“Well, if you can't smile you should go home!” Experiences and reflective insights on providing outreach to young sex trade workers

•Using stories we describe an outreach program for sex trade workers in Toronto.•Relational and power dynamics underlying outreach are highlighted in these stories.•The dynamics and subcultures in street sex trade work are also highlighted.•New possibilities of outreach with sex trade workers are suggested.

This case study relates experiences and candid reflections of front-line staff in the STAND program (Street Trade Alternatives and New Directions) providing outreach to young sex trade workers in downtown Toronto. The authors describe how this project came to be and the lessons learned in setting it up and providing services to this vulnerable, very hard to reach but resilient population. Through a sharing of tales and narratives of outreach, the authors corroborate some of the reasons why there is much written on outreach but little specifically about reaching out to sex trade workers. The traditional responses and approaches in working with children and youth are also questioned in light of negotiating power, building relationships, and actively waiting for the client to lead the change process.