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Speakers: Dr. Maggie
O'Neill and Rosie Campbell
Affiliations: Staffordshire
University and UK Network of Sex Work Projects
Presentation Title: Participatory
Action Research (PAR) With Sex Workers and Communities Affected by Street
Prostitution: Working Together to Create Change, One Step Forward, One
Step Back.
Abstract
A West Midlands Health Action Zone commissioned our
research having identified street prostitution as a significant issue
for residents in terms of well being and community safety. The challenge
to the research team was to consult with residents, sex workers and statutory
and voluntary agencies over a period of ten months to get as clear a picture
as possible of the major issues, concerns, experiences and ideas for change.
The research method we used was Participatory Action Research (PAR). Participatory
Action Research aims to involve communities themselves in the research
process and to produce research that can inform policy development in
order to improve the quality of life of communities.
Using PAR methodology the research developed a strategic action plan to look at ways of managing prostitution through consultation and collaboration with all those involved and affected by prostitution: residents; community groups; women and young people involved in prostitution; statutory and voluntary agencies.
The outcomes of the research are both narrative and visual. They were included in the full report for the funders. The visual outcomes were exhibited at the Walsall New Art Gallery 2001 and therefore accessible to a wide population. Other processes of dissemination such as this paper will hopefully be a further means of encouraging research that crosses genres and works with people's creativity and ideas and hopes for change.This paper will;
- Describe the research methods used
- illustrate some of the key isues identified by residents and sex worker
uisng some of the visual images they produced
Reflect on the extent to which key recommendations in the strategic action
plan e.g. further developing services for sex workers, establishing a
"managed area" and establishing an inclusive multi-agency prostitutuion
forum have been actioned. The paper will assess how principles of good
practice for multi agency working, outlined in the report, have informed
new approaches developed. The paper will argue that for policy and interventions
to be sustainable and effective it is vital that policy is based on research
that has consulted local communities and that has tried to assemble an
evidence base.
