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ABOUT THE WOMEN WE SERVE

 THE LABEL PLURALITY PROBLEM 

People like labels, especially when it comes to labeling other people.

Trafficking survivor.

Domestic violence victim.

Homeless.

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When we fill out official paperwork, we are often asked to give a "category" of women we serve, which, of course, is code for "label." But notice the word "category" is singular. Some people — and official forms — seemingly haven't considered that the women we serve fall into multiple categories. And that no one label can capture their situation or what they have experienced.

 

Even researchers who study the lives of women on the street often only consider one label. There is no one study about rates of violence against women who are trafficking survivors AND still sell sex AND were trafficked by their family AND suffer from significant mental health issues AND are homeless, although this is a common confluence of labels.

 

Because of this, if we to see the full data-driven picture of what life is like for women on the street, we must look at the research done on each label individually and then somehow merge that information together.

 

Which is why we provide links to individual pages for each label above and that give much more research and information.

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