Programme to Tackle Prostitution
Comprehensive assistance
The Socio-Educational Assistance Service (SAS) of the Agency for a Comprehensive Approach to prostitution is a municipal public service providing support to sex workers in the city of Barcelona, without discrimination based on age, sex, gender, physical and mental health status, functional diversity, sexual orientation, origin or administrative status.
This is an interdisciplinary service that offers social, legal and psychological care in the field and at the office.
Objectives
Promoting, enhancing and consolidating the development of comprehensive care and mediation actions towards prostitution, mainly women, in general and specifically those who work in public spaces. Providing support to those who perform these activities in the fields of social assistance, prevention, detection and care for violence and guarantee access to rights as a gateway to the entire network of public services available and, in particular, services to individuals: social, educational and health services.
The team guarantees, from the perspective of comprehensive care, the following services:
- Comprehensive assistance for sex workers in Barcelona.
- Prevention, detection and response to violence.
- Identification and support for victims of human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and subsequent referral to the Human Trafficking Unit.
- Information on specific resources and services in the city that can respond to their particular demands and needs.
- Guarantee of access to rights and access to the rest of the specific municipal resources required depending on the needs and the evolution of each situation.
- Applied research to identify priorities, more efficient intervention methodologies and effectiveness of the service in positive changes obtained and their sustainability.
- Physical accompaniment for the user, if needed.
- Promotion or collaboration in the development of preventive and awareness-raising strategies and programmes aimed at improving the conditions of sex workers in the city and their families.
Target groups
The service can be accessed by sex workers who engage in activities in Barcelona or who are linked to this city, without discrimination based on age, sex, gender, physical and mental health status, functional diversity, sexual orientation, origin or administrative status. As regards victims of sexual exploitation, they do not need to have filed a complaint to receive assistance.
Location and Hours
The office is open from 9 am to 7 pm, Monday to Friday, at the offices of the Socio-Educational Assistance Service, located at Passeig de Sant Joan 75, Bajos, 08009 Barcelona. The service's contact telephone number is 93 256 44 56 / 608 84 86 24.
932 564 456
- To make inquiries and request a visit, you can call 932 564 456 from Monday to Thursday from 9:00 to 19:00 and Friday from 9:00 to 14:00. Free phone (for exclusive use of users) 900 722 200, from Monday to Thursday from 9:00 to 19:00 and Friday from 9:00 to 14:00.
- Outside SAS opening hours, you can go to the Barcelona Social Emergency and Emergency Centre (CUESB), Carrer de la Llacuna, 25. Or you can call the free phone 900 703 030.
More information
Support in enclosed spaces
The care for people who practice prostitution in closed spaces (venues, clubs and flats) is carried out by entities in various districts of Barcelona, with the support of the City Council.
Their aim is to provide comprehensive care to people in a situation of prostitution who practice in closed spaces (in terms of health, social, legal, psychological, etc.), promote their empowerment and contribute to the effective exercise of their rights so that they can advance in controlling their lives with autonomy through access to rights and the detection and prevention of possible violence they experience.
The entities offer:
- Local care in closed spaces.
- Comprehensive care in the office.
Improving employability
To promote access to training, economic and labor rights, Barcelona City Council supports various entities and comprehensive care programs to improve the training and employability of women who work or have worked in prostitution.
There are several programs and projects adapted to the demands and needs of each woman, including:
- Improvement of social and work skills that focus on learning basic skills.
- Improvement of technical skills.
- Support in job insertion in the formal market.
The methodology used includes workshops, groups and individualized tutoring in order to support the process of improving training and job placement according to the woman's decision.
Multi-year call for subsidies for different initaitivates aimed at improving access to the rights of sex workers in the city of barcelona
The objective of the subsidised projects must be the empowerment and improvement of access of sex workers to their social and human rights in the city of Barcelona. The projects are undertaken in the city of Barcelona and are intended exclusively for current or former sex workers.
The thematic areas eligible for subsidies are:
- Access to training and employment: Improving the employability of sex workers. This area aims to implement projects that improve the employability of current or former sex workers. The entities that apply to this thematic area will form part of the ABITS employment plan, which will be coordinated by the Directorate for Feminisms and LGBTI Services and by Barcelona Activa. Through the ABITS employment plan, the different funded projects will be coordinated to facilitate synergies and ensure coherence, as well as the existence of a pathway that provides sex workers with greater opportunities for skills development, training, and employability within their personal life plan.
- Access to information and social, employment, legal and healthcare assistance, and prevention, detection, care and recovery from violence experienced by sex workers working in closed spaces: Assistance and advice for sex workers in closed spaces. This area includes projects that provide face-to-face assistance to sex workers in the closed spaces where they work, notwithstanding the fact that individuals can also receive assistance at the office or through other channels.
- Access to basic social and economic rights, and prevention, detection, care and recovery from violence experienced by sex workers in cases of emergency and high vulnerability. This area includes projects that provide direct care to sex workers to promote access to rights and/or the prevention, detection, care and recovery from violence experienced.