On May 28-29, 2019, a diverse group of stakeholders including sex workers, sex worker organizations, and allies from across BC came together for Living in Community’s Safer Province for Everyone Conference to discuss best practices in responding to violence in the context of sex work.
During the conference recommendations and renewed commitments were made to develop a provincial bad date reporting mechanism including specific and customizable information relevant to sex workers.
Recommendations
- Development of the system should be made by consulting and collaborating with sex workers and organizations who support sex workers.
- Consultations must meet the diverse needs of sex workers.
- Comprehensive funding must be acquired to develop databases that are functional and protected.
- The project could become a way to collectively lobby for systemic change at policy and legislative levels.
As a result of these recommendations, in early 2020, a working group was developed made up of Living in Community BC, PACE Society, PEERS, SWAN Vancouver, and WISH Drop-In Centre Society. The Working Group successfully applied for funding to build a provincial bad date reporting system.