Living In Community – Understanding perspectives on the sex industry

UNDERSTANDING PERSPECTIVES on the sex industry

Living in Community (LIC) is a provincial non-profit organization, based in Vancouver, that is working to change the conversations we have about sex work.

LIC brings together diverse stakeholders to collaboratively improve the health and safety of sex workers and address community concerns as they arise.

We focus on getting at root causes of issues like stigma, poverty, and gender-based violence that create systemic vulnerability for sex workers, and we seek to build understanding and common ground with other community members.

ABOUT US

Our Story

Back in 2003, violence against sex workers in Vancouver was unacceptably high. Sixty-seven sex workers had gone missing and/or had been murdered in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Our Model

At the heart of the Living in Community model is the bringing together of different groups who are impacted by or have an impact on sex work...

Training and Education

Living in Community offers a variety of workshops to increase knowledge about sex work with a view to improving services and supports for sex workers...

Learn more about the BC Bad Date and Aggressor Reporting (BC BDAR) Project

Have questions about the BC BDAR Project? Learn more in our FAQ document, put together from the five Working Group organizations guiding this project: PACE Society, Peers Victoria, SWAN Vancouver, WISH Drop-In Centre Society, and Living in Community.

Read the FAQs here.

First of its kind provincial Bad Date Reporting system for sex workers to be created in B.C.

A provincial Bad Date Reporting system for sex workers in B.C. is now one step closer to becoming a reality.

A province-wide reporting system will help address a critical gap in gender-based violence prevention and response work. The project, which has for years been identified as a need, has only now become possible thanks to the financial support of the Law Foundation of British Columbia and an anonymous BC-based family foundation.

Read the full press release here.

Living in Community ends formal partnership with Vancouver Police Department

After sixteen years of attempts to build a positive working relationship with the Vancouver Police Department (VPD), Living in Community’s Steering Committee has decided to remove the VPD as a Steering Committee member.

Living in Community supports sex workers and sex work organizations engaging or disengaging with the VPD in the various ways they may choose to. LIC will continue to bring together diverse stakeholders to build relationships and address community concerns around safety and health, centering the needs and experiences of sex workers.

Read our full statement here.

Living in Community: Balancing Perspectives on Vancouver's Sex Industry, is a video that documents how LIC started. We began as a unique community development initiative that was started in 2004 by a group of community organizations, sex workers, police, government and business, to make communities healthier and safer in relation to the impacts of sex work and sexual exploitation. Looking back to how the project began, the video explores this innovative model and how it has made an impact on communities in Vancouver and beyond.

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