Women who sell sex are a very hard to reach group for support services . The women are exploited by perpetrators due to their vulnerabilities , and on top of this they are discriminated against and judged by communities , professionals and even their peers . In Peterborough , we found that the women in our cohort weren ’ t engaging with any support services at all . They ’ ve been let down so many times , and as a result they don ’ t trust professionals . I wanted to do things differently , and with the support of local partners , our
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Empowering Women Everywhere ( EWE ) project has been bringing support directly to the women who need it most .
DIRECT SUPPORT In 2020 , EWE launched our outreach clinic Wildflowers to proactively bringing support directly to vulnerable women . The project began after I reached out to a local GP , Dr Ruth Beesley of Boroughbury Medical Centre , to discuss vulnerable women who were not engaging in primary care . As one of the women informed me at the time , addressing their health was not high on their list of priorities .
Every fortnight , I go out into the community to meet women where they ’ re at – and
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at whatever stage they ’ re at in their own journey . Wildflowers is a safe , non-judgmental space for the women to meet with the brilliant Dr Beesley and her team to access a range of services to support their sexual , physical and mental health .
It was important to build rapport to get the women on board and trust us . The things they experience on a regular basis are horrendous , and act as a significant barrier to engaging with support . They rarely report the crimes they regularly experience , for fear of not being believed or listened to , and many don ’ t trust police officers . With our support , things are starting to change , and we are now seeing more women reporting crimes
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as their trust continues to grow . Four years on , Wildflowers has gone from strength to strength .
GROWING TRUST Wildflowers has helped us to dramatically improve cervical screening rates among the women we support . Since we launched the clinic , our cervical screening rates have increased from 19 per cent to 93 per cent , and our aim is to reach 100 per cent this year . This will save lives , and it has all been thanks to the growing trust between us and the women – they know that we ’ re there to support them , in a way that works for them .
As our cervical screening rates improved , we soon realised the next challenge – ensuring that
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6 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • MAY 2024 |
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