MASH Strategy 2023-2028

GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND

STANDING WITH WOMEN IN GREATER MANCHESTER

INTRODUCTION FROM SUE’S SPACE MASH’S SERVICE USER ADVISORY PANEL

The MASH Service User Advisory Panel- Sue’s Space, was formed over three years ago now, and it was no accident the group was formed when it was. It was important to the MASH board that women had an empowering space to share their insights and shape the service over the next five years (and beyond!).

From day one members have made the panel a roaring success, on so many levels! A shared passion for, what is to us, more than just a service. It’s a place we found acceptance, healing and the confidence to make the lives we want for ourselves.

That’s why Sue’s Space is excited to see more women across Greater Manchester getting the same life changing service and opportunities to move on from the crap hand they’ve been dealt this far!

The majority of women who used our services last year were between the ages of 25 and 55. However, we are seeing an increasing number of younger and older women accessing our services and expect these numbers to increase as the cost of living crisis and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic push more women into poverty. Over 80% of our service users identify as having some form of disability and improving case management, referral and service provision to this group is a prime focus for us.

We know that key to improving our services will be better understanding the population of women who use our services and one of our main priorities is more service user involvement in our activities at every level.

WHO

WE ARE:

OUR WORKFORCE PROFILE OUR CURRENT SERVICE USER PROFILE

At MASH more than 15% of our people have lived experience of sex work. This is vital for us to ensure that services are fit for purpose and that the voices of women are centred throughout. We offer a gender and trauma informed service and the vast majority of our staff identify as women.

At present, 20% of our workforce is from Black and minoritised groups and as an organisation we recognise that we are only at the beginning of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) journey. We are committed to creating an environment for our people that is inclusive and where historically marginalised voices are heard. We put resources and attention toward improving the engagement, retention and promotion of the incredible talent we have.

INTRODUCTION FROM THE CHAIR AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Annie Emery, Chief Executive Tabz O’Brien, Chair

Since 1991, MASH has been at the forefront of supporting women in and around Greater Manchester who are sex working and who are facing multiple disadvantage.

We were founded as a social justice organisation, starting out as a grassroots, community-led response to the HIV/AIDS crisis. We have continued to support women at the sharpest end of inequalities ever since.

Whilst the nature of sex work, the context in which we operate and the support we provide has changed dramatically over the last thirty years, one thing has remained constant:

Our work crosses multiple boundaries for instance in location or different types of sex work. Our work straddles many areas that are normally siloed, including;

• Homelessness

• Mental health

• Substance misuse

• Criminal justice

• Asylum and immigration

• Domestic and sexual violence and abuse

• Exploitation

• Trafficking and modern slavery

• Poverty

This ensures that women who access MASH’s diverse services receive holistic, joined-up support. This could be advice and medical support from our in-house nurse, use of our needle exchange or drop-in centre, peer support and/or access to our MASH van that provides on-street assistance directly where women are working.

Women who fall through the gaps, are underserved by mainstream services and face stigma, discrimination and multiple barriers to accessing the support they need.

At MASH, we meet women where they are at and stay with each individual for as long as it takes for them to get to where they want to be.

“MASH continues to be a haven for some of the most marginalised women in Greater Manchester.”

“Crucially, our support is responsive and gender and trauma informed. We bring decades of experience of appropriately supporting women in ways which work for them.”

We believe in choice and empowerment. We focus on the material impact and reality of women’s lives, and how we can work with women to create the change that works for them.

We are committed to becoming an actively anti-racist and trans*inclusive organisation. We are developing an intersectional approach in our support, advocacy and influencing, recognising the complex ways that oppression and disadvantage operate across the lives of sex workers in Greater Manchester and across the UK.

We work with women to tackle and address the root causes of the challenging issues they face, always striving to amplify their voices, experiences and ideas for change.

Over the past few years, we have

• Built even stronger foundations

• Developed new external partnerships

• Grown our team’s capabilities

• Transformed our governance structure

• Responded to the COVID-19 crisis - going beyond business as usual

Driven by the deepening inequalities in society and the poverty and deprivation that comes with them, we have reflected on how we contribute to systems that uphold these inequalities.

The next five years will be a pivotal and transformational time for MASH. We are preparing for an even greater and sustained increase in demand for our support. Not least due to the socio-economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the intensification of the cost-of-living crisis. This is compounded by displacement, inequality, deprivation and poverty arising out of global unrest and the climate emergency. We know that these will be most deeply felt by the women we exist to support, who will, more than ever, need non-judgmental, confidential, gender and trauma responsive care, providing safety from a system that is often stacked against them.

