Prostitutes Outreach Workers

POW Nottingham is a model PEER led charity that promotes health and dignity in prostitution through empowerment, support and peer education.

Near to it's 20th Anniversary, POW continues to provide a diverse range of direct services via the drop-in and outreach provisions in a relaxed, safe and informal setting.

We at POW Nottingham base our project on:

• Confidentiality
• Trust
• Respect
• Empathy
• Integrity

POW was launched in 1990, when local women from the prostitute community volunteered to train as researchers to assess health and intervention needs of prostitute women in a disadvantaged area of the City of Nottingham. The World Health Organisation and ‘Nottingham Health Authority’ (NHS Nottingham City) funded this research.

Gaps in the provision of services were revealed and as a result, sources of advice and support for working prostitutes were created. The survey data they generated was used to design an outreach and referral service. This project reflects lay representation, mediates across organisations in the statutory and voluntary sectors and crosses professional and lay boundaries.

POW evolved into a robust independent Charity (no.10644273) shaping and changing the nature of health and welfare provisions for socially excluded people.

Based in Radford in Nottingham, POW provides an array of services and successfully engaging with a very chaotic, vulnerable and hard to reach client group, having over 1500 clients on the database system.

On February 8th 2010, POW became incorporated and is known as POW Nottingham, a private company limited by guarantee (company number 06675269 and charity number 1129979).

Our Aims

• Provide support and information to minimise the risk of sexually transmitted infections and HIV
• Provide a route out of prostitution for those who want to exit
• To provide a service that is sensitive to and responds to the needs of all service users
• One to one support to help individuals make positive lifestyle changes
• To identify an appropriate communication tool to assess the individual need of the client in order to promote health education and health promotion
• Provide individuals and agencies with a true picture of prostitution and its effects on individuals including the increased use of drugs
• To actively promote the opportunities of lifestyle changes for all POW clients
• To promote understanding and awareness in the wider community, amongst other voluntary agencies and statutory organisations on all matters regarding prostitution and drug use
• Educate where necessary young people the nature of the risks of becoming involved in prostitution.