Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive (HIPS) is a great organization, no doubt. They use a harm reduction model to "assist female, male and transgendered individuals engaging in sex work in Washington DC in leading healthy lives." That's their mission, and they've been doing it since 1993. Like N Street Village, they want to help people without forcing them to relinquish control of their lives. Also like N Street Village, they rely heavily on volunteers to help with their services. Unlike N Street Village, they make it hard for volunteers to help.
I went to a 5-hour orientation where we talked about why they call sex workers "sex workers," and whether people "choose" to be sex workers, and whether pimps are necessarily bad guys, and whether sex work is by nature exploitative. All in all a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. Most of us were there to volunteer for the overnight outreach, providing on-street counseling and distributing safe(r) sex supplies and information. I was more interested in the hotline or office help.
I spent the next three months trying to help them—swapping emails and phone calls with the program assistant—but they never told me what i could do to help. Granted they might be a little more together when it comes to the outreach program, since it's what they do every day, but when someone with organizational skills and free time offers to come help you with whatever you need, you say, "Come on in, I can't wait to meet you," you don't ignore them for weeks at a time. And if you don't want their help, say so. Sour grapes? Sure. But I was really excited to work there. I just didn't think the work would be getting in the door.
Certainly the karma of volunteering is worth a lot to me, but so is my time, and just because I'm willing to give it up, that doesn't mean I should have to give up even more of it to do so.
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