Announcing our 2021 Sex Worker Giving Circle Grantees

The Sex Worker Giving Circle (SWGC) is excited to announce our 2021 grantees!

​We’ve made $550,000 in grants to 24 groups led by and for queer, trans, BIPOC, disabled, HIV+, working-class, and other sex workers, including seven organizations new to the SWGC. This means that since 2018, we’ve now moved $1,550,000 to 36 sex worker-led groups across the US!

In 2021, we hosted our first national and virtual Fellowship program, with twelve new Fellows from across the country coming on board to get oriented to the world of philanthropy, hone their leadership, make grant decisions, and fundraise for our work. To learn more about the Fellowship, read this blog post at Giving Compass from our friends at Philanthropy Together, featuring SWGC staff and 2021 Fellow Maxine Juno Sinclair!

Grants to the twelve groups selected by this year’s Fellows range from $15,000 to $25,000 per year for a period of two years. We’re also excited to announce that the twelve groups selected for funding by Fellows in 2020 will each receive a $5,000 increase to the second year of their grant. In addition to financial support, SWGC grantees will have access to Third Wave’s capacity building resources for resource development, communications, digital safety and security, and nonprofit management so that they can grow at their own pace and fully participate in movement building.
​
Many thanks to our Advisors, Fellows, staff, grantees, and supporters for help making it all happen - please join us in celebrating our new and returning grantees listed below!

You can also sign up for Third Wave’s mailing list or follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to stay in the loop about the SWGC and our work. And if you haven’t already, consider donating to the SWGC to help us meet our fundraising goals and resource sex worker-led liberation!

Please contact Christian Giraldo, SWGC Program Officer, at christian@thirdwavefund.org with any questions.

New SWGC Grantees in 2021:

BIPOC ADULT INDUSTRY COLLECTIVE
NATIONAL
Awarded $25,000/year for two years (2021-2022) to coordinate programs that provide financial assistance, peer-to-peer skillshare, and access to mental health and wellness resources to marginalized sex workers to prevent vulnerability to exploitation by individuals and corporate greed in the adult entertainment industry.

BLACK & PINK NATIONAL (SEX WORKER LIBERATION PROJECT)
NATIONAL
Awarded $25,000/year for two years (2021-2022) to coordinate programs that provide access to safety and control while engaging in sex work, bail support, and affirming health care.

HAWAII HEALTH & HARM REDUCTION CENTER (KUA’ANA PROJECT)
HONOLULU, HI
Awarded $25,000/year for two years (2021-2022) to support Native Hawaiian trans women in their ongoing journey to live a safe, healthy, and authentic life, through harm reduction services, name change application support, and access to needed medical care, social services, and housing support.

HOE IS (OUR) LIFE: SUPPORT & BEYOND SURVIVING
BEACON, NY
Awarded $25,000/year for two years (2021-2022) to provide direct support, mutual aid resources, emergency housing, self defense tools, and community-based healing to street-based sex workers.

LIPS TAMPA
APOPKA, FL
Awarded $25,000/year for two years (2021-2022) to assist LIPS Tampa in their work to meet the direct material and holistic needs of trans sex workers by providing safe sex supplies and affordable healthcare, harm reduction, education, and emergency housing options.

MO HO JUSTICE
ST. LOUIS, MO
Awarded $25,000/year for two years (2021-2022) to support the development of a community-lead sex worker healing circle/drop-in center in St. Louis from which the organization would coordinate their work.

TOGETHER IN SERVICE (AKA SWOP-LA)
LOS ANGELES, CA
Awarded $15,000/year for two years (2021-2022) to support their bi-weekly book club, a bi-weekly online sex worker-led peer support group, monthly outreach to provide supplies, cash-aid to street based workers in the LA area, community building events, and partnering with research and healthcare organizations to ensure that research is grounded in sex worker leadership and needs.
​

Returning SWGC Grantees (Year One):

BLACK SEX WORKER COLLECTIVE (BSWC)
BROOKLYN, NY & NATIONAL
Awarded $25,000/year for two years (2021-2022) to support them to use cultural work such as dance, performance, and the visual arts to raise awareness in the United States about sex worker organizing and challenge anti-sex worker stigma, support emerging sex worker leadership, and ensure that Black sex worker perspectives are foundational in this work.

COLECTIVO INTERCULTURAL TRANSGREDIENDO
QUEENS, NY
Awarded $25,000/year for two years (2021-2022) to strengthen support for the trans Latinx sex worker community in Queens through a long-term participatory leadership development program, with information, education and outreach activities aimed at preventing and intervene in violence against trans sex workers.

COMMUNITY ESTR(EL/LA)
ATLANTA, GA
Awarded $25,000/year for two years (2021-2022) to provide stipends and incentives for community members in and around Atlanta and nearby municipalities, as well as to support Li Ann, their Executive Director, to access capacity building and leadership development opportunities both remotely and in-person.

