SHARE program offers safe space for sex workers

People cooking in the kitchen, lounging or making art, doing laundry and gossiping about clients — that’s what nights used to be like at a Winnipeg drop-in.

The SHARE program is not like other resource centres in the city — it is exclusively for sex workers.

“It’s important to be surrounded by people that have shared experiences,” said Emma (not her real name), who frequents SHARE, which stands for Sex Workers Have Access to Resources Equitably. “It is and was a place to come as you are, and then people will just accept you.”

In addition to being a meeting place, SHARE provides sex workers with harm-reduction resources, safe sex kits and self-HIV tests. Makeup, dermablades and skin-care products are also available — “part of the job description,” the 34 year old said.

SHARE is open to everyone, but most of the people who visit are women and gender-diverse people.

Despite the benefits, the program has struggled to stay open. Launched by late advocate Laurel Cassels in 2022, the space at the West Central Women’s Resource Centre was open two nights a week, on and off, after sex workers asked for an inclusive spot where they could gather.

It was forced to close its doors at the end of 2024, with grants and donations — its lifeline — hard to come by.

While the program falls under some religious-based grants, it has been rejected by several charities because staff members don’t push sex workers to leave the business.

Although the program was closed for all of 2025, organizers hope to reopen in March at the same space, donated by the resource centre — if funding comes through.

“Everybody deserves to have a place they can feel safe to access supports and services, and we know there’s often stigma attached to sex work. And so, folks don’t want to access spaces with folks who aren’t involved in the same kind of community they are in,” said Lorie English, the West Central Women’s Resource Centre’s executive director.

“Any time services like these are lost, it has a detrimental impact on community.”

In 2023, 280 sex workers made 1,700 visits to the SHARE drop-in, the last year it was open full time. Emma said those stats don’t reflect the number of workers in Winnipeg’s sex trade because the job can take different forms, including online performers, phone sex operators and strippers.

“You don’t know who around you are sex workers. We are everywhere in the community. We’re your neighbours. We’re mothers, fathers. And it’s hard to put a number on it because it is so underground,” Emma said.

It’s difficult for her and colleagues to access supports, she said.

“It makes it really hard for sex workers to access health care because of the stigma. It makes it hard for sex workers to access banking accounts. It hurts us when we’re trying to go to the police about assault.”

It’s also isolating, Emma said, because it is difficult to talk about the work day with others.

“As a sex worker, if you have a bad day, you automatically are thought about as exploited. I can’t complain about my day because that’s awful. You get asked why you’re doing this job. But then, if I have a good day as a sex worker, I’m accused of glamourizing sex work.”

The Winnipeg Police Service works “regularly” with community outreach organizations and offers sex workers safe rides to shelters, a spokesperson wrote in an email.

In 2025, 104 charges were laid for obtaining sexual services, police said in the email. There were 118 in 2024 and 93 in 2023.

Jasmynn, a 30-year-old sex worker also involved in SHARE, said Winnipeg’s sex trade should be regulated in the interest of safety. She said because there is no legal place for sex workers to conduct business, they are forced to move where there are not a lot of eyes.

“Potentially, that’s where assault can happen — robbery, murder and trafficking,” said Jasmynn, (not her real name), who studied sex-work policy in urban spaces while in university.

“Sex work isn’t going anywhere. It’s always been around. It’s one of the oldest professions,” she said. “I’m not saying that you need to be out and proud about it, not everybody is, but it’s still a job that people do.”

A University of Manitoba professor agreed that regulation is better than prohibition.

“By driving things underground and preventing workers from taking very reasonable steps to try to protect themselves, we’re just making this an even more dangerous area of work than it already is,” said Brandon Trask, associate law professor at U of M.

He said decriminalizing sex work would discourage dangerous behaviour.

“We would do well to consider decriminalizing sex work, potentially decriminalizing other types of drugs as well, and regulating and replacing prohibition with regulation,” he said.

Emma wants to see the sex trade decriminalized but also wants more supports, such as affordable housing.

“If you want to help sex workers, you need to have programs led and run, and legislation led and run, by sex workers,” she said.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca