What Brings Women to the Streets
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Daphne* sold her body for the first time in 1985 in Prince Albert. She was 12 years old.
She didn’t want to split up from her friend, so they picked up a “John” or “trick” together. It didn’t go as planned. It would be the worst one of her life. |
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“Me and her went and it was an older fella. And he took us out to a park, Little Red,” she said. “Then he tried hurting her and me.”
“All I could do was just kick him in the groin area and hit him with a bottle. He wouldn’t let go of my partner, my girl I was with...
“I popped open the trunk and I got the tire iron out. And I beat him. I tried beating him to death.”
Afterwards she was charged with armed robbery and attempted murder and the event set her path for many years into the future.
From then on, Daphne would work on the streets in many cities, along “the strolls” where men buy sex from women with money, drugs, or shelter.
But Daphne’s story doesn’t start with her first trick. Like many women who work the streets for survival, becoming a prostitute was another step in a downward spiral. For the men and women, the details may differ but the themes stay the same.
“I come from alcohol and drugs--and it was abusive. Violence, everything. Sex, getting raped by my uncles. And my dad’s girlfriend had boyfriends while he was incarcerated,” said Daphne.
When she was three weeks old her dad took her away from her drug- and alcohol-abusing mother. Her dad was later incarcerated and she went to live with her Kookum and Moshum. She continued to be bounced from place to place.
When she was 12 she ran away from Saskatoon to Prince Albert and turned that fateful trick.
Not that 12-year-old prostitutes are unheard of in the city. The youngest Daphne knows right now is eleven.
“All I could do was just kick him in the groin area and hit him with a bottle. He wouldn’t let go of my partner, my girl I was with...
“I popped open the trunk and I got the tire iron out. And I beat him. I tried beating him to death.”
Afterwards she was charged with armed robbery and attempted murder and the event set her path for many years into the future.
From then on, Daphne would work on the streets in many cities, along “the strolls” where men buy sex from women with money, drugs, or shelter.
But Daphne’s story doesn’t start with her first trick. Like many women who work the streets for survival, becoming a prostitute was another step in a downward spiral. For the men and women, the details may differ but the themes stay the same.
“I come from alcohol and drugs--and it was abusive. Violence, everything. Sex, getting raped by my uncles. And my dad’s girlfriend had boyfriends while he was incarcerated,” said Daphne.
When she was three weeks old her dad took her away from her drug- and alcohol-abusing mother. Her dad was later incarcerated and she went to live with her Kookum and Moshum. She continued to be bounced from place to place.
When she was 12 she ran away from Saskatoon to Prince Albert and turned that fateful trick.
Not that 12-year-old prostitutes are unheard of in the city. The youngest Daphne knows right now is eleven.
Daphne walks in an alleyway where she picked up her first John when she was 12 years old.
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“She says if she’s being abused, why don’t I just get paid for being abused,” Daphne said.
Each day, Angela Di Paolo drives the Prince Albert Outreach van around town. She targets at-risk youth to provide some food, some services and some advice, but much of her time goes toward helping the working women. The women she sees are usually between the ages of 21 and 40, the average age being late 20’s. |
Dealing with dozens of girls each day, she said the stories and circumstances vary.
“Every person is experiencing things differently. So some people could have lost parents, some people could have lost family members,” Di Paolo said.
“What we see is a lot of loss and grief and difficulty in dealing with that. And then it just snowballs.”
At the Métis Women’s Association on 10th Street East in downtown Prince Albert, Donna Lerat runs the HIV Health Program. She too was a prostitute for many years, her pimps moving her around to Edmonton, Calgary, and other places.
As both someone with experience and someone who works to promote sexual health, she knows what leads people to prostitution.
“There’s so many reasons. The majority is, I would say, 97 per cent of women who are abused that end up out there. Or they’re in poverty, or they’re homeless. They get kicked out. Or families are broken up and they don’t feel like they fit in their family and they just leave because they don’t feel like they belong.
“Violence, family violence is a big one,” she said.
Donna Brooks is the executive director at the YWCA in Prince Albert. She works to get women off the streets or out of abusive homes--at least when the shelter isn’t so full they have to turn people away.
She said Prince Albert’s description as the gateway to the north is accurate. It’s the first stop for many people escaping past lives, only to find there’s little for them in the city. Out of the 30 people currently staying at the YWCA shelter, 11 had their last long-term housing outside Prince Albert.
“Either you’re coming for a job and you have a place to stay, or maybe you’re coming for school, but what if you’re that person escaping a super bad situation?” Brooks said.
“Maybe you only have a Grade 6 education. Maybe you’ve been abused and exploited by your uncle, or your father or your brother.”
Of the women who used the YWCA shelter this past year, 74 per cent had less than a Grade 12 education. People come without the training for jobs and often find themselves desperate for shelter. Prostitution sometimes becomes the only option, Brooks said.
Daphne’s journey in prostitution lasted for 26 years, ending just seven months ago.
“Because of the sexual abuse I took from some family members, I didn’t know how to cope with it through counselling or anything. And I had a lot of anger,” she said.
“And that’s how this all began. Prostitution.”
“Every person is experiencing things differently. So some people could have lost parents, some people could have lost family members,” Di Paolo said.
“What we see is a lot of loss and grief and difficulty in dealing with that. And then it just snowballs.”
At the Métis Women’s Association on 10th Street East in downtown Prince Albert, Donna Lerat runs the HIV Health Program. She too was a prostitute for many years, her pimps moving her around to Edmonton, Calgary, and other places.
As both someone with experience and someone who works to promote sexual health, she knows what leads people to prostitution.
“There’s so many reasons. The majority is, I would say, 97 per cent of women who are abused that end up out there. Or they’re in poverty, or they’re homeless. They get kicked out. Or families are broken up and they don’t feel like they fit in their family and they just leave because they don’t feel like they belong.
“Violence, family violence is a big one,” she said.
Donna Brooks is the executive director at the YWCA in Prince Albert. She works to get women off the streets or out of abusive homes--at least when the shelter isn’t so full they have to turn people away.
She said Prince Albert’s description as the gateway to the north is accurate. It’s the first stop for many people escaping past lives, only to find there’s little for them in the city. Out of the 30 people currently staying at the YWCA shelter, 11 had their last long-term housing outside Prince Albert.
“Either you’re coming for a job and you have a place to stay, or maybe you’re coming for school, but what if you’re that person escaping a super bad situation?” Brooks said.
“Maybe you only have a Grade 6 education. Maybe you’ve been abused and exploited by your uncle, or your father or your brother.”
Of the women who used the YWCA shelter this past year, 74 per cent had less than a Grade 12 education. People come without the training for jobs and often find themselves desperate for shelter. Prostitution sometimes becomes the only option, Brooks said.
Daphne’s journey in prostitution lasted for 26 years, ending just seven months ago.
“Because of the sexual abuse I took from some family members, I didn’t know how to cope with it through counselling or anything. And I had a lot of anger,” she said.
“And that’s how this all began. Prostitution.”