Isabel Chen is a second year VFMP student who received quite a bit of media attention when she launched her project, the Keep Safe Initiative. Keep Safe’s goal is to arm Vancouver sex trade workers with panic devices, which would allow them to call for help in a time of danger. We asked Isabel to share more about her project with us here.
Keep Safe: arming sex workers with a call for help.
Isabel Chen, VFMP (2015)
Prostitution is the world’s most dangerous female profession, with a homicide rate of 204 per 100,000. Sex workers are over 50 times more likely to be murdered than women in any other profession1. In some brothels, panic buttons allow women to call for help in the event of violence, providing a measure of safety. A recent Vancouver study showed that brothel sex workers, equipped with such safety measures, are significantly safer than street sex workers.
The Keep Safe Initiative is working to create a mobile panic button system for street sex workers. Existing devices with embedded GPS and cellular technology will be provided to sex workers, allowing them to call for help at the push of a button. These devices generate a SOS text message , which would be delivered to a pre-specified number with GPS coordinate and a link to the woman’s position on Google maps. At this time, it is undecided who calls for help will go to; ideas range from friends or local sex worker advocacy organizations, to 911dispatch or possibly a combination of several parties with the functionality to choose between them.
Vancouver is an ideal city to pilot The Keep Safe Initiative as the safety of sex workers is high on the public’s agenda, particularly with the Missing Women’s Commission of Inquiry. Sex workers and sex worker advocates in Vancouver have also proposed the implementation of GPS-based safety devices. In a 2012 survey, published in the Downtown Eastside Consultation Report, sex workers said they believed GPS emergency devices would improve their safety.
The Keep Safe Initiative believes that any attempt to improve the safety of sex workers should be driven by sex workers themselves. It was not until we were approached by Vanessa Forro, a long time sex worker advocate, that things began to move forward with our project. Vanessa encouraged us to connect with the sex worker community We presented our idea to Vanessa’s colleagues for feedback.. After lots of consultation with sex worker advocates, The Keep Safe Initiative is now in a fundraising phase. Our next steps are to run focus groups with sex workers on the Downtown Eastside a pilot the concept with them. How The Keep Safe Initiative develops from there will really be determined by whether the participating street sex workers find that the devices truly do improve their safety.
(1) Potterat JJ, Brewer DD, Muth SQ, et al. (April 2004). “Mortality in a long-term open cohort of prostitute women”. Am. J. Epidemiol. 159 (8): 778–85. doi:10.1093/aje/kwh110.PMID 15051587.