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Sex-worker advocacy group PEERS Victoria gets $100,000 lifeline

PEERS Victoria will receive a $100,000 grant to help fund its drop-in centre and outreach program for sex workers for the remainder of the year, the provincial government announced Thursday.
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PEERS Victoria executive director Marion Little: "This new funding is so exciting for us. We hope it’s the beginning of a longer partnership with the ministries."

PEERS Victoria will receive a $100,000 grant to help fund its drop-in centre and outreach program for sex workers for the remainder of the year, the provincial government announced Thursday.

The money is part of more than $5 million from the civil forfeiture office being used to meet recommendations from the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry report released in 2012 and to support crime-prevention programs that help at-risk women and children.

“We’re able to use this money to continue to make significant progress on our response to keeping vulnerable women safe,” said Justice Minister Suzanne Anton.

More than $845,000 in grants will go to organizations that serve aboriginal women and Metro Vancouver sex workers, while more than $1 million will go toward domestic violence units at police departments. The Greater Victoria Domestic Violence Unit will use funds to purchase a vehicle, develop training and expand victim services.

“It’s a good first step, but PEERS needs and deserves core funding,” said Maurine Karagianis, Esquimalt-Royal Roads MLA and the NDP women’s critic.

She noted none of the organizations awarded funds target women in rural and Northern B.C., namely along Highway 16, known as the Highway of Tears, where dozens of women have disappeared.

The non-profit PEERS cut its drop-in centre and employment program last August due to funding difficulties with the Ministry of Social Development and Social Innovation. It was able to reopen one day a week thanks to the Victoria Foundation and fundraising efforts, but struggles for long-term core funding.

“This new funding is so exciting for us. We hope it’s the beginning of a longer partnership with the ministries,” said executive director Marion Little. “It will help us reconnect with more clients … and, I hope, re-engage our liaison work with police that’s so valuable.

Little said PEERS has continued to serve more than 500 sex workers in the region but with reduced services. The organization was founded nearly 20 years ago and last year was presented with an award from the Ministry of Justice for exemplary leadership in crime prevention and community safety.

“It’s about time they took more action,” said Campbell River’s Rick Frey, whose daughter sent missing 17 years ago. Robert Pickton was convicted of second-degree murder in her death.

Frey said that while he has been disappointed with much of the slow-moving response since his daughter’s death, he’s been moved by an increasing awareness and compassion toward at-risk and vulnerable people.

“We’re starting to see a lot better co-ordination with agencies, and PEERS is a good organization,” said the Campbell River man, who has become an advocate for victims’ families. “I do worry funding too many new programs might dilute the ones that work.”

spetrescu@timescolonist.com