about the project, please get in touch with lynsey@nationaluglymugs.org.

Learning with Sex Workers: the ‘Leaving the Game’ Research

NUM’s approach to issue advocacy and service design is to first hear directly from sex workers to ensure that initiatives are based on their lived experiences and responsive to their needs and priorities. Sex workers may choose to leave sex industries for a variety of reasons and we believe that they must shape projects that are meant to serve them.

As such, this project will be informed by the Leaving the Game research project, currently underway, in which we will hear from sex workers about the obstacles and barriers they have been facing with respect to leaving sex work, or reducing their reliance upon it, by blending it with other sources of income.

This project is particularly timely in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic ‘recovery’, and the cost of living and fuel crises. it also combines our work with Catalyst in developing a Universal Credit tool to demystify applications for financial support.

We would like to thank the ECP for participating in the development of the proposal and for partnering on the research and other aspects of this project.

If you would like to support us to further develop these services, check out our Vocation, Vocation, Vocation campaign!