Check out the report detailing the activities that took place during International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2013 in April! Thank you to everyone who spoke out and participated that week. You’re amazing!
#EndSHWeek 2013 Report of Activities!
Art Campaign: Don’t Harass Me, Bro
I recently discovered a new anti-street harassment campaign based in San Francisco, California, called Don’t Harass Me, Bro. They post stickers in cities to bring attention to street harassment. I reached out to co-founders Angel Quicksey and Erick Orantes and they shared more about what they’re doing:
Why and how the campaign started:
After experiencing street harassment first-hand many times, co-founder Angelica (Angel) Quicksey, decided to create this “sticker crusade” across the city to raise awareness about the abuse of street harassment. Coming up with the name “Don’t Harass me, Bro” she posted them all around the city, sometimes getting harassed on her way. While on a networking trip in Washington D.C,, co-founder Erick Orantes learned about the stickers and decided to take a campaign approach with the message.
Don’t Harass Me, Bro then created its Facebook page, Twitter account, and webpage and has continued to spread the word to end street harassment.
What they believe:
We believe that women should roam the streets freely, without the lingering burden and threat of harassment. We acknowledge that women are not objects to shout at on the streets and should not undergo inappropriate name calling, unwanted sexual innuendos, and/or crude bodily/fashion comments. We know that this type of harassment runs rampant in the daily lives of women. We seek to drastically reduce street harassment, particularly in urban areas through raising awareness about these issues. Our goal is to have “harassment free” streets where women are not faced with constant discomfort and sometimes physical trauma from these so called “compliments
Survey for people in the Washington, D.C.-area
Cross-posted with permission from the Collective Action for Safe Spaces blog.
At Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS), we have much love for each and every member of our active and informed community who contributes to the blog, engages with us on social media and rolls up their sleeves to lend a hand. Whether you’re an active contributor or a quiet supporter, we think you’re the bee’s knees.
As CASS prepares to launch RightRidesDC (modeled after New York’s award-winning RightRides program that has been operating successfully since 2004), we want to know about your transportation experiences, including public transit, private taxis, car services, and walking or biking late at night around DC! This information will be invaluable to our efforts to meet the safe, affordable transportation needs of our community.
The survey (scroll down the page) closes Tuesday, May 21st. Please, tweet, post on FB, send to your listervs and forward to friends, colleagues, strangers who live or play in DC! As a small gift for helping us out, at the end of the survey, you’ll be able to submit your email address to be included in a drawing for a $25 gift certificate.
ABOUT RIGHTRIDES
RightRides provides free, safe rides home to women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and gender non-conforming (LGBTQGNC) individuals on Friday and Saturday nights, from 11:59 P.M. to 3:00 A.M. Rides are provided by friendly volunteer driving teams made up of a driver and a navigator (one of which identifies as female) to see riders home safely and help advocate for their increased personal safety. All driving teams are pre-screened to meet high safety standards.
Since 2004, RightRides in New York City has driven more than 6,000 Riders safely home. Last year saw a 51 percent increase in reported sexual assaults in DC, as well as over 40 reported hate crimes based on actual or perceived sexual orientation, we want to bring RightRides to DC. The RightRides motto puts it aptly: “Because getting home safely shouldn’t be a luxury.”
CGES Street Harassment Youth Summit was a Success!
This is belatedly cross-posted from the Girls for Gender Equity newsletter, with permission.
The Coalition for Gender Equity in Schools (CGES) held a Youth Summit on Street Harassment on March 25, 2013 at the Urban Assembly Institute that exceeded our highest expectations!
We planned for 50 middle and high school students to attend this youth led event, but to our surprise 100 students showed up and convened in downtown Brooklyn for the CGES summit. These remarkable students and youth leaders chose to spend the first day of their spring break with us in a variety of workshops that examined street harassment.
In spite of the rain, students began arriving in droves at 10:00 am to register, eat breakfast and mingle. By the beginning of the program, the meeting room was filled beyond capacity and an overflow room had to be set up to accommodate participants.
Throughout the summit, youth leaders from Girls for Gender Equity, Center for Anti-Violence Education (CAE), Right Rides, Sadie Nash Leadership Project and Girls Inc. emceed, facilitated, and supported their peers in an action packed, thought-provoking day of activities, dialogues and workshops.
The day opened with an enthusiastic welcome by GGE’s Youth Organizer, Nathania Fields and CAE’s Peer Educator, Mercy Carpenter, the emcees for the event. Nathania and Mercy set the tone of the day, encouraging participants to share their thoughts and listen to one other. They then introduced the Host Committee and organizational staff, who discussed the goals and purpose of the event.
The first activity, ‘The Roots of Street Harassment Tree,’ set the stage for in-depth conversations about why street harassment occurs at every level. Participants were divided up into groups of ten and given a large drawn tree. They were asked to fill out the roots of the tree with the roots of Street Harassment and the trunks of the tree with what supports street harassment aka customs, beliefs, attitudes and institutions.
The Roots of Street Harassment Tree
Towards the day’s end, the young people at the youth summit chose to write love letters to the 16-year-old high school rape survivor in Steubenville, Ohio. Unfortunately after the trial against two teen boys that were found guilty in this case, she had been bullied and blamed for their actions. The youth had a deep empathy for what she has been through and wanted her to know how brave an courageous she is.
The last activity of the day invited the young people to sign up for different events presented at a row of ‘Action Booths’ that lined the hallway outside the meeting room. All of these events prepared us for April Sexual Assault Awareness Month and and the Anti-Street Harassment Rally on Saturday, April 13.
SSH is Hiring a Summer Intern!
SSH began as a website in 2008 and last year became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We are growing more and more each month and we are now ready to have our first ever intern!!! The intern will work closely with me on projects.
Here’s the info —
Internship Overview
This is a part-time (about 15 hours/week), paid ($10/hour) summer internship. The person can work remotely from anywhere in the U.S. as long as they have access to a web-camera for a weekly check in meeting via skype or Google+ hangout. The starting date would be around June 3 with an end date 10 to 12 weeks later.
The summer intern will work closely with SSH’s founder (me) on two main projects: 1) managing the social media accounts and blog and 2) doing research for a new project, a “Know Your Rights” toolkit.
Roles and Responsibilities
– Help manage the SSH social media accounts and work with the SSH social media volunteers.
– Write articles for the SSH blog.
– Conduct legal research for a “Know Your Rights” toolkit that will be a compilation of the laws and city ordinances in major U.S. cities that are relevant to street harassment.
– Assist SSH’s founder with other projects as they arise.
Desired Experiences and Qualifications
– At least two years of college.
– At least one legal course or other experience relating to researching/reading/understanding laws.
– Experiencing working on gender or women’s issues (such as college coursework, volunteer experience, or previous jobs/internships) and familiarity with gender violence issues.
– At least two years of experience using social media, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, and YouTube.
– A self-starter who is reliable and comfort with working on projects with limited supervision.
How to Apply:
Applicants should send a cover letter, résumé (include a list of social media accounts you manage or have managed), and two writing samples (they could be a blog post or article or an 800 word excerpt from a school paper) to me, Holly Kearl, hkearl@stopstreetharassment.org.
Application materials are due by May 25, 2013.