TRANS SISTAS OF COLOR PROJECT
DETROIT, MI
Awarded $25,000/year for two years (2021-2022) to support T-GRLS! (Trans Women Getting Real Legal Services), an annual program that will give trans women of color living in Detroit tangible education and skills to advocate for themselves or to help other trans women as they navigate legal systems.

URBAN SURVIVORS UNION (SEX WORKER ORGANIZING GROUP)
GREENSBORO, NC
Awarded $25,000/year for two years (2021-2022) to help the USU Sex Worker Organizing Group to further leadership development and to launch a federal administrative educational campaign on the needs of drug using sex workers and survivors.

Returning Grantees (Year Two):

COALITION FOR RIGHTS & SAFETY FOR PEOPLE IN THE SEX TRADE (CRS)
SEATTLE, WA
Awarded $25,000 for the second year of a two-year grant (2020-2021) to support research, community organizing, and support by and for people in the sex trade to address and intervene in the harmful impacts of the criminal legal system.

COLLECTIVE ACTION FOR SAFE SPACES (CASS)
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Awarded $25,000 for the second year of a two-year grant (2020-2021) to support community organizing around reducing the harms of sex work criminalization, creating safer communities, and a safe employment program for trans women of color, many of whom have sex work experience.

THE HEAUX HISTORY PROJECT
PHILADELPHIA, PA
Awarded $15,000 for the second year of a two-year grant (2020-2021) to strengthen the archiviving of sex worker stories by producing a documentary film and archival project about the history of sex work and forgotten sex worker elders in the United States.

LOVE ME UNLIMITED 4 LIFE
JACKSON, MS
Awarded $15,000 for the second year of a two-year grant (2020-2021) to coordinate temporary housing, food justice, and job preparedness programs to improve the economic outcomes of trans sex workers in 82 counties in Mississippi.

ORGANIZACIÓN LATINA DE TRANS EN TEXAS (OLTT)
DALLAS, TX & HOUSTON, TX
Awarded $15,000 for the second year of a two-year grant (2020-2021) to address the survival needs and strategies of Latinx trans people in the sex trades by providing medical, mental health, legal and housing resources as well as leadership building opportunities to members of the community.

THE OUTLAW PROJECT
PHOENIX, AZ
Awarded $25,000 for the second year of a two-year grant (2020-2021) to support their operations, including their goal to document the impact of the prison industrial complex on sex workers of color, from the perspective of trans sex workers of color as well as build the resilience and capacity of their organization so it can traverse the difficult years ahead.

SOLUTIONS NOT PUNISHMENT COLLABORATIVE (SNaP Co.)
ATLANTA, GA
Awarded $15,000 for the second year of a two-year grant (2020-2021) to support participatory action research and conduct a Sex Worker Needs Assessment to get a census of who is engaging in sex work in the state of Georgia, and who is impacted by violence in Atlanta.
​​
SUPPORT HO(S)E
CHICAGO, IL & NEW YORK, NY
Awarded $25,000 for the second year of a two-year grant (2020-2021) to deepen existing support to incarcerated collective member Alisha Walker, organize with the national coalition Survived & Punished in support survivors of violence who have been criminalized for self-defense, and advocate for COVID-19-related safety and public health measures for people in prison.

STREET YOUTH RISE UP (SYRU)
CHICAGO, IL
Awarded $25,000 for the second year of a two-year grant (2020-2021) to provide outreach, 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.

UTOPIA SEATTLE
SEATTLE, WA
Awarded $25,000 for the second year of a two-year grant (2020-2021) to support building collective power and leadership centering the healing of trans Pacific Islander sex worker communities, providing mutual aid to the community through COVID-19, and creating a policy agenda drawing from power stories.

WECARETN
MEMPHIS, TN
Awarded $25,000 for the second year of a two-year grant (2020-2021) to support their operations, including supporting of the TransPro project, which breaks down stigma and low self-esteem to empower trans women by supporting them to stabilize their job security, gain financial literacy skills, and help survivors heal from trauma.

WOMEN WITH A VISION
NEW ORLEANS, LA
Awarded $25,000 for the second year of a two-year grant (2020-2021) to support their day-to-day operations, including major areas of focus like sex work leadership development, self-defense and street medic trainings, and harm reduction programs.

​

Artwork in header image by artist Kae Gabrielle.
​
​Image Description: A rectangle-sized header image that reads "Supporting Sex Workers' Safety, Self-Determination, and Liberation  – Today and Always" on a light aqua colored background. To the right is an illustration of 5 people of color in a group facing the text; one holding a red umbrella, one with their fist up, one shouting with their hands at the sides of their mouth, and two others standing boldly.

‍