PROJECTS
AREA OF Migration, trafficking and exploitation

Stardust
Interventi di contrasto al fenomeno della tratta e dello sfruttamento

SUMMARY
The contact units and the Stardust Single Citizen's Counter are services funded by the City of Rome as part of the Roxanne Project and are aimed at prostitutes and victims of sex trafficking. The overall objective is to address the problem of trafficking and exploitation, providing opportunities to escape from the circuits of forced prostitution and social protection programmes. The contact units conducts prevention, health protection, harm reduction and risk reduction in the municipalities I, III, V, VI, VI, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII directing and sending people who have expressed a need at the counter. Here one is involved in decoding the application of users, advising, guiding, sending and/or accompanying to local health facilities. The Counter is also the place where it is possible to call for help, in person and to accompany the trafficked persons onto the path of the social-employment inclusion in accordance with Art. 18 Legislative Decree 286/98.

NAME OF THE PROJECT

Stardust - Contact units and Single Citizen's Counter for prostitutes and victims of sexual trafficking

RECIPIENTS

Prostitutes and victims of sexual trafficking

METHOD OF FINANCING

Funded by: The Municipality of Rome - Department V of Social Affairs and Health Promotion

References of law: Art. 18 of Legislative Decree 286/98

BRIEF HISTORY

On the one hand, Parsec began to take care of issues related to prostitution from the first half of the 90s, through the creation of study and research on the phenomenon and, on the other hand, with the implementation of interventions aimed directly at the prostitutes on the streets in the area of Rome.

In fact, at the same time, with the action research activities, the need to develop an intervention also specifically directed to trafficked women has been highlighted, and in 1998/99 the first intervention of harm reduction aimed at foreign prostitutes-addicts was started.

Progressively, the Parsec cooperative has developed interventions that cover all the main stages of the recovery of the social and economic autonomy of trafficked persons, from the initial contact up to the social-work inclusion: the Stardust project was born, in fact, in February 1999, as part of the initiatives that the City of Rome has started to intervene in favour of prostitutes and those who - as victims of trafficking - intend to escape from forced prostitution paths. The structuring of the network of services was subsequently consolidated with the funding of projects, in accordance with Art. 18 under the provisions of Legislative Decree. 286/98, delivered to the City of Rome by the Department for Equal Opportunities within the programme of assistance and social integration in favour of women and children who are victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation.

METHODOLOGY OF INTERVENTION

The contact units and the Single Citizen's Counter for the prostitutes and victims of sex trafficking are services in which activities of prevention, health protection, harm reduction and risk reduction are carried out.

In the Stardust project prevention can be connected on three distinct levels: health care, culture and exploitation.

Preventive health care can lead to the reduction of damage with regard to the activities of the street, a scope in which the team of the contact unit undertakes actions designed to reduce the risk of HIV infection and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) through the distribution of condoms and information materials, as well as interventions and introduction to the services of the Roxanne network. Firstly, harm reduction strategies are the key to women's health and for the health of the entire community and secondly, (in fact, if women and transsexuals on the street are almost all migrants, the customers are almost all Italian); they also represent an irreplaceable tool for initial contact and building up relationships of trust between workers and women on the street.

At the counter, which is accessed by the women and transsexual people contacted on the road, in order to seek advice and guidance or to be accompanied to the social and health services of the territory, the team is working on the dimension of prevention in the broadest sense: in this context, in fact, there is a cultural prevention and a prevention of exploitation, or promotion of the autonomy and empowerment of the people in order to facilitate the expulsion of prostitutes from criminal circles.

For this purpose, information about the rights of immigrants and in particular the rights and protection of trafficked and sexually exploited persons is spread, through an action of the careful identification of potential victims. In the event that there is a desire expressed to escape from the circuits of exploitation, the insertion into the social protection and hospitality programmes is put in place.

In the context of the counter, listening, analyzing the demands, recognizing the indicators of victimization, along with an ability to understand the cultural and etnopsychology of which the person is a carrier, are critical to the proper resolution of the request.

