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About Us

So what is The Student Sex Work Project?

The Student Sex Work Project is a three year project funded by the Big Lottery.

The overall purpose of the Project is to  promote learning and understanding about student sex worker needs and associated issues, and to provide an innovative sexual health service to a marginalised population through an ethical, empowering research led framework.

The Project came about because of the following issues:

  • A lack of research in relation to student sex work in the UK.
  • The lack of policy acknowledgement in Wales that young people may be involved in sex work.
  • Student sex workers, as young people, should be entitled to receive sexual health advice within a safe and non-judgmental setting.
  • The need to provide an innovative service that reaches out to a specific population.
  • The need to begin to dialogue about student sex work in Wales. 

The Project is led by Swansea University in partnership with Terrence Higgins Trust, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board - Integrated Sexual Health Service, the National Union of Students Wales and Newport Film School. 

You can find more information about the Project's partners at:

Terrence Higgins Trust- http://www.tht.org.uk/

Cardiff and Vale UHB- http://www.cardiffandvaleuhb.wales.nhs.uk/integrated-sexual-health

The National Union of Students Wales - http://www.nus.org.uk/en/nus-wales/

Newport Film School - http://www.newport.ac.uk/news/newsstories/Pages/NewportFilmSchooloneofthebestintheworld.aspx

External Evaluation

The Student Sex Work Project is subject to an on-going external evaluation. We are very fortunate that the evaluators for the project are Dr Teela Sanders and Rosie Campbell. Both are specialists in sex work and sex worker project delivery. Find out more about Teela and Rosie.

Steering Committee

The Student Sex Work Project is very fortunate to have the support of a number of key individuals who are working with us to help us to achieve our aims. Two key individuals who sit on the external steering committee are Professor Maggie O’Neil from Durham University and Judy Jenkins from Swansea University. Find out more 

What we want to achieve

The Project has set specific objectives towards achieving our aims:

  1. An increase in community learning and understanding about student sex worker needs and associated issues.
  2. A new empirical understanding of the motivations of student sex workers and their physical and mental wellbeing needs.
  3. New solutions that reach out to an isolated community group and which improve student sex workers’ access to sexual health services, and advice/ information on physical and mental well being.
  4. Increased social inclusion for student sex workers within policy, practice and the student community, and improvements to wellbeing and sexual health.

We have developed a number of ways to achieve our outcomes. These include:

  • Questionnaire: An attitudinal questionnaire will be send to all students in Wales about sexual health, attitudes towards sex work and attitudes towards students who engage in sex work.
  • Peer Researchers: An inclusionary participatory action research approach will invite student sex workers to join the project team as ‘peer researchers’.
  • Website: An e-health website, will provide access to peer mentors; a ‘chat room’ facility; sign-posts to national / local service information and advice on keeping safe.
  • Film: A film on student sex work will be produced. The film will promote the project but also, importantly, will raise awareness about student sex work and reduce prejudice and stigma against student sex workers.
  • Guidance: We will develop and disseminate good practice guidance to deliver better health care and support for student sex workers and to facilitate the inclusion of sex worker students in policy and practice in Wales.

How to get involved

There are a number of ways you can get involved in this exciting and important Project:

If you are a student at a Higher Education Institution in Wales you can complete the online questionnaire about attitudes to sex work which is accessible via our home page.

This website contains information which might be useful to you about sexual health and services whether you are a student sex worker or not, so please have a look around it.

If you are a student in Wales who is working or has worked in adult entertainment we would love to hear from you and would like to know about your experiences. You can take part by completing the contact form and we will get back to you or you can email us at ccjc-sswp@swansea.ac.uk. There may be opportunities for you to come and work with us on this exciting, innovative research project.

Disclaimer:

The site is not run by Terrence Higgins Trust, and THT is not responsible for its content.