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Extra money will be used to support vulnerable women working in the sex industry in Nottingham. POW Nottingham, a Radford-based charity, offers a range of help and advice to those working in the sex industry, supporting online and off-street workers, students, under-25s and LGBTQ+ workers.

Safer Streets is supporting POWs by funding the outreach work of two staff members to prevent them from harm. POW works with hard-to-reach people who are vulnerable to issues including drug dependency, coercion, and exploitation.

Outreach sessions are held three times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights in a van specially equipped to interact with street workers. They provide food, harm minimization supplies such as clean needles and blades, incident reporting support, as well as general advice and signage to relevant services.

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They also distribute other basic necessities such as warm clothing, umbrellas, gloves and hot drinks. Prisoners of war can also perform some sexual health screenings in their van for those who have difficulty accessing sexual health services.

In addition to providing safety resources for users of the service, it also gives POWs the opportunity to get the latest information on dangerous and harmful drugs or people so they can further protect the community from potential harm. Rose Curl, Police Liaison Officer at POW, said: “Outreach is one of the best ways to get first contact with customers.

“We are in their environment and we maintain and create great connections. We can find out if there has been violence, get a lot of information about questionable drugs that we can then feed back and we can see what the crises are.” so that we can support and refer to other services.

“It’s a really great approach to debunking the myths and creating an understanding about people who are multiple handicapped. Reach is essential because we reach a lot of people who would otherwise be unsafe and there would be a lot more violence.

“I don’t think we can thank people enough for the funding because we do essential work at night, supporting really vulnerable young women. On these really cold nights that we’ve had, they’ll come sit in the van. They’re exhausted, so just coming in, sitting down and chatting with 10 minutes of safety and rest is really essential.”

The Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office secured £3 million from the Home Office’s Safer Streets fund in the summer. This also includes working with partners across the county, including Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire Police, to implement a range of schemes to tackle neighborhood crime, anti-social behavior and violence against women and girls.

Jessica Brannan, Executive Director of POW, said: “Safer Streets funding has allowed organizations with different skill sets to come together and work in partnership to address a common problem and focus their efforts on specific areas of need. Being part of the bid has increased our networks and has enabled new initiatives and learning from other organizations.”

In addition to the Safer Streets funding, last year’s POW Protection Project received a Hidden Damage Themed Grant, which works in partnership with police, the Modern Slavery team and local services to increase safety and reduce damage. for vulnerable members of the community in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. Police and Crime Commissioner Caroline Henry said: “One of the main focuses of Safer Streets is supporting causes related to violence against women and girls. POW is a key example of an organization addressing these issues within a specific vulnerable community.

“The outreach work that Safer Streets is funding is vital and can save lives, and POW is doing an incredible job of giving these women the best possible support available.”

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