What We Do

Hull Lighthouse currently runs five separate, but inter-linked outreach services, which are provided by an experienced team of staff and volunteers.

This service provides the first point of contact with many of the women working on the streets and offers a safe place for advice and conversation with experienced volunteers. We undertake ‘walkabouts’ on the streets, allowing us to reach areas that are inaccessible for a vehicle and to connect with those women who do not know about the project. Women wanting help and support to make changes are referred to the Daytime Outreach.

A small team of experienced staff engage women via a long term and holistic strategy; our support includes helping women to move away from drug use, increasing positive health care outcomes, managing finances, liaising with social services and the criminal justice system and accessing retraining and education.

The outreach team provide a continuous supportive, flexible service to meet the demanding and changing needs of the women with whom we work.

The team are also key in liaising with statutory agencies, welfare and legal services, housing agencies, health and drug treatment services. They deal with numerous challenging and complex situations daily. There are no holistic city outreach services specifically targeting street-based sex workers, so we work with agencies locally and nationwide, with frequent requests to share and disseminate our expertise and resources.

In 2021, we moved into 31 Beverley Road, a house where we now provide a wealth of daytime services for the women we work with. It offers a safe space where women can come and use a kitchen, washing machine or shower, enjoy a meal and meet with other women without fear or judgment. It is a place to socialise and build friendships with each other, something they have not had the opportunity to develop due to the chaos of substance misuse and sexual exploitation.

We now have a drop in room where women can come when they first decide to engage with us. We also use this space to facilitate appointments with staff from other agencies such as Renew or Hull Domestic Abuse Partnership (DAP). This means that we are able to offer a trauma-informed service so that women don’t need to go from one place to another, repeating their stories of trauma to new person after new person. Instead, we aim to facilitate a ‘one stop shop’ where they come to one safe and comfortable space and are supported by one of our outreach workers as they meet key workers from other specialist agencies who will support them alongside us.

Every week, we offer activities such as art group and film club, as well as one-to-one sessions with outreach workers. Sometimes these are advice appointments for help with housing or benefits, but often they involve cooking or gardening together, or other activities chosen by the women. These sessions help to reduce social isolation by providing a safe and supportive atmosphere, focused on building healthy friendships and discussing fears and concerns. For the women to move forward they need help in more positively restructuring their day time hours, as they move away from working at night and sleeping most of the day.

In our regular conversations with the women they regularly mention the boredom and isolation they experience and a key request in the early days of the project was the provision of somewhere during the day they could sit, have a coffee and chat with staff, volunteers and other women using the service. Acquiring this property has transformed the services that we are able to offer and meets the women’s needs at a whole new level.

In 2023, we received funding to design and implement an innovative specialist service that would meet the health needs of the women we work with – some of the hardest-to-reach women in the city. We seconded an outreach nurse who does health checks and follows on from hospital discharges This work is vital in helping the women to access healthcare including basic health screening, vaccinations, sexual health, and referrals to specialist services. Health is generally a very low priority for those involved in street sex work and caught in addictions, resulting in frequent hospital admissions when things reach the point of emergency. This holistic service means that many health emergencies and admissions are avoided, and helps to make sure that appropriate follow-up is available for those who have been discharged.

Alongside the nurse, we have a health specialist support worker who specialises in supporting women to get moving. She offers pilates sessions and helps those who need support with their mobility, as well as encouraging the women to eat healthily and exercise. The third member of the team is our wellbeing advocate who is on hand for a chat, some cooking or gardening, or other activities to support the women’s wellbeing.

This monthly drop in service builds up relationships with women from Hull who are on remand or serving a sentence at HMP Newhall, Wakefield. We put things in place for their release such as housing, drug treatment and benefits and then bring them back to Hull to link in with the daytime outreach.

Housing Project

In addition to the above outreach services, Hull Lighthouse is now developing a housing service. This need was first identified in the very early days of Hull Lighthouse as women struggled to find safe, secure and appropriate accommodation.

Over the last few years, the number of women sleeping rough has dramatically increased due to the housing crisis and so our sofas are often occupied with women napping during the day as they need to stay awake and alert at night when they have nowhere to stay.

In 2022, we secured funding for a Development Lead who could focus on housing, explore the options and get us on the road to becoming a housing provider.

Our first house

We are currently very close to securing our first property, in partnership with Green Pastures. By talking to the women we work with, our outreach workers and staff from other agencies, we identified that the greatest need was for intensive supported housing. The women we work with have complex needs and need safe, secure female-only housing. Although local provision has increased over recent years, there is currently nothing in Hull with the kind of round-the-clock support in a dry house that so many of them want and need.

Whilst we are now on the verge of starting this, we know that the need does not stop there. Very soon, we will also need move-on accommodation so that when they are ready to move out, our residents have somewhere to go that still provides floating support. Our medium-term aim is to acquire further properties to be used as shared supported accommodation. The ultimate goal is to prepare women to take on and sustain their own tenancies and begin to live a settled way of life away from sex work and addiction.

Why We Do It

Our Vision:

We believe in a better way of life for the women outside of sex work.

Our Mission:

It is our Christian faith that underpins all we do, we offer friendship, advice and opportunity for change to women working in sex work. We recognise that these women are often excluded from society and we seek to cross boundaries and enter their community.

Our Aim:

We aim to demonstrate Gods unconditional love in the way we treat each woman, offering holistic, ongoing support to help them move forward towards safe, whole lives free from sex work and addiction. We aim to work alongside other statutory and voluntary agencies in the city to help address and overcome the major issues surrounding sex work. We aim to treat each woman with dignity and respect, considering the addictive lifestyles and the difficulties that this presents.

Our Values:

  • Valuing the Individual: We respect the equality and unique value of every woman and encourage them to fulfil their potential.
  • Striving for Excellence: We seek to deliver services of the highest possible quality and constantly improve through listening, reflecting, learning and action.
  • Seeking Justice: Working closely with vulnerable and disadvantaged women, we challenge injustice, using our experience and research to achieve change.
  • Working in Partnership: Working together with local agencies, churches and other organisations, we place the women’s needs at the heart of our services and charity. In all our relationships, we act with integrity, being open, honest and transparent.
  • Investing in People: We value and invest in our staff and volunteers, developing their skills and confidence, creating a supportive culture, inspiring and motivating them to find real meaning and purpose in their roles.
  • Opposed to discriminatory practice: We treat every woman equally; respecting and valuing her differences, we actively promote equality and diversity. We never impose our faith and women of all faiths or none are welcome to use our services without discrimination.