Takes place every Friday from 5.00pm to 6.00pm on the Astro pitch in Grangegorman, open to all clients.

Miriam Ryan of Chrysalis Community Drug Project facilitated the launch in the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission on Friday the 7^th of June 2019. 

The Stay Safe Work Wise’s (SSWW purpose is to continue the work of Chrysalis’ Sex Work Project which is a dedicated service for sex workers). 

The website aims to increase safety and reduce harm for street based, online and indoor sex workers, regardless of gender identity, background or catchment area.

SSWW has tailored safety content including a services directory. It provides information on managing safety while working. It also provides a private section, a forum and an instant messaging app which provides information and support from trained staff and volunteers. The website dynamically translates depending on the language of the browser. 

Shelly Stoops and Rosie Campbell spoke at the launch.  They presented on the Merseyside model, the story of treating crimes against sex workers as a hate crime.

Dr Rosie Campbell OBE is a Post Doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the University of York. She has been researching sex work in a range of sectors and geographical areas of the UK for over two decades and is widely published in the field. Rosie presented on The Working Practices, Regulation and Safety of Internet- Based sex work in the UK. 

Shelly is a Criminologist who has been working with victims of rape, domestic, sexual violence/abuse and sex workers since the late 1990’s. She is currently the Service Lead of the Red Umbrella Service (Changing Lives) which supports people in the sex and adult industries who experience crime due to their status in said industries. Shelly presented on Violence and Murder in the Sex Industry Chrysalis CDP has advocated for decriminalisation. The people we work with who engage in Sex Work have told us that, while they have to continue to work, the new legislation(enacted March 2017)which includes the criminalisation of the purchase of sex and the doubling of the penalties of brothel keeping while it did decriminalise those working on the street, does not make them feel safer.

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Chrysalis CDP celebrates its 20th anniversary of providing specialist in-house and referral services in the North West Inner City of Dublin. 

Chrysalis is based in Manor Street, Stoneybatter (01-882 3362) and is funded directly by HSE CH09 (Dublin North) and the North Inner City Drug & Alcohol Task Force.

Dr Des Crowley, the Chair of the Board of Directors of Chrysalis said:

“We are immensely proud to have reached this milestone in the organisation’s development and provision of frontline services for people with problematic drug and alcohol use.  We rely on the involvement of many partners in providing responses to the challenges for people who use our services and their families, and we want them to know how much the close working relationships between our frontline staff and staff in hospitals, clinics, general practice, nursing, training centres, HSE Addiction Team and Dublin City Council means to Chrysalis and the quality of the services.”

Chrysalis has provided frontline drug and alcohol services for thousands of people in the Dublin Inner City community and has a number of case managers, supported by the outreach team, key workers and a panel of excellent peer workers and volunteers.   

The Co-ordinator of Chrysalis, Passerose Mantoy, said:

“Population trends and problematic drug and alcohol use have changed since Chrysalis was established in 1998.  Today we are launching our new Strategic Plan for 2019-2021 to take account of new challenges.  The implementation of the plan will bring about changes to the scope and extent of our work in line with the Board’s views and all who participated in our research carried out in 2018. The Board is considering a range of options to drive the development of Chrysalis from 2019.”

Chrysalis urges people in the North Inner City with problematic drug and alcohol use to get in touch with their services at Manor Street, Stoneybatter (01-882 3362).

Eamonn Geoghegan first became a client of Chrysalis 20 years ago and is now working as a keyworker/peer worker in the service. He urged the funders to provide more support for peer workers.

Eamonn Geoghegan said:

“Peer workers can really make the connection with drug users, they understand the difficulties drug users face and they understand the pitfalls in breaking the drug addiction cycle.”

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