To make sure we are fit for the future, we have undertaken the most comprehensive consultation exercise ever at MASH with internal and external stakeholders. From this, we know that we need to strengthen the support we provide, increase our reach, amplify the voices of women we support, influence change and create a progressive and inclusive organisational culture. The stakes have never been higher.

So please join us by Going Above and Beyond for Women in Greater Manchester.

“We hold a strong belief in women’s assets, talents, skills and abilities, partnering with them as they access and navigate services to aid recovery and realise their goals.”

OUR VISION

A world where all women have choice, freedom and power OUR PURPOSE

MASH exists to provide gender and trauma informed support to women in Greater Manchester who are, have been or may start sex working and who are experiencing multiple disadvantage.

We recognise the impact that multiple marginalised identities have on women and work to tackle the material barriers women face, challenge structural inequalities and stigma and influence change.

OUR VALUES

At MASH we are committed to being:

WOMEN CENTERED: we meet all women where they are in life. We focus on women’s expressed needs and lived experience and on providing services in a safe environment for women. We work with the most under-served women and seek to reach those most marginalised, such as Black, minoritised and migrant women to ensure that there is no conversation about the needs of women who sex work without the voices of all women who sex work.

RESPONSIVE: we adapt to the changing needs of women whilst always maintaining our core services and ensuring our offer is as accessible as possible.

FOCUSED ON CHOICE: we work to enhance the choices available for women to improve their health, wellbeing and safety and increase their opportunities to realise their goals.

INCLUSIVE, INTEGRATED AND HOLISTIC: we think the best services for women are those that connect the dots across

We do this by working alongside the women to promote their inclusion and access into existing services, advocating for improved services informed by their needs and supporting them to realise their goals.

We want to win the fight for all women’s rights, safety and wellbeing and are working towards being an actively trans*inclusive and anti-racist organisation.

their lives. We collaborate in networks to strengthen pathways for women to access services, better the quality of these services and improve women’s experience of them.

GOOD PARTNERS: we know that we are stronger and more effective when we work together to support women. We work in partnerships with women themselves, communities, frontline services, community organisations, local and central government, statutory services and funders. We actively seek to collaborate with those grassroots organisations working with the most under-served and marginalised women and those working actively to end other forms of oppression.

THE VOICE OF CHANGE: we are committed to a world where women facing multiple disadvantage who sex work, have sex worked or may sex work can access care and support and assert their rights without stigma and marginalisation. We will always advocate and work towards this.

CONTEXT

In England and Wales at present, it is legal to sell and buy sex. However, many of the activities that take place around the sale of sex are illegal, including soliciting on the street or working with one or more other people from a premises, such as a ‘brothel’. These laws are enforced inconsistently across the UK, more so following recent cuts to policing.

At MASH, we work in partnership with Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) to support an engagement not enforcement model in order to reduce harm and exploitation and increase safety for women who sex work.

OUR STRATEGIC AMBITIONS

We have four ambitions for 2023-2028: strengthening the support we provide to women, increasing our reach, amplifying women’s voices and influencing change and creating a progressive and inclusive organisational culture.

These ambitions are based on our commitment to the women we work with, evidence from women’s experiences and what we know works. Always with a focus on helping to bring about the societal changes that will enable us to fully deliver our vision. Underlying the ambitions throughout is our commitment to social justice and DEI. This means that we will actively work on, invest in and embed these commitments across everything we do.

STRENGTHENING OUR SUPPORT TO WOMEN AMBITION

Our objectives are to maintain the quality of the core services we offer and extend our current package to meet the needs of more women. We will ensure that everything we do remains flexible, adaptive and sustainable. Build on solid evidence underpinned by the lived experiences of women who are, have been, or may start sex working and are facing, or have faced, multiple disadvantage.

Key to this will be to embed a trauma and gender responsive, strength-based and woman-centred approach to support women to identify and achieve their own goals.

We will do this by:

Continuing to deliver our current core package of support and extending the package of services

we offer, through a process of co-design and codevelopment with women.

Strengthening our service partnerships and navigation role and developing new partnerships that are based on the needs of women.

Creating a new MASH Space – working alongside women to find a new MASH space which will be a hub for our services and a focus for our community.

Building on our independent research to better understand the gaps in service provision across Greater Manchester.

Strengthening our use of our existing data to better understand women’s needs and assure our effectiveness.

