The Street Youth Rise up Campaign (SYRU) is a youth-led project that focuses on changing the ways in which Chicago institutions and service providers sees and treats its homeless, home-free and street-based youth who do what they have to do to survive. SYRU serves LGBTQAGNC and cisgender homeless, home-free, and street-based youth of color throughout the Chicagoland who are involved in the sex trade and street economy. Their project uses harm reduction, transformative justice, peer-to-peer outreach, and participatory action research approaches to hold institutions accountable to our constituency.
The Sex Worker Giving Circle (2018-2019 and 2020-2021) provided two-year grants to provide direct support, leadership development, and training to youth and organizations about institutional violence across the U.S. impacting street-based youth and young people working in the sex trade.
The Accountable Futures Fund (2020 and 2021) supported the leadership, safety, and autonomy of youth and young people through SYRU's skill sharing around de-escalation, crisis intervention, safety planning, mediation, and peer-led community accountability processes.
The Grow Power Fund (2021-2026) is providing a multi-year grant for general operating, capacity building, and organizational development support.
The Accountable Futures Fund (2022-2025) is providing a multi-year grant for general operating support.
The Sex Worker Giving Circle (2022-2023) is providing a two-year grant to support the coordination of peer-to-peer outreach, funding the Bad Encounter Line (BEL) research project, and providing training to agencies and social service providers that sex workers interface with about institutional violence and the Street Youth Bill of Rights, a tool used to educate and push for grassroots policy change.
