RealStars Stockholm has visited high schools throughout Stockholm this semester to conduct workshops on Fair Sex and paid sexual abuse. The demand has been high, and many of the students we’ve met say it’s the first time they’ve had the opportunity to talk about prostitution, human trafficking, and Fair Sex issues connected to these topics.
The project, funded by HM Queen Silvia’s foundation “Care About the Children,” began in late January when we hired a process leader and sent out an invitation to Stockholm County high schools – the calendar quickly filled up with visits. Within a few weeks, the first visit took place at Ebba Brahe High School in Nacka, and things have kept rolling ever since. Over the course of the term, we’ve managed to visit 22 schools across the county and have held nearly 60 workshops/lectures, reaching over 2,000 students. Among the schools we’ve visited are those in Upplands Bro, Solna, Bromma, Sigtuna, Huddinge, Västberga, and Stockholm’s inner city. We’ve been to both private and public schools, meeting students from a wide range of programs.
RealStars has conducted school projects for many years, and after a break that lasted a few years, we are once again reminded of how important and valuable it is to visit schools and engage in dialogues with young people. This outreach helps young people both in the short term – by providing a safe space to discuss sensitive questions, gray areas, and concerns they might have – and in the long term, by helping prevent sex-buying and mitigate the harms caused by prostitution and human trafficking to those affected. We encounter students who say they haven’t talked about these subjects before and lack knowledge about how exploitation can appear and what is legal and illegal. For example, two students who participated in the workshops shared the following in an evaluation survey conducted afterwards:
“It was very educational, and I learned about things I otherwise thought were normal, like norms around sex and prostitution.”
“Good information that I didn’t know before, and it made me reflect on what consent should really look like.”
On several occasions, we’ve also had the chance to talk with students who, thanks to the workshop content, have been able to recognize signs of vulnerability in themselves or others. Knowing what exploitation can look like and what to do if you or someone you know is affected is incredibly important, as many young people in Sweden today are at risk. The importance of this knowledge is clear from the evaluation surveys, where two students wrote:
“I thought it was important information to have and very important to learn because there’s so much that people don’t know, and things happening that people don’t realize but are very important to understand. It’s also important to know that there are places where you can talk to people about this and so on.”
“It’s great that lectures like this are held because they raise awareness among us young people and are a good way to work toward lifting the taboo on the subject, so more affected individuals feel encouraged to seek help.”
From another perspective, we find it incredibly important to discuss these issues as some students express either an acceptance of prostitution or a strong opposition, believing that selling sex should also be criminalized. Spreading knowledge about the situation and consequences for those involved in human trafficking and prostitution, as well as about the Nordic model – which criminalizes the buyer but not the exploited individual – is therefore an essential step in establishing healthy values and norms among students, who can then carry these out into society.
Now, as school breaks for summer, so does the project – but we’ll be back again in the fall to continue this important work!
There are still slots available to book for the fall. If you’d like us to come to your school, email bokaskola@realstars.eu with your request.