This article is based on the findings of three community action research projects conducted by one of the authors (Rabinovitch) in collaboration with sex trade workers in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, from 1996 to 2001. As a result of these efforts, the Prostitutes’ Empowerment, Education and Resource Society (PEERS) developed as a successful programmatic and policy response to sex trade work. PEERS’s success stems in part from the degree to which sex trade workers are involved in the planning, development, and delivery of its programs and services and in part from sidestepping the controversies that destroyed many sex trade worker organizations.
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