RECRUITMENT TO BE PART OF A RESEARCH STUDY

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Posted on behalf of POST – Photographing Our Stories Together –

This project explores the life experiences of women who engage in sex work in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. We define “women who engage in sex work” as women or Trans* women who are working in the sex industry, who are 18 years or older, and receives money or goods for sexual services.

We are looking for women who have engaged in sex work for at least 6 months and:
– Live or work in or around St. John’s, NL
– Live or work in or around Stephenville, NL
– Live or work in or around Corner Brook, NL

If this is you, we would like to invite you to take part in this community-based study working with the St. John’s Women’s Centre, the Corner Brook Women’s Centre, and the Bay of St. George Women’s Centre. In this study, participants will be asked to take photographs that represent their experiences, and the different personal and social factors that impact their lives. Participants will discuss their images and create a photograph exhibit, which will be shared online. Participants will decide which photos to include in the exhibit, and the research team will also study the online reception of the exhibit.

For this study, participants are asked to take part in one individual interview and two group meetings. The individual interview will last 60-90 minutes and the group meetings will last 2.5-3 hours. Participants will receive a $50 gift card for the individual interview and $50 gift card for each group meeting as compensation for their time. All participants will also receive a digital camera.

Location
For participants who live or work in or around St. John’s: The St. John’s Women’s Centre
For participants who live or work in or around Stephenville and Corner Brook: The Corner Brook Women’s Centre or the Bay of St. George Women’s Centre (dependent on the location of participants)

Participation is completely voluntary. All interviews will take place over a 2-month period. Interviews will start depending on participant availability.

Precautions will be taken to ensure high levels of confidentiality are in place for all participants. The decision to participate, or not, will not affect any services women may be accessing at the Women’s Centres.

For more information about this study, please call 1-833-220-8700 (toll-free) or contact:
Kathleen Sitter, PhD
Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary
403-220-4573
Photostories18@gmail.com

The University of Calgary Conjoint Faculties Research Ethics Board has approved this research study

This project has received secondary review and approval by Memorial University’s Interdisciplinary Committee on Ethics in Human Research (ICEHR) and the Grenfell Campus Research Ethics Board (CG-REB)

Taking the DV @ WORK NL project on the road

FACE TO FACE MEETINGS
A key partnership with ‘Empowering Indigenous Women for Stronger Communities’ has informed and shaped so much of the qualitative work we have accomplished to date. Odelle Pike and an ever-growing list of feminist activists have shaped the way we are asking questions and building key concepts for the discussion groups. Beginning with two trips to Labrador (key meetings with the Mokami Status of Women Centre in Happy Valley-Goose Bay and a paper survey session in Rigolet), outreach to date has also included an early presentation to the Board of the NL Federation of Labour in Terra Nova and a timely, dense and powerful connect with all of the Executive Directors of the Status of Women from across the province in Grand Falls-Windsor at their AGM in September.

We were so excited to be asked to partner with ‘Empowering Indigenous Women for Stronger Communities.’

Your ‘tiny but mighty’ duo of policy analysts will be travelling as far as our limited travel budget allows! Qualitative data is being gathered steadily – initially thanks to a series of road trips. We couldn’t wait to communicate directly with frontline workers alongside women who were so eager to share their relevant lived ‘DV in the workplace’ experiences. Our two Roundtables in Stephenville and a bonus meeting in Corner Brook, along with a recent focus group at the Multicultural Women’s Organization here in St John’s have left us neck deep in notes and so anxious to talk to more groups and take…more notes! Special thanks to all the Status of Women Councils who continue to help us arrange meetings with key community front line service providers.

Fantastic meeting with women from the Bay St. George’s Women’s Council.
Powerful focus group with the Multicultural Women’s Organization of NL and a key follow up paper survey session hosted by Abir zin alabdin. We can’t thank the Board of MWONL enough!
Special thanks to Nourin (left), Rabia (right) and the amazing Abir (found in the other MWONL group photo) for their help translating back and forth from English to Arabic!

BEFORE THE END OF 2018
We are so thrilled to share that both Tina Pretty from UNIFOR/FFAW and the Allan Horwood from the Military Family Resource Centre in St. John’s leapt at the chance to share the survey with their networks – putting the survey link on their websites immediately. The FFAW went above and beyond – printing the survey link on 2000 business cards along with distributing the cards to women’s advocates and including the link and background flyer in their magazine – with a distribution reach of 10,000 workers. Included were the fish and processing and non-fish industrial units along with their members in brewery, hospitality and metal fabrication. We are so grateful for all the help we are getting from so many corners.

Finally, some of the most critical moments in the project, in addition to the Roundtables and survey sessions described, have been the one-in-one interviews with DV survivors and their co-workers. We are so grateful for those who have reached out by email – willing to share their lived experience and ideas for better resourced workplaces.

So grateful for this impromptu ‘crack-o-dawn’ meeting with the Corner Brook Status of Women Centre!
Focus Group in Stephenville – we can’t thank the Newfoundland Aboriginal Women’s Network (NAWN) enough for their leadership and inspiring outreach work. We took 17 pages of notes!
PANSOW AGM IN GRAND FALLS-WINDSOR – we were so thankful to be empowered to present the DV@ Work project to this powerful assembly of Executive Directors and key staff. It was such an honour to hear from feminist leaders from right across our province – and hear from them directly about key concerns and priorities.

Has your workplace been impacted by domestic violence – we want to interview you!

