English 212

2002 Third Paper

On Serendip

The praxis site that I am working with is just beginning to form and take shape. This has enabled me, and everyone else involved, to have some say in the direction that the project takes. The organization's goals are to better the lives of sex workers by helping them meet basic needs, such as finding programs that offer food, shelter, clothing, education, or employment, as well as provide resources that will better the quality of their lives and improve their experiences within and beyond sex work. We want to find different services that would be willing to work with sex workers, and then compile information pamphlets about sex workers to give to these services so that they can understand the needs of their clients. We will then compile a list of these services and other resources and information to put into different pamphlets to offer to sex workers themselves. Some of these services and information will include free legal aide, medical assistance (including mental health), STI and pregnancy information, drug addiction treatment centers, daycare, education and job training, and safety on the job information.

We have also decided on a few initial limitations which the project will hopefully transcend at a later date. We will first concentrate our efforts on women, not men, children, or transgendered sex workers. We will focus on English speakers, and later translate the information packets that we put together into other languages for sex workers of different national origins living in Philadelphia. The focus will initially be on a few different sub-fields of sex work, such as stripping and street walking. Instead of pushing sex workers to find new forms of employment, the organization will remain non-judgmental and assist sex workers regardless of the course they want to take with their lives, although we will be able to direct them to services that will help them to leave the industry if they so choose.

Initial Bibliography for Sex Ed Curriculum:

Our Bodies, Ourselves for the New Century: A Book by and for Women, by Boston Women's Health Book Collective and Jane Pincus

Turning Pro, by Magdalene Meretrix

Making Sex Work Safe, by ?

How to Have Safer Sex, by ?

Safety at Work (magazine)

Consensual Sadomasochism, by William A. Henkin Ph.D., Sybil Holiday

Screw the Roses: Send me the Thorns, by Philip Miller

Global Sex Workers: Rights, Resistance, and Redefinition, by Kamala Kempadoo, Jo Doezema

Whores and Other Feminists, by Jill Nagle

Having a Healthy Pregnancy (Pre-natal care)
http://kidshealth.org/teen/sexual_health/

Guide to Safer Sex (comprehensive discussion of prevention and STIs)
http://www.sexuality.org/safesex.html#C3

Guide to Safer Sex (consice)
http://www.sexuality.org/concise.html

Perspectives in Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Condoms for Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (condoms: efficacy, proper use, etc.)
http://www.safersex.org/condoms/03.11.98.cgi

An Introduction to STDs
http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/stdinfo.htm

STDs (advanced info)
http://www.niaid.nih.gov/dmid/stds/

The ABC's of Hepatitis
http://www.walnet.org/csis/groups/swav/healthcards/abchep.html

Nonoxynol-9
http://www.walnet.org/csis/groups/swav/healthcards/nonox.html

Oil Eats Rubbers
http://www.walnet.org/csis/groups/swav/healthcards/oileats.html

Lesbian Safer Sex
http://www.safersex.org/women/lesbianss.html

Oral Sex (miscellaneous oral sex information)
http://www.mama-shop.com/oralsex/

The Role of Condoms in Preventing HIV Infection and Other STDs (condom efficacy)
http://www.safersex.org/condoms/ss3.2.html


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