mental health support from a sex work specialist and ISVA with lived experience
We provide a confidential service which operates online, over the phone and in person. When you contact SFSSW you will be put through to our support lead, an experienced mental health professional and ISVA with years of lived experience in the sex work community and as a survivor.
We’ll work together to find the right tailored support to suit your individual needs.
Our organisation is 100% sex worker led and we would never make judgments about what it is you want, what you have experienced and what you decide you want to do. We are here to support you from a place of understanding.
Whether you are in a crisis and feel like you need urgent support or if you just want to chat over a coffee, we’re here for you.
we are unable to offer advice to people who are looking to get into the sex work industry. We are not here to encouage people to get into the industry, we are here to offer support for sex workers and people who have worked in the industry through a harm reduction framework. Please do not contact us to ask for advice on getting into the industry.
“At first I felt safe to trust my support worker because she’d been in the industry for years. Over the years, she’s been a big sister to me, helping me keep safe, guiding me and supporting me in my dark times and signposting me to other places I can get support. She’s never been judgmental when I haven’t taken her advice, she’s always encouraged me to make my own mind up.”
We provide a confidential service which operates online, over the phone and in person. When you contact SFSSW you will be put through to our support lead, an experienced mental health professional and ISVA with years of lived experience in the sex work community and as a survivor.
We’ll work together to find the right tailored support to suit your individual needs.
Our organisation is 100% sex worker led and we would never make judgments about what it is you want, what you have experienced and what you decide you want to do. We are here to support you from a place of understanding.
Whether you are in a crisis and feel like you need urgent support or if you just want to chat over a coffee, we’re here for you.
if you have an emergency or feel unsafe always call 999
our support service
I’m Jess and I’m support lead at SFSSW. I run our helpline and screen all support referrals.
After being discharged from a rape recovery service for disclosing my involvement in the sex work industry, I trained to be a mental health support worker and founded SFSSW in 2019 because there wasn’t anything like this for sex workers at the time.
Since then, I’ve been involved in numerous projects which have impacted our community’s access to support and brought togetherness within our community.
I am a qualified ISVA and specialise in sex work and working with survivors with PTSD. I have PTSD myself and am very good at talking to people about this experience.
My biggest passion is advocating for the people who are discharged from services for having complex needs. Nobody deserves to be excluded from accessing support and I’m here for the people who struggle to get support elsewhere.
jess
support lead and founder
we offer all sex workers:
- a safe and non-judgmental space to get confidential, peer led support from specialists with experience in the sex work industry
- mental health support sessions with a specialist with experience in the industry and continuous support should you need it
- advice, guidance and emotional and practical support whether you have left your job, want to leave your job or love your job and want to keep working at it
- an ISVA service and a helpline so you can get support through court and police processes, if you just want to know your options following a crime or if you need urgent support and want to talk
- coffee and cake meet ups with peer support workers for people who just want to chat to someone with experience in the industry
- support with CVs, benefits, and finding work should you ever decide you want to leave the industry and are struggling to find your bearings
we offer student sex workers:
- support with mitigating circumstances forms
- liaising with universities for your benefit and advocating for you if you need it
- support if you experience sexual violence on or off campus
- training sessions for staff to prepare them for handling sex work related disclosures and teach them about our experiences
- representation at any events or panels that discuss sex work
I just want to talk
Our organisation is structured to benefit sex workers and we feel the sex workers we support benefit from being able to access the service as often or as little as they need.
Sex workers are always welcome to get in touch if they just want to chat, even if it is a light hearted conversation they are looking for. We run a ‘coffee and cake’ meet up service for sex workers to meet with peer support workers with shared experiences and this available as a one off or as an avenue to receiving more long term support.
If you would benefit from this kind of support, you can contact us however you prefer. We are always happy to hear from you over text, whatsapp, email or by referral form.
