Project Respect is an intersectional feminist, non-faith-based organisation. We are a specialised support and referral service and peer community for women and gender diverse people with experience in the sex industry, and for women and gender diverse people with experiences of human trafficking for sexual exploitation. 

What We Do

We provide one-on-one trauma informed, person centred strengths-based support to women and gender diverse people to access services; undertake outreach to licensed brothels; build connections within community; invest in research and evidence-based advocacy for women’s rights; and deliver evidence-based workforce development training to empower community service providers to better support women and gender diverse people in the sex industry, and women and gender diverse people who have experienced trafficking. 


Our Vision

Project Respect’s Vision is a world where women are free from trafficking, sexual exploitation, violence and harm.


Our Purpose

Project Respect’s purposes are to: 

  • Provide support to women and gender diverse people with experience in the sex industry to achieve self-directed goals, including equitable access to services; 
  • Provide support to women and gender diverse people who have experienced trafficking for sexual exploitation, whether current, historic, international or domestic; 
  • Advocate for structural change to end sexual exploitation. 

We provide a platform to elevate and amplify the voices of, while also being informed and guided by, those with past and present lived experience. 

 

Project Respect Values

We apply these values in the ‘way we work’ with service users, staff, volunteers, students, LEAG, Committee, collaborative partners, sector, and community.

 Service Users at the Heart 

Our service users are at the centre of everything we do. Our commitment is to voice, choice, empowerment, and collaboration.

 

  Support Safety 

Safety, access and inclusion are prioritised for all experiences of the sex industry or of exploitation, and in consideration of individual experiences of service users including those who identify as LGBTIQA+, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, diverse migrant cultures, and as living with disability.

 

 Welcome Diversity

Diversity is celebrated, with emphasis on authentically tailored person-centred service. Services are provided without bias or discrimination. Human rights are centred, with an understanding that best outcomes occur through the sharing of power, rather than the exerting of it. 

 

 Embrace Collaboration

   Collaboration is central to relationships with service users, organisational partners and the wider community. Relationships are transparent, genuine and respectfully honest.

 

  Be Adaptive – and Courageous 

A spirit of continuous improvement and learning through strong service user partnership is fostered. Advocacy is informed by service user and community experience, and research.

The value of being flexible and adaptive is understood, and includes the ability to reflect and adjust direction and priorities in light of environmental changes, evolving evidence, and a deepened understanding of impact. The need for both adaptation and courage are acknowledged and supported, in the context of amplifying the voices of the lived experience of our service users, to bring about positive and impactful change.


Our Philosophies

  • We are an intersectional feminist organisation, with all advocacy, support, and programs embodying a feminist philosophy
  • We position trafficking and sexual exploitation as a global, gendered, and structural issue
  • Our service provision is person-centred, collaborative, inclusive, and respectful of service users’ decisions
  • Our strong evidence-base supports proactive and courageous work to advance human rights for women and gender diverse people 

Project Respect is committed to a diverse workplace where people are free from discrimination and disadvantage and are afforded dignity and respect.    

Project Respect commits to LGBTQIA+ inclusion and supports anyone who self-identifies as a woman, all LGBTQIA+ women, and gender diverse and non-binary people. 

Project Respect acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land and pays respect to elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge that these lands have never been ceded.   

 

Project Respect Statement of Commitment to Child and Youth Safety

Project Respect a youth and child safe organisation. We are committed to the safety of all children and young people including the cultural safety of Aboriginal children and young people, culturally and/or linguistically diverse children and young people, children and young people with a disability, and gender diverse and non-binary children and young people. We do not tolerate neglect, mistreatment or abuse of any kind.

Our service users have a right to be supported and empowered as protective parents, and we aim to uphold this right. Children and young people have a right to be free from exploitation, violence and harm. We have legal and moral obligations to contact authorities when we are worried about a child’s safety. Safety concerns are treated very seriously. Where appropriate and safe to do so, concerns are discussed with parents or carers to empower planned and joint action.

If you believe a child is at immediate risk of harm, phone 000.


Strategic Plan

Performance & Impact Reports

Annual Reports


Awards

  • Highly commended in the 2020 Victorian Multicultural Awards for Excellence in the Community Innovation Category
  • Finalist 2015 Australian Human Rights Commission Tony Fitzgerald Memorial Community Award
  • Proud winner of the 2013 Hesta Community Services (Social Impact) Award
  • Highly commended in the 2012 Australian Government National Homelessness Services Achievement Awards (Excellence in Supporting Pathways to Employment or Education)
  • Proud winner of the 2011 Our Community Kookaburra Award (Community Group)
  • Recipient of Inaugural Anti-Slavery Australia Freedom Award 2011 (Organisation Contribution)