An initial gap in service access, HIV prevention and harm reduction for survival sex workers was identified as a key issue through informal conversations between health providers, staff, and sex workers at an inner city drop-in centre. In operation since 1987, Women's Information Safe Haven (WISH) Drop-In Centre Society connects with an estimated 200 women engaged in survival sex work per night. While the mandate is not exclusive to Aboriginal women, over half of the women that come through its doors are of First Nations, Metis and Inuit ancestry. The project works closely with WISH's well-established Aboriginal Health and Safety Project for Women in the Sex Trade (AHIP), as well as other key Aboriginal and sex work collaborators.
In 2004, researchers were approached to collaborate on an initial needs assessment of women attending the drop-in. The results led to the conception and design of both a research and a service arm [29 (link)]. The service arm focuses on peer outreach, resource development, and ongoing wellness nights at the drop-in that help to support the knowledge translation activities of the research arm. The CBR project partnership, initiated in late 2005, was developed and continues to be supported through active consultation and exchange of information between researchers and community. The community co-investigators represent sex work, Aboriginal, and youth service organizations. The research is guided by a sex-for-work perspective and adheres to participatory-action research methodologies [32 (link),33 (link)]. In particular the project is guided by the OCAP principles of ownership, control, access and possession initially developed by the First Nations' Governance Committee and subsequently adopted by the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network (CAAN). Providence Health/UBC Ethics Review Board provided ethical approval for this study. In addition, PACE (Prostitution Alternatives, Counselling and Education (PACE) Society) Policy Group provided community ethics review from a sex work research and policy perspective and the project adheres to these best practices [34 ].
In 2004, researchers were approached to collaborate on an initial needs assessment of women attending the drop-in. The results led to the conception and design of both a research and a service arm [29 (link)]. The service arm focuses on peer outreach, resource development, and ongoing wellness nights at the drop-in that help to support the knowledge translation activities of the research arm. The CBR project partnership, initiated in late 2005, was developed and continues to be supported through active consultation and exchange of information between researchers and community. The community co-investigators represent sex work, Aboriginal, and youth service organizations. The research is guided by a sex-for-work perspective and adheres to participatory-action research methodologies [32 (link),33 (link)]. In particular the project is guided by the OCAP principles of ownership, control, access and possession initially developed by the First Nations' Governance Committee and subsequently adopted by the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network (CAAN). Providence Health/UBC Ethics Review Board provided ethical approval for this study. In addition, PACE (Prostitution Alternatives, Counselling and Education (PACE) Society) Policy Group provided community ethics review from a sex work research and policy perspective and the project adheres to these best practices [34 ].
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