The AESHA Project (MAKA Phase 2)
AESHA: An-Evaluation-of-Sex-Workers-Health-Access (Maka Phase II)
In the fall of 2004, BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BCCfE) partnered with WISH in a community-based research project (‘Maka Project’). The peer-reviewed findings (below) from Phase I have been presented at multiple community, policy and public forums by the researchers and sex workers, and submitted as evidence as an expert witness in the BC constitutional challenge case. The research demonstrates the social and structural barriers to accessing care and negotiating HIV prevention and safety from violence among women working in street-based sex work in Vancouver. As part of the knowledge translation from Phase I, WISH and BCCfE have also worked to develop a ‘bad date’ database to increase monitoring and response to violence against sex workers. Building on these community partnerships with WISH, Sex Workers’ United Against Violence (SWUAV), and other sex work organizations to date, we have now launched our second phase of the project: AESHA(An Evaluation of Sex workers' Health Access), an ongoing longitudinal evaluation of female sex workers’ (FSW) health and safety both on and off street. The AESHA Project continues to focus on women struggling with poverty and/or addictions – including solicitation on the street, bars, informal indoor spaces, and micro-brothels. This research project does not currently focus on male sex workers or those working in higher-end sex industry (e.g. escort agencies) or formal establishment-based venues, e.g. exotic dancers. Our objectives include: l Evaluating the impact of structural interventions (e.g. legal/policy approaches, urban renewal), physical and social environment (e.g. access to safer sex work spaces, supportive housing), and power(e.g. peer support, sex work collectives) on sex workers’ health outcomes, including sexual health, HIV/STIs, violencel Continuing to inform evidence-based policies and interventions that promote the health and safety of sex workers, their clients, and non-commercial partnersContact us:
Dr. Kate Shannon, Principal InvestigatorJill Chettiar, Project Coordinator
aesha@cfenet.ubc.ca
778-891-6252 Acknowledgements: We thank all the women who continue to be involved in this project, and share their expertise and time with us. AESHA is funded by a five-year operating grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Publications from the MAKA Project:
Social and Structural Violence
Mapping Violence and Policing
Structural and Environmental Barriers to Condom Use
Community-basedHIV prevention research among substance-using women in Survival Sex Work:The Maka Project Partnership
Prevalence and structural correlates of gender based violece among a prospecitve cohort of female sex workers
Drug sharing with clients as a risk marker for increased violence and sexual and drug-related harms among survival sex workers
