Contact:
Email remains the best way to get in contact with NJRUA. Send us a note at newjerseyrua@gmail.com & we will get back to you shortly!
Organizational Structure:
NJRUA advocates meet monthly for a roundtable discussion about projects and organizational needs. This body is composed of sex worker and non-sex worker advocates that promote our mission and is open to new membership. Sex workers have final decision-making authority in the political process.
The NJRUA network is an email listserve composed of people with experience in the sex trade. NJRUA seeks community opinion through this list serve and allows members to communicate relevant information to one another. Sex workers can seek to join the network by emailing us at newjerseyrua@gmail.com.
Mission Statement:
The New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance (NJRUA) is a working alliance of activists and allies who are dedicated to promoting, defending, and advocating for the human rights of sex workers in the state of New Jersey. This alliance is committed to the belief that people of all genders have the autonomy and right to decide for themselves whether or not to be in this line of work. Recognizing the violence and other forms of human rights violations that stem from criminalization and stigmatization, we wish to counter this through public education, documentation and community organizing.
Priorities:
Non-sex workers have a history of deciding what the needs of sex workers are and speaking on their behalf. Our aim is to build the necessary infrastructure so sex workers of New Jersey can lead a movement to advocate for their own human rights. We have a three-pillar approach to achieve this goal:
- Community Organizing – Without sex workers to self-advocate for their rights our movement will have no meaning. We aim to reach out to sex workers in New Jersey and help provide the necessary tools so they can self-advocate for their rights. Outreach includes the men, the women, the trans and gender-nonconforming sex workers; the online-providers, the street-based workers, the escorts, the exotic dancers, the pornography actors, and the fetish workers. No sex worker deserves to be silenced!
- Documentation – In building a movement we need to record how our community is impacted by human rights violations. This information is valuable when attempting to advocate for policies that properly adhere to our human rights, and for social service providers to know the issues that impact our community. When conducting community organizing, we attempt to work with sex workers, listen to their stories and document their experiences. What’s your story?
- Public Education – NJRUA seeks to build public materials by which the human rights of sex workers can be further understood. Much of the current stigmatization that exists against sex workers is rooted in many myths and misunderstandings about the sex trade. By authoring reports and providing training on the rights of sex workers, we can begin to deconstruct the public hysteria that exists against sex workers.
Sponsors:
We would like to thank all the organizations which have given us much needed institutional support and allow us to provide the resources that we do: