Sheila Taylor has been helping vulnerable women in Bolton for 17 years.
She works with Bolton-based charity Urban Outreach to try and provide support for sex workers in the town.
In addition, she helps to run the Eve’s Space project - a women-only scheme offering a safe and relaxing space and doing outreach work through specialist female staff.
Over the years she has met hundreds of women who have found themselves working as prostitutes in Bolton, often as a result of unhealthy relationships or problems with drug and alcohol addiction.
One of these projects included asking women to write poems explaining their feelings about working on the street.
These pieces of writing are used as part of the police’s efforts to deter men caught soliciting sex in public places in Bolton.
Some of the poems are available to read below along with descriptions of their authors:
This was written by a sex worker in her late 20s who had been working since she was a teenager and was abused as a child.
I’M HUMAN.
Don’t call me a junkie
Don’t call me a prostitute
Don’t call me a slag
Don’t call me a low life
My life was taken at 10 years old
But I am and always will be
A Human Being
Written by a woman who had stopped working but had been a sex worker for years.
ROBBED.
Robbed of happiness
Robbed of love
Robbed of my children
Robbed of money
Robbed of respect
Robbed of childhood
Please don’t rob me anymore
Written by a woman who was having her first Christmas with no drugs, no sex work and no alcohol.
CHRISTMASES.
Christmas before it got real bad
Was real cold and real sad
Christmas now is really fun
Buying toys and being a mum
Christmas in a few years’ time
I will still be happy and all will be fine.
Many Urban Outreach projects rely heavily on donations from members of the public.
As well as working with sex workers and vulnerable women, the charity helps homeless people, ex-offenders and anyone who needs support. To donate money to Urban Outreach or find out about volunteering or other ways to help, visit: www.urbanoutreach.co.uk.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here