I need urgent support
Our helpline is operated by someone who is experienced in talking to people who feel they are at crisis point. If you feel you are struggling to cope and need to speak to someone urgently about how you’re feeling or what you’re going through, we’re here for you. You will never be made to feel ashamed for any of your experiences – helping people get out of that mentality and into an understanding that everyone deserves support is something we’re passionate about.
You can be as open and honest as you want to be and are able to ask as many questions to our helpline advisor as you want. You will most often find you have a lot of shared experiences. Phone calls will be arranged for people in crisis when they text or whatsapp the helpline.
If you would benefit from this kind of support, we recommend texting or whatsapping our helpline so that someone can get back to you quickly and arrange a phone call for you to talk things through and see where to go from there.
I have experienced a crime
We are experienced in understanding and supporting survivors and run an ISVA service which ensures everyone who contacts our service for support gets the opportunity to speak to someone who is qualified to guide them through court and police processes alongside offering support and guidance if that’s not what the person disclosing wants.
If you have an emergency, always call 999. However, if you have experienced a crime that is not an emergency and need support approaching the police, advice on your options or if you just need to get your feelings out and talk, we are here.
If you would benefit from this kind of support and you feel like you are struggling to cope, we recommend texting or whatsapping the helpline. If you feel you are able to, we recommend filling out a referral form as this would need to be done at some point during the process of getting support from our ISVA service.
I need long term support
Whilst some people just come to show their face, many of the people we support have been in and out of touch with us for years.
Our approach to delivering support is not giving up on people in their dark times, as we know in this situation all you need is one person to not give up on you.
We offer support throughout the recovery experience and don’t like to lose touch with people we have supported for a long time.
If you would benefit from this kind of support, we recommend filling out a referral form but we are more than happy for you to introduce yourself over the helpline by text or email.
our helpline is available to text or whatsapp 7 days a week - you can talk to us whether you have something serious to say or if you just want to chat to someone with shared experiences
our helpline is operated by an Independent Sexual Violence Advisor (ISVA) and sex work specialist with lived experience as a sex workers and as a survivor
we advocate for all survivors to have access to an ISVA to advocate for them and support them following a crime
if you have an emergency or feel unsafe always call 999
What is an ISVA?
An Independent Sexual Violence Advisor’s (ISVA) role is providing practical and emotional support and impartial and confidential advice and guidance to survivors of rape, sexual violence and sexual abuse by informing them of their options, advocating for their right to support and justice and supporting them through the processes involved in reporting and recovering from their abuse. ISVAs work with survivors regardless of whether they go through police and court processes. ISVAs are able to request special measurements for survivors in courtrooms such as removal of wigs and gowns and submission of evidence via webcam. The purpose of an ISVA is to ensure people who face crimes of sexual violence have an advocate to support them along the processes that follow.
our 2024 support strategy
At SFSSW we are working towards the implementation phase of our four point 2024 support strategy:
- We have trained our first ISVA with The Survivors Trust in response to the current national shortage of ISVAs across the UK, during a time where we are experiencing a crisis in terms of survivors getting justice or having access to support following a crime of sexual violence.
We want to work towards ensuring all survivors are put in touch with an ISVA when they experience a crime against them. We are developing our ISVA service and have already begun campaigning at conferences and public events to educate people on ISVA services and increase access to ISVAs for survivors.
2. Building on from our work at HMP Low Newton with The North East Sex Work Forum, we are working towards implementing projects with the same structure at prisons across the UK to ensure all prison staff are trained on how to appropriately support sex workers through a harm reduction framework.
3. We want to reintegrate ourselves into university structures and develop our nationwide approach to representing, advocating for and supporting sex working students. We want to increase the amount of universities who have a sex work policy to ensure students are not discriminated against and we want sex working students to be heard and safe during their studies.
4. We want to encourage togetherness and collaboration within our community and showcase the talent of sex worker artists. We also want to expand on paid positions with our team and training for people who want work experience in other fields. We plan for a position on the team to be as beneficial to the community as our support service.
