CORE Knowledge Hub Workshop: Gray Areas are Green: HIV Prevention, Support and Care Services for Sex Workers

About the session: This workshop elaborates on strategies for reducing inequalities in HIV-related community responses to sex workers’ needs, identifying obstacles to providing good treatment for this group and balancing the needs of collective and individual-based approaches. The session will focus on the context of Sweden and explore its similarities and differences compared to other EU countries and their community health workers’ approach to key populations in HIV prevention and care. The session also highlights the importance of ‘gray areas’ in working with key populations and offers recommendations for engaging with the sex workers’ community beyond the margins of legality, without infringing on government-enforced restrictions. This workshop aims to serve as a reminder that gray areas are green, or simply put, that they are lawful and legitimate. Within these gray areas, low-threshold and harm-reduction services are available to the community, and barriers to good care and support for sex workers can be overcome once these services are tailored based on community feedback and inclusion.

Speaker: Ines Anttila