A non-profit started by former sex workers that readies participants in the sex trade for other employment says it will shut down in April.
PEERS Vancouver can't survive and serve its clients with the provincial government's new model of funding and employment service delivery, says the society's executive director, Ty Mistry.
"It's fee per service. We can't even plan any kind of future on that," she said.
Beginning in April, 72 organizations will provide employment services throughout the province at 85 storefront locations, 114 satellite offices and mobile services and outreach for "specialized" groups including immigrants, youth, aboriginal people, people with disabilities and survivors of violence. The change comes after the provincial government reviewed its employment programs after it inherited federal programs delivered by hundreds of contractors and subcontractors in 2009.
The Ministry of Social Development says it determined one-stop employment service centres would better serve clients.
Successful bidders, including the Open Door Group Social Services Society, which will be responsible for the Downtown Eastside, must ensure the specific needs of their clients are met.
Mistry says PEERS can't afford to operate as a satellite office because the operating funds are so paltry.
"For 10 years we've figured out what does work best. We do feel we are considered the experts in our field because we are the only people doing it," Mistry said, adding PEERS has hired former sex trade workers. "So when sex trade workers come here they can talk to somebody who's been through exactly what they've gone through and understand, so there's immediate trust there."
PEERS runs on $450,000 a year. The provincial government provides $300,000 for its life skills and job readiness program that serves 50 female, male and transgender sex workers a year. The program helps them explore why they entered the trade, deal with problems with finding work and provides daytime routine and opportunities to assimilate into mainstream culture. Mistry says PEERS clients generally aren't highly paid escorts or Downtown Eastside sex workers who are riddled with addiction problems, but hail from "the big area in between." PEERS also allocates $150,000 to outreach, public awareness and prevention, reaching more than 200 sex workers each year.
Mistry said PEERS worked with the province for two years before it decided it couldn't serve clients and survive under the new model. In addition to concerns about a lack of adequate operating funds for small organizations like PEERS, the agency worried that stigmatized clients would flee when they had to share required personal details for a new provincial client database.
"It's a real concern for some people_ to disclose a lot of that personal information that will be required from them," Mistry said.
PEERS Vancouver announced its closure Nov. 14 because Mistry hopes perhaps the Ministry of Health will provide the agency with money.
The non-profit isn't the only employment agency expecting not to survive. Pathways Information Centre, which provides employment services at Main and Hastings, may have to close in March.
PACE, or Providing Alternatives Counselling and Education Society, a sex worker-led organization that offers support for survival sex workers in Vancouver, is also facing imminent closure unless it receives an influx of money.
In the meantime, advocates appearing at part the Missing and Murdered Women Commission of Inquiry on behalf of sex workers are calling for affordable housing, detox centres and other services that help make the lives of those in the trade safer.
The Ministry of Social Development had not responded to questions by the Courier's posting time.
Twitter: @Cheryl_Rossi
