Mission:
The PROS Network works to improve the conditions of people engaging in the sex trade in NYC through strengthening connections between sex workers, their direct service providers, and advocates. We support people of all genders who, by choice, circumstance, or coercion, engage in sexual activities for money, food, shelter, clothing, drugs, or other survival needs. Grounded in principles of social justice and human rights, the PROS Network embraces a non-judgmental, harm reduction approach.
What we do:
We serve as a hub for sex-work related to:
- health and safety promotion, rooted in harm reduction principles
- legal support
- policy change
- research
- education & training
- service provider best practices and policies
- activism
Our Vision:
- PROS celebrates the diversity of sex worker communities and strives for a non-judgmental world in which dignity, respect, anti-racism, and anti-oppression are embraced as core values.
- PROS Network works to see a world in which sex workers are free from all forms of violence, stigma, and have access to wellness. In which there is a removal of stigma and judgment, and all people are welcome, accepted, and nurtured.
- PROS envisions a world In which criminal penalties are removed from all consensual sexual behavior, such as restrictions associated with public space, racial profiling, actual and percieved sexual orientation, gender identities, profiling of immigration status, socio-economic class status, and other marginalized identities.
- We strive to create communities in which all individuals have access to all necessary and supportive services, in order to foster positive personal and social well being.
- We work to create a world where people self actualize their inherent power to make choices that minimize their own risks based on personal needs.
Our Core Values:
- We privilege the experiences of those most pushed to the margins, and prioritize service provision to these individuals with critical input by affected communities. We ground our principles in anti-racism and anti-oppression.
- We recognize that the categories of race, sex, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, ability, and other axes of identity interact on simultaneous levels to contribute to systematic social inequality. We recognize that there are a broad range of identities and languages that people use to talk about themselves and their life experiences.
- We utilize both the harm reduction and human rights models to support self-determination of all persons engaged in the sex trade.
- We value providing an alternative voice to “normative” views on sex work, and opposing mainstream notions that all people engaged in sex work are inherently victims.
- We utilize a collaborative and inter-disciplinary model.
