One of the projects will work to provide advice and support for student sex workers and another project aims to address racism and far-right extremism in young people.
NUS, Sexual health agencies and academics are concerned that increasing numbers of students are working in sex markets in Wales to pay for their education, and that these students may not be accessing appropriate sexual health services.
A grant of nearly half a million pounds (£489,143), under the first round, has been given to Swansea University, which will enable them to run the Wales-wide Interactive Health: Student Sex Workers project. The money will be used to establish a three year project to promote learning and understanding about student sex worker needs and associated issues and to provide them with an innovative sexual health service. The project will provide student sex workers, who live and work in Wales, with advice and support and will sign-post them to local services. The project will also provide sexual health information and best practice guidance for Welsh Universities and local services.
Stephanie Lloyd, NUS Wales Women's Officer said:
"We believe that this will be an innovative and exciting project. The research is vitally important to the section of our membership who for years have been let down by a lack of evidence, advice and support on the sex industry. By fully exploring the causes and effects on those involved, we will be able to identify and hopefully address the issues that encourage students into sex work.
Our partnership that includes THT, Swansea University and the NHS will work to make sure we deliver the best results possible for women students in Wales.
The lessons we learn will help change the lives of these students, who need this support now more than ever."
Highlighting the importance of the project, Dr Tracey Sagar, the Principal Investigator for the project and a Lecturer at Swansea University who specialises in the regulation of sex work, said: “At the moment we know we have a student sex worker community in Wales but we do not really understand their motivations and needs. This project will address this knowledge gap and develop services which are ‘fit for purpose’.”
“Beginning in June 2012 and working with our expert partners – Terrence Higgins Trust, Cardiff and Vale Integrated Sexual Health, The National Union of Students Wales and Newport Film School, we will embark on a multi-media awareness raising campaign and develop an innovative cross sector e-health service for the student sex worker population in Wales. In the current economic climate it really does take an objective funder whose overriding concern is ‘community’ and ‘need’ to fund an innovative project such as this. We are so very grateful to the Big Lottery Innovation Fund for making this award.”
The second project, designed to address the potential for racism and far-right extremism in young people in Swansea, will be co-ordinated by the Ethnic Youth Support Team who will use their award of £169,616 to run the Think Project, which will test and develop new ways of working with the most disengaged young white people in Wales. The project aims to respond to the challenges posed by the growing presence and legitimacy of the far-right in the UK and Europe, and the growing normalisation of racist rhetoric, attitudes and behaviour at the local and national level.
For further information about the BIG Innovation programme and how you can apply for funding, please visit www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/wales