Self-care and Strategies of Sex Workers Who Use Drugs
Metzineres has launched a project that centers the voices of sex workers who use drugs and survive multiple forms of violence and vulnerability. The project, titled “Survival and Harm Reduction Strategies in Sex Work”, has been a community-driven, collaborative process to co-create a guidance tool based on lived experience — developed both as a detailed report and as an accessible guide — with the support of researcher Livia Motterle.
It all began in July 2024, with preparatory training sessions, fieldwork, research, diagnostics, interviews, and neighborhood meetings. Gradually, informal conversations, weekly assemblies at the Metzineres space, and even a community paella became spaces of listening and trust. From this process, 20 in-depth interviews emerged.
The result was a 100+ page document of analysis, reflection, and survival and resistance strategies — far exceeding our expectations. It places the experience of sex workers themselves at the center of knowledge production (to be used in actions and/or public policies that, in turn, will help make their rights effective). The first presentation and feedback session for this process took place during this year’s Festes del Raval as a way to begin raising awareness, fostering dialogue, and encouraging advocacy.
Likewise, the draft of the final practical guide was presented at Arravalera — a community, cultural, anti-prohibitionist, and transfeminist space also promoted by Metzineres — which gathers real strategies of survival and harm reduction, defending the rights of sex workers. This is a material co-created with and for them, which continues to strengthen the network of mutual support and community resistance in the Raval.
With the support of the Barcelona City Council – Directorate of Feminisms and LGTBI of the Department of Culture, Education, Sports, and Life Cycles.
