Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Are you up for the Winter Break Challenge?

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Have you heard of SAFER (Students Active for Ending Rape)? They are an amazing organization that works on campus sexual assault policy reform.

In my day job I work at AAUW and earlier this year I collaborated with SAFER to create a campus sexual assault program in a box. Last month I co-presented with SAFER at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference about how to make campuses safer without placing mobility restrictions on students. In short, I support and want to help promote SAFER’s work.

Today they are launching a Winter Break Challenge for college students. From SAFER:

Today marks the one year anniversary of the SAFER and V-Day Campus Accountability Project! CAP is a nation-wide effort to build a database of college/university sexual assault policies, and encourage students to push for change in sexual violence prevention and response on their campus. We currently have 130 policies published in our public, searchable database. Our goal is to reach 200 by Janurary 31, 2011, but we need your help. This winter break, we’re challenging college students across the country to take a look at their school’s policy, and let us know what awesome work your school is doing and what needs serious improvement.

If you’ve been reading the SAFER’s blog, you know a little about why policy is such an integral part of the anti-violence movement. But for a recap, let this video (with subtitles, made by one of our fabulous interns) break it down for you:

We hope you register on our site and check out the database, and if your school isn’t there, take some time this winter to use our step-by-step policy analysis form to submit your school. If your school is there already, or if you’re no longer a student, please tell your friends at other schools to check out their policies, and spread the word about the project via your own blogs/facebook/twitter. All students should know exactly what resources their schools offer (or don’t offer) and that they have the power to hold their schools accountable for making their campus SAFER. You’ll also be helping us gather a completely unique and super important set of data about best and worst practices at schools across the country. We will eventually be able to use your info to advocate for large-scale change!

You can find go here to find the full press release about CAP and the Winter Break Challenge. Ann was actually kind enough to introduce the project here when it debuted last year, and you can visit her post, or SAFER and V-Day’s websites, to read a little more about campus sexual assault and how this all got started. Hope to see your school represented soon!

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Weekly Blog Round Up: November 28, 2010

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Story Submissions Recap:

I accept street harassment submissions from anywhere in the world. Share your story!

In the News, On the Blogs:

Announcements:

Upcoming Events:

Ten Tweets from the Week:

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16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence 2010

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Today marks the start of 16 days of activism against gender violence.

Aside from writing this quick blog post, I didn’t do anything to mark the day. I’m in India this week and I spent the day visiting the Taj Mahal. It took 10 hours to go the round-trip distance of 250 miles. I saw no gender violence on the streets, but I noticed a stark lack of women. Men were huddled along the road in groups, driving and riding in every possible mode of transportation imaginable, sitting in coffee shops, and crossing the street in large groups. I saw some women walking and riding in vehicles too, but the ratio was perhaps 1:10 or even 1:15, women to men. So while I saw no direct gender violence, the lack of women is partially because of gender violence and gender inequality in the homes and on the streets. Around the world, women’s mobility restriction in public spaces is often caused by a fear of gender violence.

I wrote a bit about this for the Ms blog earlier this week. I also want to direct you to my travel companion’s Ms blog post about the conference we attended earlier this week in Delhi. She highlighted two of the outstanding women we heard from who are working every day to end gender violence and discrimination against women in the slums and against women with disabilities. They are inspirational.

I also want to direct to you to two of the most recent stories about the amazing woman who fought against the gender violence she experienced on the New York City subway system.

I encourage you to consider doing something in the next 16 days to speak out, act out, or write out against gender violence.

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International conference on women’s safety and NYC flasher caught

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Today was the final day of the 3rd International Conference on Women’s Safety: Building Inclusive Cities, in Delhi, India. I presented yesterday about sexual harassment on public transportation and also learned SO much from more than 200 women and men from 40 countries across the three day conference. I know I will be thinking, researching, and writing about what I’ve learned for some time. I wrote a blog post for Ms. Magazine after the first day of the conference, so check that out and shortly my journalist friend Brittany‘s post about the conference will be up on the Ms. Blog so check that out too.

Via CBS News

And if you haven’t already heard about the amazing woman in New York City who took down a flasher on the subway, here are a few links so you can:

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