The “Works” program helped prostitutes to change occupations by creating a first positive balance. The corona-related shutdown of brothels has placed many people out of work.
The managers have drawn a first positive interim balance around a year after the launch of the statewide initiative “Works” for the professional reorientation of prostitutes. According to the ”Joint Welfare Association”, the offers have reached 163 people this far. According to the announcement, some of them have been placed in new positions, such as catering or cleaning.
Increased interest in changing careers
Even though prostitution is frequently meant to be a temporary option, people find it increasingly difficult to build new professional ideas and break away from the context over time. Prostitutes’ already precarious financial status has deteriorated since the pandemic, according to the report. As a result, there has been a noticeable growth in interest in changing careers. Obstacles must be cleared in order to clear the path and encourage the people. Individual guidance, application training, and professional growth are all available, for example, when looking for an apartment. The epidemic, on the other hand, has made working with prostitutes much more difficult.
In order to develop contact with sex workers, social workers would have, among other things, stood in front of brothels with tiny gift bags or accompanied prostitutes to the corona vaccine. The ice was broken at some time, according to Riccarda Freitag of the PROUT counseling center of the Tübingen-Reutlingen AIDS program. This had been discovered over the course of the project.
Fear of homelessness and unemployment
The risk of homelessness, a lack of childcare, and insufficient vocational training made a professional reorientation very consultative and time-consuming, according to Lydia Kissel, project manager at the “Workshop Parity,” a unit of the welfare group. “That is why we hope the offer is extended. Now it’s about making more time for our job,” Kissel explained.
The project is active in Stuttgart and Pforzheim, as well as Reutlingen, Tübingen, Ravensburg, the Enzkreis, and the Bodenseekreis. As a response to the corona epidemic, it is organized by the “Workshop Parity” and sponsored by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Social Affairs with EU money until the end of the year.