Please email jnolan@sjwomenscentre.ca or brenda@sjwomenscentre.ca or call (709) 753-0220.

SJSWC/WC Annual General Meeting

The St. John’s Status of Women Council/Women’s Centre’s Annual General Meeting will be held at the St. John’s Community Market (245 Freshwater Road). Join us in their Community Room from 2-4 p.m. Refreshments will be served. The building is fully wheelchair accessible. Parking is limited. The meeting is open to all; full SJSWC members have voting rights and new members are welcome. Learn more about our Mission, Vision, and Board of Directors here.

For Immediate Release: March On St. John’s announces Solidarity Rally

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Rally to End Family Separation
June 30, 2018 – 1 p.m.

In the spirit of equality, diversity, and inclusivity, Canadians across the country will rally in protest of the Trump Administration’s Zero Tolerance and Family Separation policy in the United States – and to demand a strong response from our government here in Canada.

Despite the Executive Order signed by Mr. Trump last week, there is no plan to reunite the 2300 children who have been separated from their families since early April. The administration’s “Zero Tolerance” policy is still in effect, meaning that all undocumented asylum seekers continue to be detained. Adherence to this policy means that the threat of continued family separation is very real.

The Rally in St. John’s will be held at 1 PM on JUNE 30th, 2018, at the COLONIAL BUILDING.

The Rally will target Canada’s response on three fronts:

1. A demand for a strong official statement from Canada on the human rights violations going on the U.S.

2. A demand for Canada’s withdrawal from, or the elimination of, our Third Safe Country Agreement with the U.S.

3. A demand that Canada examine and fix our own family separation policies, which affect both migrants and Indigenous families.

Speakers in St. John’s will include:

Details are still coming together – expect three speakers, and a musical guest TBA. Confirmed speakers:

Barbara Barker is a member of the Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nation. She has worked across the country, including in Indigenous communities along BC’s Highway 16 or, more familiarly, the Highway of Tears and the Downtown East Side in Vancouver. As a staff lawyer with the NL Legal Aid Commission, Barbara has worked in the Provincial Director’s Office, taking files all over the Island and The Big Land, including Happy Valley-Goose Bay and Nain. She is a member of the Law Society of NL’s Indigenous Education & Action Committee, as well as its Education Committee, and serves on the Expert Advisory Panel for the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability. She was recently employed by Memorial University as the Aboriginal Cultural Education Coordinator in the Aboriginal Resource Office, and presently works as the Legal Services Solicitor for the NL Legal Aid Commission.

City Councillor Maggie Burton grew up in Brigus, Newfoundland and Labrador. She moved to St. John’s in 2009 to study music at Memorial University. She is a musician, violin teacher, poet, and leadership coach. She was elected to St. John’s City Council in 2017. Maggie is a mother of two young children, Jack and Ursula, who teach her so much every day.

– 30 –

For More Information:

March On Canada is a national, grassroots, activist network and evolved from the Women’s March movement of 2017.
Visit us at:
https://marchoncanada.ca
https://www.facebook.com/cdnmarchon/

March On St. John’s:
https://www.facebook.com/MarchOnSJ/

Media Contact, St. John’s:
Elisabeth de Mariaffi
(709) 749-2139
edemariaffi@gmail.com

This document and its contents are the property of March On St. John’s. Any unauthorized reproduction of this document, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

Safe Harbour Outreach Project: Women’s March 2018 Statement

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SHOP provided a statement to be read at the St. John’s Women’s March on Saturday, January 20, 2018:

Safe Harbour Outreach Project is a program of the St. John’s Status of Women Council, where our two-woman team supports and advocates for sex working women and their rights, in and around St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Our work is rooted in harm-reduction, human rights, social justice, and decriminalization.

We at SHOP are eager to participate in the St. John’s Women’s March 2018. The involvement of sex workers is incredibly meaningful; it was only last year that sex workers endured the erasure of their lives and rights at the Women’s March on Washington. We are proud that our city recognizes that sex workers belong here, because we know that sex workers have been historically left out of international women’s movements.

We know that sex workers are strong advocates, policy makers, and labour rights activists. Sex workers are mothers, environmentalists, entrepreneurs, and fierce business women. Sex workers have been pivotal in the work against human trafficking and sexual exploitation, and must be included in this work. Sex workers have been pioneers of women’s rights, civil rights, and LGBTQ2I rights.

Sex working women must be included in our feminisms. Incarcerated women, Indigenous women, women of colour, immigrant and refugee women. We must look for these voices in the Times Up movement, and in the Me Too movement – and if they aren’t included, we must ask why, and do better. In the name of sharing sex workers voices, and honouring the role sex workers play in the women’s movement, we champion their words:

Last month, trans sex worker Hailey Heartless in B.C. eloquently said, “when we speak about violence against sex workers, we need to tie it back to the core reasons why we’re at risk. Stigma, on top of slut shaming, and whorephobia, is piled on top of other oppressions we disproportionately face: sexism, transphobia, ableism, racism, colonialism and homophobia, to name a few… As an ally, it’s your responsibility to create spaces, not movements. Please speak with us, not for us. Stand beside us, not in front of us. Include us in your movements and let us tell you what we need. Nothing about us, without us.”

And a sex working woman in our city of St. John’s said, “We pay income taxes. We vote. We promote and project equality, empowerment, independence, and self-worth. Our work is consensual. Our work is real work.”

Sex workers have been part of the women’s movement throughout history, even when their work and presence hasn’t been recognized. But let it be known,

We hear you.
We see you.