Protest the Cut of the In Defense of Prostitute Women’s Safety Project

URGENT ACTION ALERT AND UPDATE

Your help is urgently needed to protest the cut of the In Defense of Prostitute Women’s Safety Project by Department on the Status of Women

BREAKING NEWS: Thanks to an outpouring of support from the community*, we won an agreement that the Commission on the Status of Women would hold a meeting to examine the cutting of our grant!! Thanks to all of you who came out and supported the Project at the April 28th Commission Meeting! We want that meeting to take action and not just be a token effort. The Commission needs to hear from you!

Your support is needed now more than ever to demonstrate the value of this project to the community and the city and ensure that our grant is reinstated!! Please add your name to the growing list of supporters by typing it onto the list at the end of this email and returning it to us at sf [at] crossroadswomen.net . As soon as the date and time of the upcoming meeting is pinned down we will let you know. Please attend and/or send one or more representatives; also let others know about it and encourage them to come.

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We the undersigned Protest the cut of the In Defense of Prostitute Women’s Safety Project by Department on the Status of Women

Don’t let this lifesaving service for vulnerable women be cut!

No woman is safe when prostitute women aren’t safe!

We are urgently requesting that the Commission on the Status of Women (COSW) overturn the decision by the Department of the Status of Women (DOSW) to cut the In Defense of Prostitute Women’s Safety Project (IDPWS). For six years, IDPWS has been funded at $10,000 per year to provide advocacy for sex workers who face violence. This Project has provided service to hundreds of women, impacted policy that affects thousands, and has met every DOSW requirement within the deadline. Even though as a result of grassroots efforts the City has prioritized protection over violence, nevertheless, the only organization that provides services to sex workers is being cut.

In this past grant application period, DOSW made a series of errors that resulted in information crucial to the grant process not being given to IDPWS which then resulted in DOSW not submitting IDPWS’s application for consideration.

At the April 28 meeting of the Commission of the Status of Women at City Hall, community supporters and Project workers made a well-documented and impassioned case for reinstatement of the grant application in the approval process. As a result, the Commission proposed to set up a meeting that would include Commissioners, IDPWS, staff of DOSW and the City Attorney’s office to investigate what appears to be an unfair and faulty process. Although it was agreed that the meeting would happen within a week of the April 28th meeting, that is not now the case. We are still awaiting news as to when the agreed to meeting will take place.

IDPWS is a unique grassroots multi-racial women’s project, independent of the police and run by women volunteers from similar backgrounds to those they serve that operates from San Francisco’s Mission District. It is the first of its kind. No local group provides what this grassroots community-based group provides: committed advocacy and a place where those who are most vulnerable feel they can go without judgment or fear: women who work the streets, women of color/immigrant women, women with disabilities, young women, lesbian women, homeless women, welfare mothers and others. IDPWS achieves a lot with relatively little money ($10, 000 per year, is a low grant compared to the budgets of many other community organizations). Like mothers who stretch meager incomes to ensure that their kids are fed, IDPWS puts its money to good use.

Welfare reform, the present economic crisis and cuts in social services and other programs have increased the numbers of single mothers and other women who end up on the street. Women of color and immigrant women have been the hardest hit. Without the sustained support the Project provides for prostitute women and other sex workers facing violence and sexual assault, women will undoubtedly be more vulnerable to more violence and tragic situations. The Project has worked hard to ensure that the City prioritizes prevention of violence over prosecution of sex workers, and also worked with others to put serial rapists like Jack Bokin behind bars. Bokin, who was also charged with attempted murder, viciously attacked and raped four women, three of whom were sex workers.

Supporters of the Project are asking for your support. Please:

· Sign/endorse this action alert from your organization or as an individual at the bottom of this Alert and return this Action Alert to sf [at] crossroadswomen.net. Also please send on this Action Alert to your email lists and ask recipients to send it on to their lists etc.

· Please email or send a letter to the Commissioners directly at cosw [at] sfgov.org letting them know you support the reinstatement of funding for the IDPWS Project; cc your email to us or mail us a copy of your letter to P.O. Box 14512, San Francisco, CA 94114

· You can call or write or the COSW at 415/252-2570; fax: 415/252-2575; 25 Van Ness Avenue, Room 130, SF, CA 94102.

· Post this action alert on your website.

· Come or send one or more representatives to the meeting with City officials . We will send on the date and time of the meeting once it is set.

· Invite a speaker from the Project to speak to your group, religious org, coalition etc.

· Publish an article in your newsletter or write a letter to the press including any community- based press protesting the cut in the Project.

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Please add my name to the list of those who say no to cutting this life saving Project! This essential and lifesaving service must not be cut! It is such a vital part of the community and cutting it’s funding will jeopardize women’s lives.

Name_____________Organization (if any) _____________Email____________


Mailing Address (optional):


Signers thus far:


Juliette Beck, Public Citizen

*Riva Enteen, member NLG

Sister Bernie Galvin

Mission Agenda, MAC.

*Diana Valentine, Coalition on Homelessness

Purple Berets

*Dr Jess Ghannam, president, SF
chapter, ADC

Clarissa Harwell

Christian Block

Sheila Tully

Caroline Dutton

Arlene Scully

Avaren Ipsen

Cynthia Chang

Jan Chastain

Dale Sorenson

Mihoko Kochi

Daniel Chimowitz

Elena Rodriguez

Jeanette Hassburg

Bill Carpenter

Carolyn Norr

Jan Chastain, Reno, NV

Chandra Redack

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

* For identification purposes only