Urban Justice Center - Sex Workers Project

Our mission is to advocate for sex workers, people profiled as sex workers, and victims of human trafficking, through harm reduction and human rights approaches.

Our clients include escorts, pornography performers, fetish workers, exotic dancers, street-based sex workers, and victims of human trafficking. Our clients are immigrants and citizens, minors and adults, male, female and transgender. Some do sex work by choice, some because of their circumstances, some because of coercion or force. We also serve individuals who were profiled as sex workers, although they never engaged in sex work.

We provide direct legal and social services to hundreds of individuals per year. SWP recognizes that high quality legal services are essential for ensuring the human rights of sex workers, people profiled as sex workers and trafficking survivors.

Their legal needs include remaining in stable housing, accessing safer working conditions and employment options, protecting their legal rights in family court, clearing their criminal records, securing legal immigration status, and fighting police misconduct and hate crimes.

We conduct legal education workshops for sex workers and provide trainings and outreach to service providers and community organizations.

We engage in human rights documentation to collect the experiences of sex workers and victims of trafficking.

Lastly, we address the overarching issues raised by our clients and constituents by supporting sex worker-led organizing and avidly pursuing better policy on sex work and trafficking at the local, state, federal and international level.

How to Get Help

Please call our warmline at (646) 602-5617 if you have legal questions about sex work; need free non-judgmental counseling; think you know a sex worker who is in trouble; or someone who has been trafficked; you would like to schedule a workshop for your community; would like to join our policy efforts. Leave a message, and let us know when it is safe to call you back.