What is the National Sex Worker Leadership Training Institute?
The Institute will be held in Washington DC because of local organizers strong connections to diverse communities engaging in commercial sex, including LGBT folks, people of color, exotic dancers, street-based workers, and others. The Institute will be held in Washington DC because of local organizers strong connections to diverse communities engaging in commercial sex, including LGBT folks, people of color, exotic dancers, street-based workers, and others. The Institute will bring together up to 25 sex worker activists from the DC area and around the US. A subcommittee of organizers is currently creating the curriculum for the trainings, which will be replicable in different communities at later dates. These topics will range from organizing a rally, to facilitating a meeting, to managing a budget, and more. Participants will be both new activists and those with more established history of activism but who seek skills development in critical areas.
You can send your tax-deductible donation to:

Different Avenues
821 Upshur St NW Suite B
Washington DC 20011

Please only send checks made payable to Different Avenues. Please write "Leadership Training" in the check's memo line.

Contributors who give more than $50 will receive a thank you note and tax-deduction voucher directly from Different Avenues.
You can now donate online to Different Avenues!  Please note "Leadership Training" in the memo box.
Support The Institute!
Thank you for your generosity!
The Sex Worker Leadership Institute is a unique effort to build capacity of organizers within marginalized communities to fight for their rights and social justice. The organizing committee is composed of individuals and representatives from groups including Best Practices Policy Project, Desiree Alliance, Different Avenues, HIPS, and other local community groups. Support comes from the volunteer hours contributed, individual donations, the Resist Foundation, the Community Foundation’s Common Ground Fund, Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, and Third Wave Foundation.

For more information visit www.bestpracticespolicy.org, www.desireealliance.org, or call 202.829.2103
Sex worker activists have been planning this skills-building training since 2006, responding to needs identified in various communities for greater knowledge around organizing and advocacy.
Sex Worker Leadership Training Institute an Incredible Success
Sex worker activists from across the United States come together for three days of intensive training, skill-sharing, and community building.
After months of planning, we made history with the Institute finally happening October 25-27 in Washington DC. We were fortunate to bring together a really diverse and cohesive group of 22 activists from DC and other areas (including Los Angeles, New York, Tucson, San Francisco, Chicago, and more) to participate in the training. The days were long and often tiring, but everyone expressed how much they learned and appreciated the opportunity to share such an important space - by sex workers for sex workers, aiming for justice. Topics included burn-out and self care, anti-oppression issues, conflicts withing sex worker communities, power analysis, organizing and movement building, campaign development, base-building, outreach, legislative advocacy, grant writing, leadership development, media strategy, grassroots fundraising, and more! What's next? Analyzing our evaluations and modifying the curriculum to create a tool it so that others can do what we just did in their local communities and regions.