The Collective
.jpeg)
Penelope Saunders - Mentor/Consultant
Penelope Saunders, PhD, is the coordinator of the Best Practices Policy Project, a national policy dedicated to the health and rights of sex workers. She has established numerous organizations nationwide focusing on sex worker rights, HIV and rights, as well as having worked in Latin America and Australia.
AM Davies - Volunteer
AM Davies is an amputee, ex-stripper, labor organizer and Secretary of Strippers United. They started their advocacy work in 2018, shortly before a motorcycle accident that resulted in amputation of their lower left leg. After healing and no longer able to work in the clubs, AMD poured their heart, time and energy into advocating for labor rights for strippers and sex workers. They have worked with the BSWC since 2020 helping wherever help is needed most, including letter campaigns to politicians, assisting in virtual events and updating the website.
Erika Smith - Strategist
Erika Smith is an African American woman who grew up in Washington DC being raised by a single dad, who taught her to stand up and fight for what she believes in. She Started working with the BSWC in December of 2021, Helping out with the Mutual Aid project. She has been a Harm reduction, sex worker rights, trans rights, lgbtq and women rights of color activist for 18 years. Helping others is a passion that she has had since she was a child.
DiDi Delgado - Marketing and Development Offcer
(Pronoun - DiDi): DiDi is an award-winning poet, a frontline activist, an experienced anti-racism educator, a writer/author/journalist, and a community organizer. DiDi is also the Founder, Head Curator, and Radical Visionary of The DiDi Delgado Experience (DDE) and Head of Operations of The Society of Urban Poetry (S.O.U.P.). Through their work on arts and activism, DiDi has developed an audience of tens of thousands of people who follow them to be informed, challenged, and liberated. DiDi has 13+ years experience of community organizing and community service in Albany, The Bronx, and Boston with ACLU-BCPA, The Center for Family Support, Unitarian Universalist Association and NAACP.
Additionally, DiDi has been published and cited in USA Today, the Huffington Post, The Boston Globe, Democracy Now!, The Root, Propublica, The Observer, NBC News OutFront, Shelterforce, Yes! Magazine, Ebony Magazine, Slate Magazine, Mother Jones and Vanity Fair. DiDi is consistently on the front lines blazing pathways, creating channels, and fostering connections in support of the most marginalized.
Deeply passionate about both their local and global community; DiDi believes that art and activism go hand in hand.