New charity worker to help get prostitutes off the streets of Gloucester
PROSTITUTES in Gloucester are to be given help to curb addiction and get out of the trade by a dedicated worker.
Street sex workers in the Barton Street area, of which there are thought to be about 20, will be helped by a full-time employee who has just been appointed by the ISIS Women's Centre.
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ADDICTION: A prostitute talking to a driver.
Women's Services Manager Rose Mahon said the new employee has just taken on the role.
"We know through the centre there is a cohort of women who, through substance abuse, are sex working. Their lives can be very chaotic with many complex problems and issues such as safety, mental and physical health needs and accommodation.
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"So we wanted to have someone dedicated to working with them."
But she added that she didn't think Gloucester had a huge problem with sex workers on the streets.
Prostitution is not illegal but activities associated with it, such as soliciting on the street, are.
The centre, run by Nelson Trust, supports women with the aim of reducing offending. It has been given a grant of almost £100,000 from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation to fund the three-year project. Rose said the first year would mainly be spent engaging with the sex workers and developing the service.
The next two will then see ideas put into practice.
Rose said they also hope to develop the service so it can help to stop women entering prostitution in the first place.
The outreach worker will liaise with Gloucestershire Constabulary's vulnerable persons officer based at Barton Street police station, Homeless Healthcare Team, Probation Trust and the Gloucestershire Domestic Violence Support Advocacy Project.
Azam Hassanjee, owner of Continental Foods, in Barton Street, said more needs to be done in areas like prostitution to improve the area.
He said: "This area used to be really nice but over the years it has got worse and worse. It has really deteriorated for all sorts of reasons, including the prostitution. More definitely needs to be done."
4 Comments
by zalapompadoo
Monday, March 04 2013, 6:36PM
“the ladies who choose this profession have their reasons maybe it fits in with their lifestyle and it is at the end of the day their business im quite sure if they wanted to embark on anew career they would make their desc ion. im afraid i will say this somebody has to do it so leave these women alone and let them get on with their jobs.”
by eyeopener
Monday, March 04 2013, 3:41PM
“honslknjklyt need look no further than the Broad Green area of Swindon where the same approach working in partnership with the police has been a resounding success as it has in other areas nationally.
Can honslknjklyt name an area and provide evidence other than anecdotal, that this approach hasn't worked?”
by geraint2010
Monday, March 04 2013, 2:13PM
“Don't know about that honslknjklyt. I may not have your inside knowledge but I've read about street workers who, as the impressionable products of children's homes, were lured into drug addiction and consequent forced prostitution by evil exploitative men. Then there are similarly exploited women, trafficked illegally into the UK on the promise of a "respectable" job. So if some charity wants to help them and it doesn't entail your money or mine then what is your problem?
As for those women who freely choose prostitution as a profession and legally work from home using the web and local press to ply their trade - presumably they will neither seek nor be offered such help.”
by honslknjklyt
Monday, March 04 2013, 12:26PM
“I knew a prostitute a long time ago. No I did not go with her, she used to have sex without condoms if they paid £5 extra. This was in another area outside of Gloucester.
There were these "sex work helpers" or whatever name they gave it. They were there to do what this seems to be - give them support, attend court with them if they ever got arrested, which was rare and the police used to warn the prostitutes in advance that they were "doing a purge on Wednesday night" or whatever night it was. It was just to show that they were doing something. They would have a night off and go back out on the Thursday.
They used to take free sandwiches, free condoms in bulk, delivered condoms to the house in boxes of 100 - that would be 100 x 3 so 300 free condoms, including fruit flavour!! They were "understanding" of them and would basically be their friend.
Nothing but a peetake. All it did was give her a companion and a helper, to comfort her if someone refused to pay and she was upset, to chat to her in her language so that she didn't feel so bad. This gave her a sense of approval, that someone understood her and it was all ok.
Prostitution is not ok. From what I saw, the vast majority are NOT forced into it, it is an idea that people simply believe in this namby pamby world. The same as those druggies, no-one forced them to take it and then become dependent and make themselves homeless.
What encourages drugs and prostitution and such is approval, soft soap people picking up the pieces and supporting them. Stamp it out and the problem will go with it. People are a "victim" of their own choices and decisions but that is quite unpolitically correct to say that nowadays as no-one seems to like the word responsible for your own actions unless we are talking about obesity.
Prostitutes are a selfish blight on the area, with a care for no one, disregard for the children around and people who have to see it and live there. Decent tax paying people who should not have to see it and live with it.
Prostitutes spread diseases, yet the blame seems to be on homosexuals. Is that because people would sooner admit to being ****soexual than a kerb crawler?”