BRENDA MYERS-POWELL - DREAMCATCHERS
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/stopsextrafficktalk/2013/02/26/brenda-myers-powell-talks-about-sex-workers-anonymous-aka-prostitutes-anonymous
Before "Dreamcatchers", Brenda was just another resident at Genesis House in Chicago. Genesis House had been founded by a nun named Edwina Gately. Prostitutes Anonymous was our program's name in 1988 when we got a call from Edwina for help. She said none of the women in the program were relating to her being she was an older white female who had never been a prostitute herself.
I had no way of affording a trip to Chicago and she was barely getting by, but many of the talk shows were filmed in Chicago back in the late 1980's. Jerry Springer, Maury Povich, Sally Jesse Raphael, and Oprah were all filmed out of studios there. I told Edwina I had an idea which worked - I'd get booked on a talk show which would pay for my round-trip and hotel to get there. I booked the first show and came bearing copies of our "Recovery Guide". You can get a copy of this at www.leavingthelife.com
I spent some time with the women there, going over the program, our book, the steps, and got to know everyone. Luckily the talk shows were always doing some show on prostitution and I was able to come back there every couple of months, stay a week or two, work with the women in Genesis, and then go back home again to Los Angeles.
Luckily Brenda came through Genesis House before they closed. For a while nothing existed in Chicago by the Haymarket homeless shelter. A woman named Oliva picked up the meetings for Prostitutes Anonymous and held them at the shelter - keeping our program alive. From there, a group called "Footprints" picked up the meetings, but they refused to let me and transgenders come to their group. I spoke to them, and they refused to budge. Brenda called me back then and said she wanted to start a meeting which would let men, women and transgenders attend. But she said everyone was used to calling the program by the old name "Prostitutes Anonymous", not our new name as of 1995, Sex Workers Anonymous.
We gave her permission to go ahead with the meeting, and to call that meeting by the old name. In other words it would be the "Prostitutes Anonymous Group of Sex Workers Anonymous" officially. But I understood as I still call it Prostitutes Anonymous myself! From there, Brenda met the people who were putting together "Dreamcatchers". They wanted to create a program for juvenile girls in Chicago. She then took a job with the Cook County Sheriff's office as an advocate for the women who were being arrested.
Click on the link to hear in Brenda's words how she felt when she first started reading our "Recovery Guide" and working our program. In her words, she wouldn't have made it out without the program. It's wonderful to see how she took that recovery and is using it to help others.
www.sexworkersanonymous.com
Before "Dreamcatchers", Brenda was just another resident at Genesis House in Chicago. Genesis House had been founded by a nun named Edwina Gately. Prostitutes Anonymous was our program's name in 1988 when we got a call from Edwina for help. She said none of the women in the program were relating to her being she was an older white female who had never been a prostitute herself.
I had no way of affording a trip to Chicago and she was barely getting by, but many of the talk shows were filmed in Chicago back in the late 1980's. Jerry Springer, Maury Povich, Sally Jesse Raphael, and Oprah were all filmed out of studios there. I told Edwina I had an idea which worked - I'd get booked on a talk show which would pay for my round-trip and hotel to get there. I booked the first show and came bearing copies of our "Recovery Guide". You can get a copy of this at www.leavingthelife.com
I spent some time with the women there, going over the program, our book, the steps, and got to know everyone. Luckily the talk shows were always doing some show on prostitution and I was able to come back there every couple of months, stay a week or two, work with the women in Genesis, and then go back home again to Los Angeles.
Luckily Brenda came through Genesis House before they closed. For a while nothing existed in Chicago by the Haymarket homeless shelter. A woman named Oliva picked up the meetings for Prostitutes Anonymous and held them at the shelter - keeping our program alive. From there, a group called "Footprints" picked up the meetings, but they refused to let me and transgenders come to their group. I spoke to them, and they refused to budge. Brenda called me back then and said she wanted to start a meeting which would let men, women and transgenders attend. But she said everyone was used to calling the program by the old name "Prostitutes Anonymous", not our new name as of 1995, Sex Workers Anonymous.
We gave her permission to go ahead with the meeting, and to call that meeting by the old name. In other words it would be the "Prostitutes Anonymous Group of Sex Workers Anonymous" officially. But I understood as I still call it Prostitutes Anonymous myself! From there, Brenda met the people who were putting together "Dreamcatchers". They wanted to create a program for juvenile girls in Chicago. She then took a job with the Cook County Sheriff's office as an advocate for the women who were being arrested.
Click on the link to hear in Brenda's words how she felt when she first started reading our "Recovery Guide" and working our program. In her words, she wouldn't have made it out without the program. It's wonderful to see how she took that recovery and is using it to help others.
www.sexworkersanonymous.com
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