A recent report commissioned by the Scottish Government highlighted that women who sell or exchange sex sought support for an average of seven different needs, including mental health, housing and addictions. It has also identified key barriers to women’s engagement with services such as fear of judgement and stigma, as well as lack of understanding of issues accompanying involvement in the sex industry.

To support learning about commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) and the needs of women involved in selling or exchanging sex, CSE Aware is organising a free introductory online session for frontline workers and support organisations.

About CSE Aware

CSE Aware has been developed by the Women’s Support Project alongside other agencies and the Encompass Network to provide various opportunities for the workers to connect and improve their knowledge and practice around CSE.

What will this introductory session cover?

A variety of content, discussion and small group activities will be used to explore the following aspects:

• Understanding of CSE and its activities

• Push factors for CSE

• Signs of involvement in CSE

• Women’s needs and barriers when engaging with services

Who should attend?

The training session is open to frontline workers and support services. It may be of particular interest to those working in the sectors of violence against women and girls, mental health, sexual health and relationships, substance use and recovery services, community work, housing, criminal justice, public health, and social work.

Please note this free event is funded through Delivering Equally Safe and follows the Scottish Government’s approach to CSE as a form of gender-based violence. The event will address women’s experiences from this perspective.

Accessing the training session

The training session will take place on Microsoft Teams.

In order to create a participatory environment, we will be asking participants to keep their cameras on during the session.

Registration

We anticipate these sessions to be popular so we are limiting places to two workers per organisation to allow a wide range of sectors to attend.

If places are no longer available and you would like to be added to a waiting list for this or future sessions, please contact enquiries@womenssupportproject.org.uk.

Commercial Sexual Exploitation: an introductory session