OBJECTIVES

The overall objective of the Stardust project is to address the problem of trafficking and forced prostitution in the Rome area, offering the people who are victims of trafficking the opportunity to leave the circuit of exploitation and, at the same time, to perform a function of prevention and risk reduction to prostitution activity, such as abuse and violence practised against women, or the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases.

Other objectives, of equal importance, yet in a more or less indirect manner, pursued by the project are:

-   To increase the level of both the real and the perceived safety of citizens living in the areas with the highest concentration of the phenomenon of the street.

- To promote an even better understanding of the phenomenon of human trafficking and prostitution, through land monitoring, data collection and updated information and feedback through information activities and territorial awareness.

- To promote a full awareness of citizens - with particular attention to those who are the  "customers" of the sex market - compared to the condition of exploitation of prostitutes and the difference between what is a "free choice" to exercise prostitution and to what looms as a violation of fundamental human rights.

- To contribute to the development of a more effective collaboration between all those involved in various capacities in the anti-trafficking policies and for the protection of victims' rights.

ACTIVITIES

The road unit:

- Contact and building relationships of trust and empowerment of the population (women, men and transgender both adults and minors) who prostitute in the streets and squares of the Municipalities I, III, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII of the City of Rome.

- Providing information and health education to these people by specialized workers and the distribution of material and information brochures.

- Providing prevention activities of health risks associated with prostitution by the distribution of condoms, lubricants and prophylaxis materials.

- Orientation and sending such persons to the social-public health facilities of the area and the city in general.

- Orientation and sending people identified as victims of trafficking to the host care facilities existing in the city (Roxanne network) and who are identified among other project partners.

The Single Citizen's Counter: is the headquarters responsible for subsequent contacts for those established on the road, and conducts:

- Medical, legal and psychological advice and guidance to other services.

- Reception and decoding of the expressed and emerging demands, as well as any requests for help.

- Sending and/or accompanying to the public health centres at the clinics of the municipal network.

As part of the Single Citizen's Counter there is the possibility of accompanying the trafficked persons onto the path of social-employment inclusion, in accordance with Art. 18, illustrating the various opportunities to escape from prostitution and the regularization offered through the residence permit, for reasons of social protection.

NETWORK AND TERRITORY

Parsec has built a significant network of collaboration both locally and nationally. Nationally it refers primarily to associations and facilities recorded at CNCA, which itself, in particular, is part of the Ad Hoc Group on Prostitution and Trafficking of CNCA; locally, Parsec co-operates, on the one hand, with the facilities of national coordination on prostitution and people trafficking and, on the other hand, with the coordination of the facilities that deal with the health of the immigrant population

Specifically, the integrated network of services that is part of the Roxanne project consists of: escape homes and shelters for victims of trafficking, the project of re-employment, national toll number for Anti-Trafficking and dedicated medical clinics. Other important actors that contribute to support paths of protection and promotion of fundamental rights and the processes of taking care and the exile are the police, the courts, the training and career guidance facilities, organizations representing workers and entrepreneurs.

CONTACTS AND PROCEDURES FOR ACCESS

Both services are of a low threshold nature and do not require any access procedure.

The counter is open from Monday to Friday, from 12.00 to 18.00 hours

The contact units: Viale Ionio 331, Rome, Tel. (0039) 0686209991

The Single Citizens' Counter: Via Galilei 15, Rome. Tel: (00 39) 06 77072404

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

The Stardust project team uses the expertise of professional psychologists, social workers and cultural mediators.

EVALUATION

The evaluation of the road units is carried out by the customer through a system of quantitative monitoring (monthly summary of the contacts) and qualitative (descriptive analysis with bi-monthly reports on the phenomenon). The same type of detection is also common to the activity of the Counter, where, in addition, more detailed individual sheets are compiled for the people taken into care. In particular, by the user revealing information about the sending facilities in order to verify the effectiveness of the interventions in the street and the operation of the entire network in general.

In both services there are regular and supervisory meetings that allow all the critical issues and the overall quality of work to be monitored.