Thursday Schedule
Thursday Institute

9am:
Welcome and Opening Conversation on Beyond Decriminalization
Facilitated By: Phoenix Calida & suprimbré
We plan to explore the rhetoric around decriminalization, how prosecutors execute it vs how sex workers and sex worker activists describe it, explain the need for “de-policing” and will examine political terminology, and what we need to do to avoid the failures that will come with idea that decriminalization itself is enough to keep sex workers safe

10:30am:
Federalism: Exploring Multi-Level Disruption
Facilitated By: Kate D’Adamo
If SESTA taught us anything, it’s that the landscape of laws and policies which impact the sex trade are a network of bullshit on the city, state and federal level. This workshop will go through some of the different areas of law and policy, highlighting the ways they intersect, and showing how each is a different lever for change.

Facilitation: How to Communicate Together Effectively
Facilitated By: Christa Daring
This workshop will explore the basics of meeting and event facilitation, and overview of decision making models, and how our interpersonal communication is integral to the success of our work. We will cover active listening, some tips and tricks to make meetings run smooth, and some basic de-escalation techniques.

Fundraising Basics for New Activists
Facilitated By: Beth Rayfield
You KNOW the work you do is important – how do you raise the money to make it happen? Building your fundraising skills is an important part of organizing for social justice. This training will teach you: some fundraising vocab, how to identify your donor base and make your case, fundraising ideas to work smarter not harder, and a quick and dirty intro to grants. Great organizers ARE great fundraisers – come to this workshop and sharpen your skills!

12pm:
Lunch

1pm:
How a Bill Becomes a Law
Facilitated By: Kate D’Adamo
There are a lot of ways to move towards our goal, and one important one is policy change. In 90 minutes we’ll do a down and dirty overview of how an idea turns into legislation using recent examples of condoms as evidence and .

Outward Facing Presence: Using Social Media & Media training
Facilitated By: Cris Bleux and Andrea Ferguson
Facilitated by SWOP USA Board Members, this training will explore the different forms of social media, how Sex Workers Outreach Project USA utilizes social media to engage with the public nationally as well as how to handle the press when talking about sex worker activism and empowerment.

2:30:
Lobbying like a Sex Worker
Facilitated By: Kate D’Adamo & Christa Daring
Selling your advocacy is a lot like selling your services. What are the tools that make us great sex workers that can also make us great advocates?

How to Build Coalitions
Facilitated By: Justice Rivera
Change work requires strategic coordinated collaboration, sometimes with unlikely allies and groups with different approaches than yours. This session provides a map for working with all types of people to manage collaborative processes on issues that impact people in the sex trade.

4pm:
Closing: Visioning for the Future as an Intersectional and Equitable Movement
Facilitated By: Christa Daring
This conversation will attempt to synthesize many of our conversations from the day, and use a participatory model to draw out our collective visions for the future. Expect to leave this Institute with more questions than answers, but this closing will help us to map our potential ways forward in coalition together.

5:30pm:
Dinner on your own

7pm:
Sex Worker Pool Party
Chill Space

Community Agreements
This is a living document that can be amended as needed. In the efforts to create a resilient community, we too, have to acknowledge that harm has been done, trauma lives in the spaces we hold, and our experiences can at times make it difficult to be on the same page. As we learn, grow, and expand our efforts to be better together we need to start from a place of understanding. The following are things that have been asked of community to create a more organic and supportive space.

Practice informed consent at all levels – physical, mental, and emotional

Practice intergenerational organizing – refrain from gatekeeping

Practice self-awareness – move up and move back in your listening and speaking

Ask questions, avoid assumptions, be curious

Acknowledge the spectrum of risk and exploitation inherent to surviving in this world

Center those most impacted by criminalization(s), recognize our relative privilege(s)

Language: We can all self-identify, respect how others identify themselves

Acknowledge the difference between intent and impact

Take care of yourself and each other