INCREASING OUR REACH AMBITION

Our objective is to increase our reach by meeting more women where they are at across Greater Manchester. Our focus will be on those women currently underserved by services and support because of stigma, intersectional barriers and location. We will further expand our geographical boundaries to all 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester.

We will also increase the population to which we offer services, to include those women with multiple disadvantage who are either currently sex working and/ or may enter or return to sex work.

We will do this by:

Mapping current service provision and establishing pilot projects delivered in partnership in priority

boroughs of Greater Manchester to enhance the local offer for women.

Actively developing partnerships and collaborations with grassroots specialist organisations that focus on supporting minoritised groups. This will include developing joint bids/funding streams and using MASH’s platform to share resource and power.

Developing new support pathways around homelessness and safe accommodation, mental health, education, training and employment opportunities, and peer support.

AMPLIFY WOMEN’S VOICES AND INFLUENCE CHANGE AMBITION

Our objectives are to centre women’s voices and experience across all aspects of our work and ensure that all services for women are co-designed with them. We recognise the need to increase our networks and influence in local, regional and national strategies and conversations in relation to sex work, women, multiple disadvantage, race, ethnicity, gender and the particular needs of the most under-served and marginalised women in order to influence change meaningfully.

We will do this by:

Supporting women to use their lived experience, insights and skills to influence change for women who are or have been sex working, or may start to sex work, at an individual, service and systems level.

Strengthening our strategic influencing across Greater Manchester including facilitating a GM-wide sex work strategy.

Building partnerships with grassroots groups advocating for sex workers’ rights, racial and social justice, LGBTQ and disability rights.

Strengthening alliances and partnerships with national campaigning and influencing organisations and sex worker organisations to support women-led change at a national level.

Co-designing a training offer to upskill other organisations to better meet the needs of women who are, have been or may start sex working and facing multiple disadvantage and increase understanding and expertise around gender and trauma responsive approaches for women.

CREATING A PROGRESSIVE & INCLUSIVE ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE AMBITION

Our objectives are to enhance the skills, wellbeing and personal development of our workforce and ensure that MASH is a kind, brave, well managed and sustainable organisation. We will build the structures, processes and capacity needed to enable MASH to continue to work flexibly and responsively to women’s needs.

We will do this by:

Investing in our People Strategy to support a working environment where everyone feels valued, respected and empowered. We will increase the representation of diverse groups in the workforce, focus on inclusive recruitment, on development and progression opportunities and on growing talent within our organisation. We will have a strong focus on good mental health and wellbeing for all of our people and support for our staff with disabilities.

Developing a Lived Experience Leaders pathway for our service users to develop their skills to become leaders in MASH and other organisations,

underpinned by our workforce wellbeing programme.

Implementing robust Fundraising and Communications strategies to effectively resource stability, sustainability and growth and to share women’s stories, reaching more stakeholders.

Focus on reducing our carbon footprint and developing our environmental policies.

Promoting a live learning culture within MASH to enable us to respond, reflect and proactively hone and adapt our ways of working and approaches. Share our learning with our partners to influence change.

Embedding DEI into every aspect of our organisation and developing action plans which create and sustain a truly inclusive culture at MASH. This will include the formation of a DEI task force of trustees, staff, volunteers and staff to hold us to account on our commitments.

MONITORING & MEASURING IMPACT

Progress against the strategic ambitions and action plan

Evidence of improvements to access and outcomes for women with a particular focus on those from the most under-served groups

Diverse representation of trustees, staff and volunteers in the organisation as well as at senior level

2023 AND BEYOND

At MASH, we know that the next five years will be some of the hardest in decades for women who are, have been or may become engaged in sex work in Greater Manchester. We know that services will need to be more flexible, responsive, sustainable, compassionate, tailored to women’s needs and connected across the complexity of their lives. Collectively, we need to create the right conditions for women to have choice, freedom and power and to achieve their goals.

At MASH we know we can only do this by Going Above and Beyond with women and for women. This is our commitment today and always.

THANK YOU

The development of this strategy would not have been possible without the input and support of MASH’s people. Team MASH: our service users, volunteers, staff and trustees who bring their time, commitment, energy, passion and drive to all aspects of our work, and have been fundamental in co-creating this strategy and our forward direction for the next five years. Our thanks to all our funders, commissioners, supporters, donors and partners who recognise and value our expertise, champion our work and understand how our services enhance and support the difference they are wanting to make in the world.