U Turn Project

Ania Dabrowska

Origin: Static Issue 03
Content: Photographs

U Turn offers support, information and intervention to women coerced into prostitution. Founded in February 2004, and currently operating in the London boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Newham and Islington, U Turn will open its first Women’s Centre in September 2006. This will be a safe, fully-staffed building where women working in the sex industry can get advice and help for their health, social and housing needs. U Turn also aims to suggest pragmatic routes out of their cycles of abuse and poverty. The centre will offer women opportunities to improve the quality of their lives and sustain those improvements so they can move onto independent living.

U Turn staff has extensive experience of working with homeless women who are drug users and sell sex to fund their drug use. 85% of these women are homeless. This client group is often described as chaotic and difficult to work with by housing support workers. U Turn staff have a different experience, and have found that because the women are deemed chaotic, support workers can in good faith take control and sort the problem out, leaving the women feeling helpless. This can often only further reinforce their low self worth, leading ultimately to further problems.

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Contributor:

Ania Dabrowska is an award-winning freelance photographer. Her work has appeared in Observer Magazine, Harpers & Queen, Dazed & Confused, Index on Censorship and Frieze, as well as in numerous exhibitions. She is a member of The Club – the cultural entrepreneurs forum run by the ICA, Cap Gemini, The Arts Council of England and The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts. Recently, she has worked with the U Turn Project (www.uturnproject.co.uk) and with Photovoice (www.photovoice.org). Her work will feature in the Distortion group show in La Viande Gallery, Shoreditch, in November 2006.

Associated Links:

www.uturnproject.co.uk