Since its inception, Haymarket Pole Collective (HMPC) has held the needs and autonomy of sex workers of color at the forefront of our cause. We were founded by Black, brown, Indigenous, and LGBTQIA2S+ sex workers, and that is the community we continue to support in finance, justice movements, and love.

Sex workers of color face unique barriers to family planning and abortion care, as the overarching fight to be valued as simply human can feel like an insurmountable task in and of itself. Our current care network focuses on the wellness of sex workers of color. From our free therapy program “Healing Justice”, toy and diaper drives, STI and pregnancy testing, labor rights information sharing, to rent payment stipends, Haymarket Pole Collective believes that meeting the direct needs of our community members allows them to look beyond the day to day, and into the future. Receiving this grant would allow HMPC to further expand our compassionate care support network to include abortion support. By providing an “in community” option for abortion support with sex worker-centered care packages informed by our collective lived experience and investment in doula education specific to sex workers, we allow sex workers to move forward with more peace of mind, and support from a community that gets it. In line with our wider goal of harm reduction, we will share our knowledge gleaned from our project with local health centers and Family Planning community.