It’s official, like it says above:
Sex Work Awareness (SWA), which was founded by four $pread magazine staffers in 2008, has evolved over the past few years. After co-founder Audacia Ray began producing the monthly storytelling series Red Umbrella Diaries, SWA’s board decided that these separate projects had a lot in common. And so, SWA has evolved into the Red Umbrella Project (RedUP).The Red Umbrella Project will continue SWA’s programming: the Speak Up! Media Training as well as our New York State Legislative Advocacy Workshop. Additionally, RedUP produces the Red Umbrella Diaries live story series, a podcast, storytelling trainings, and campaigns like Protect, Don’t Prosecute. In 2012, we plan to continue to expand our programming.I’m excited about this new evolution, and hard at work with my Board of Directors to make RedUP a real, professional, non-profit with plans and programs and hopefully funding, too.
I spent some hours this weekend revamping the Red Umbrella Project email newsletter template and streamlining all the things. Also, if you haven’t seen, the Red Umbrella Project has its own (almost finished) website, and the Red Umbrella Diaries has a site all its own too.
Sometimes doing admin work for my projects is kind of meditative. Or at least I have to tell myself that to get it done. Someday I’ll hopefully be able to have an assistant again, or I’ll have funds for RedUP to hire someone. And don’t say “get an intern!” - I love volunteers but think that its important to pay people, especially for admin work, which is a skill worth paying for.
Congrats to Audacia and her colleagues in taking this project forward.