Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Meeting with WMATA to talk next steps in harassment campagin

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Today Zosia Sztykowski, Co-Executive Director of Collective Action for Safe Spaces and I met with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) at their headquarters in Washington, D.C. to talk about sexual harassment on the system. For three years, we’ve been working with them to see the implementation of an online reporting options, collating of reports on verbal harassment incidents (instead of only forms of harassment that rise to the level of a crime), employee training, and a PSA campaign. We’ve collaborated on a number of outreach days, too.

This meeting was in part a celebration of the second wave of ads (see an example on the right) and an opportunity to plan our outreach efforts for International Anti-Street Harassment Week/Sexual Assault Awareness Month. We also discussed other ways the system could do more around this issue. Stay tuned.

WMATA has been responsive to our suggestions and ideas and we are proud to work with them. We hope many other transit systems follow suit!

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Sign Petition to TGI Friday’s!

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Last week, TGI Friday’s released an ad that trivializes street harassment. Collective Action for Safe Spaces and SSH teamed up with Care 2 to create a petition asking TGI Friday’s to pull it. Please sign!

The petition reads, in part:

“Many of us remember the viral video of a woman walking down the streets of NYC for 10 hours, only to be harassed over 100 times. This video quickly spread around the world, and led to discussions about how common and serious street harassment is and how much it limits women’s access to public spaces.

In TGI Friday’s latest ad, #AppCalling,the company used the same footage from the viral anti-street harassment video, but replaced the woman in the video with various appetizers, like a cheese stick. “Nobody likes a catcaller… But who can blame someone for #AppCalling,” the ad reads.

That’s right — TGI Friday’s is comparing the daily plight of women to to food, trivializing street harassment in the process. Even worse, the man who created the original anti-street harassment video says he sees nothing wrong with the ad, and allowed TGI Friday’s to use his footage.

Please sign the petition to tell TGI Friday’s — stop trivializing street harassment, and pull your ad!“

 

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UN Women march and campus talks

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Yesterday, I walked with members of the Brazil anti-street harassment group Chega de Fiu Fiu and our ally Ben of Voices of Men in the UN Women’s International Women’s Day march in New York City…. because street harassment is an issue we must address globally if we want to see equality for women!!

On Saturday, our board member Lindsey Middlecamp led a workshop on street harassment at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota. She was thrilled by the attendance and engagement of the students.

And on Wednesday, I met with a senior seminar class at Shenandoah University to talk about street harassment, activism, and a career in the non-profit world. We also strategized ways to deal with harassers both on and off their campus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Kenya: Outreach around Street Harassment

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SPS Kennya’s outreach event

Last week, SSH’s 2014 Safe Public Spaces Mentoring team in Kenya was finally able to hold their event. Originally, they planned to hold an awareness campaign on their ferry in December, a site of much harassment, but it has been too unsafe to do so in their region due to terrorism. Other challenges included their banners were stolen, and the replacement venue was in a less populated area so their turnout was lower than anticipated.

But, they persevered and were able to set up a tent in Mombasa. They had peer educators and youth outreach workers who spoke with 475 community members about street harassment across two days. They had a loudspeaker that attracted people to them, women were fully in support of the campaign and some men said “they will from now on respect women and protect them from harassment.”

Organizer Mr. Cosmus W. Maina, Project-Co-ordinator-TEEN WATCH CENTRE, said that going forward they hope to train community outreach workers about street harassment, hold a sensitization forum for community stakeholders and police officers, and hold community road shows.

 

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