PEERS provides support, resources, and programs specifically for past and current sex workers—any gender—as well as help with housing, training and volunteering opportunities, advocacy and public education around sexual exploitation and the issues of adult sex work. PEERS UPDATE and more...

peers annual general meeting
june 19, 2013

You are invited to PEERS 2013 AGM on June 19th. The open house begins at 4:30 pm with a guest speaker at 5 pm. Our guest speaker is Chris Atchison who will talk on his national research concerning sex buyers, health and safety.

JULY 14-19, 2013

Desiree Alliance Conference,

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

Sex Workers! Don't miss the Desiree Alliance Conference. Held just once very few years. Las Vegas, July 14-19, 2013. Register at http://DesireeAlliance.org Coming or not, please help spread the word by reposting this info on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.

PEERS 2012 Agm Report

Click to download PDF of AGM Report

Victoria Foundation Vital Youth Grants

The students at Oak Bay High School were the only high school in the region to designate their entire grant of $2500 to one charity, and they choose PEERS as the recipient. SMUS also made a generous donation to PEERS with their Vital Youth Grant. We are honoured to be recognized by these youth at the Vital Youth Awards Evening on May 2, 2012 and we are deeply grateful for their support.

Here’s a link to the Victoria Foundation Vital Youth program for more info:
http://www.victoriafoundation.bc.ca/leadership-projects/vital-youth

"Voices from the Edge" poetry book

This book of raw poetry speaks directly to the heart with unflinching honesty. Facilitated by local writer, Dvora Levin, it was written by program participants at PEERS and Rock Bay Landing.

Victoria non-profit works to protect services
for sex workers

Staff, volunteers and clients at PEERS Victoria Resources Society are deeply saddened but not surprised by the recent announcements that the two key Vancouver organizations serving survival sex workers will be closing.

PEERS Vancouver announced in November that they are running out of funds to continue operating. PEERS Vancouver will close in the spring. When the Vancouver agency closes, PEERS Victoria will be one of only two remaining B.C. organizations run by and for sex workers.

“PEERS Victoria has a more diverse funding base than our counterparts in Vancouver, and we will survive,” says new executive director Marion Little, who has taken the helm at PEERS Victoria.
“But we, too, struggle to find funding for the work we do, and lost some very important daytime outreach services this past year. The same contract change that is affecting PEERS Vancouver will also be our problem to deal with next spring, and we are extremely concerned.”

As PEERS Vancouver executive director Ty Mistry noted in media coverage this week, there is bitter irony in the closure of sex-worker-serving agencies in the midst of the Missing and Murdered Women’s Inquiry and on the heels of the City of Vancouver report, "Preventing Sexual Exploitation and Protecting Vulnerable Adults and Neighbourhoods Affected by Sex Work.”
PEERS Vancouver grew out of PEERS Victoria, which was founded 16 years ago by former sex workers. Our agencies are based on peer mentorship offering experiential understanding and unconditional care to some of the most vulnerable and stigmatized members of our communities. This role-modeling approach uniquely empowers sex workers to expand their choices through trusting relationships, increased safety, and the fostering of existing resourcefulness.

peers annual general meeting june 19, 2013