A note to researchers, students, reporters and artists who are not sex workers. We have mandatory questions that we require from you before answering requests to collaborate. 

If you are a sex worker interested in research, media, or the arts please contact us directly to discuss your project or interest in working with Maggie's!  
 

Thanks for your interest in sex worker justice.

We need people to educate themselves and each other about sex work through personal, professional, academic and artistic work. We also need to be sure that this is done without exploiting our communities in the process. 

We are very selective about the research and media requests we take on due to the nature of our work. Our priority is serving the immediate needs of sex workers in our community and ensuring that all coverage of our movement treats sex workers with the dignity and respect we deserve. 

We have drafted a few questions to help you determine whether your work is a good fit for Maggie's and our needs. We require these questions to be answered before discussing any research, media requests or artistic collaborations. 
 

Sex workers have been organizing in Toronto for the better part of 50 years, and our global movement for human rights, decriminalization and respect is well documented by sex workers and civilians alike. Frequently, simply reading the ample research and journalism sex workers have already offered to the world would answer some or most of the questions we get. 
 

Sometimes the project being proposed would be harmful and needs to be completely re-thought or shelved. Because we are committed to our communities, we work to ensure that any engagement with sex workers won't leave either individual workers or the community as a whole worse off.
 

When you contact us, please include the following:
 

1. What is your relationship to the sex industry?
    

2. How have sex workers been involved in the creation of, planning and execution of this project or story?
    

3. How do you believe that this project or story will directly benefit sex workers? For example, if this is a research project, how will you compensate the sex workers involved?
    

4. All work on sex workers involves some risk to the sex workers involved. How have you considered these risks and how will you prevent them?
    

Please keep in mind that our priority is to meet the immediate and long-term needs of sex workers in our efforts to live and work with safety and dignity. We are a vastly under-resourced organization with limited capacity to do this. 

If you are a sex worker, please contact us. We prioritize the research and collaboration requests local sex workers are looking to do over non-sex workers investigating our communities for the first time. 

If you are not a sex worker however, we need to know why we should take time and staff resources *away* from sex workers and put it towards you.

In addition, sometimes the work you are proposing could potentially exploit or harm sex workers while at the same time building your career, research funds, reputation, belief in your own authority and desire for adventure. Please consider this before contacting us and include answers to the questions above.

If, instead of or in addition to your project you would like to contribute to the movement for sex work justice, please make a donation. 

Thanks for supporting our work!