Our series of vocational support WORKshops have been designed by sex workers, for sex workers, to provide space for anyone who does sex work to explore their career, financial and educational goals – and how to make these happen! Our collaborative sessions take place on Zoom, and run for approximately 2 hours with plenty of time for discussion and breaks.
Great service! I felt safe and understood
Very helpful support, we face a lot of stigma and it is great to get advice from other sex workers
Workspace is a place where you can connect with others, access mental health support, take part in skill share sessions, meet expert speakers in the field and get involved in activities that can boost your confidence and wellbeing throughout your career journey. Hangouts are held virtually and face to face. Check out the calendar above, on the right hand side of this page for upcoming dates.
Spaces for WORKshops and WORKspace hangouts are limited, so be sure to book your spot via the members’ area on the NUM website or via Eventbrite.
If you can’t make any of the available dates but are interested in taking part, let us know your email here and we’ll let you know when the next dates are available!
Once you’ve completed our vocational support workshops, you can access one-to-one support along your career journey with our casework team. The team will help you explore your options further, provide advice on how to meet your goals and signpost you to additional financial support you may be entitled to.
If you need any support after harm or violence, emergency financial support, access to resources or would like to make use of a NUM package of funded therapy, you are welcome to contact the casework team at any time in your vocational support journey. You can get in touch with them by:
Online resources that empower sex workers to independently explore their career options, manage their transitions, and plan for the future at their own pace. This series breaks down the full vocational support course into bite-sized videos that mirror our live and in-person workshops. Participants can access these videos in any order, focus on the topics most relevant to them, and revisit the content as often as needed. To further support your learning, downloadable workbooks are available to accompany each video. For those seeking connection and discussion, NUM’s online WORKspace hangouts provide a space to chat with others who have similar experiences.
An innovative digital tool that maps out local resources, including 'exit' programs, mainstream vocational support, and sex worker-led initiatives. This map is designed to help individuals explore their options in a clear and accessible way while providing the information necessary to aid sex workers in contemplation and planning for life changes.
Find out moreNUM was part of CAST/Catalyst Challenge 9, working alongside other charities and digital experts to develop an online tool to support remote applications to Universal Credit (UC) and demystify applications for financial support.
Find out moreOur free budget calculator will help you to know exactly where your money is being spent, and how much you’ve got coming in.
Millions of people are missing out on thousands of pounds. Check what you are entitled to now.
Find out moreIn February 2022 we launched Vocation, Vocation, Vocation, a project to co-develop tools with sex workers to help them seek justice, promote wellbeing and make informed decisions about their work, while providing pathways to new opportunities.
We believe that support for sex workers should never be contingent on them leaving the industry. However, we also recognise that some sex workers do choose to leave sex work, or reduce their financial reliance on it, and (re-)enter the mainstream work force. Our Vocation, Vocation, Vocation campaign is designed to provide sex workers choosing to leave sex work with the information, resources and support they need to make decisions about their work that are right for them, and remove some of the barriers placed upon them by stigma, discrimination and marginalisation.
Our mission is to provide essential support and resources to sex workers, regardless of their choices about staying in or leaving the industry.
Our vocational support services have been developed through two projects, Leaving The Game and Changing The Game.
Leaving The Game was a research project, funded by The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, designed to understand the experiences, goals, career aspirations and barriers to leaving sex work that sex workers face. It involved interviews, focus groups and surveys conducted with 112 sex workers alongside the English Collective of Prostitutes. You can read the full summary report HERE.
“I have certain skills that I learned from my sex work, I made my own bookings and I was my own secretary, I organised my photo shoots, I did my social media you know, there’s endless things you can say about it, but because you can’t…I had a massive gap on my CV“
This project was 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.
Changing The Game is a project funded from Trust for London under their Decent Living Standards priority stream that began in summer 2022. Designed to complement Leaving The Game to understand and map the support services which are currently available to sex workers in London who are looking to make changes in their careers. It also aims to bring together services and advocates to campaign for wide-scale policy changes to reduce the barriers sex workers may face moving into mainstream work or education.
If you work with sex workers who would like to leave sex work, we would love to hear from you about how we can provide support! Get in touch with Sally, our Vocational Support Services Coordinator, at vocationalsupport@nationaluglymugs.org. Please note that we do not support leaving sex work as a condition to providing support to sex workers.
We will be sharing the findings of Leaving The Game as an eLearning in the coming months. We invite you to take this and find out more about sex workers’ career goals, motivations, the barriers they face in looking to leave sex work, and the systemic changes they would like to see to improve their lives and working conditions.
Whether you choose to join a WORKshop session or dive into the self-directed learning videos, NUM’s vocational support services are here to help you explore your career, financial, and educational goals—on your own terms. We look forward to supporting you on your journey!
For more information about NUM’s vocational support services, please get in touch with us at vocationalsupport@
Our vocational support work is made possible by the sex work community. We would like to acknowledge the support of the English Collective of Prostitutes with our research and service development, as well as the range of funders who have supported our work, including Trust for London, and support for our Vocation, Vocation, Vocation campaign.
