Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Research, PSAs & Two Weeks Until Anti-SH Week!

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Here is the latest programmatic updates from SSH!

Research: Our latest national survey data is newly back from the field! The analysis team at UC San Diego’s Center on Gender Equity and Health will begin work this coming week.

PSAs: We are working with WMATA and Collective Action for Safe Spaces on our FOURTH wave of print PSAs for the Washington, DC-area transit system. This wave will focus on what witnesses to harassment can do, and it should be up on the system in early April.

In 14 Days: International Anti-Street Harassment Week


Two weeks from today is the start of our 9th annual International Anti-Street Harassment Week, April 7-13! www.meetusonthestreet.org

If you will be leading or joining action, please complete this form to let us know about it. We’ll add it to the website!

If you’d like to be listed as a participating co-sponsor (we have participants in 13 countries so far!) and/or if you’d like to do a guest blog post, please let me know! Contact StopStreetHarassment@Gmail.com.

Action during the week can be as simple as sharing a personal story with a friend, posting a message on social media, or writing a message with chalk on the street. Together, our voices are stronger! Please, join us!

-Holly
Stop Street Harassment Founder & CEO

P.S. Please consider a tax deductible-donation to support our work.

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January 2019 SSH News

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Happy 2019, Friends!
We are grateful to everyone who donated to our Giving Tuesday and year-end campaigns. We are putting the funds to use right away and I’m excited to share the following updates with you!

New Research:
We are partnering with UC San Diego’s Center on Gender Equity and Health and the advocacy/research groups RALIANCE and Promundo-US on another national survey about sexual harassment and assault, including street harassment. For the first time, we are asking a question about perpetration and questions about attitudes around reports of sexual harassment. We are also asking a few questions focused on people’s experiences of sexual harassment.

2019 marks five years since our first national study on street harassment. We will create a separate fact sheet highlighting the street harassment-specific findings from this study to provide data, five years later.

We are finalizing the questions with our advisory group this week, and it will go into the field in two waves in February. We hope to release the findings in late March or early April.

Timely Actions:
Yesterday, we joined 200 other organizations in signing a letter to the US Department of Education to voice our opposition to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would amend rules implementing Title IX in a harmful way. (H/T our board member Patrick)

This week, the SSH board of directors issued a statement in support of actor Terry Crews and all male survivors of sexual harassment and assault like him after his experiences were publicly questioned. (H/T our board member Lindsey)

This month, I wrote an article supporting Gillette’s new ad that encourages men to speak up against other male behavior like street harassment. A lot of men were upset about the ad, but I believe we need more ads like it, not fewer.

Sexual abuse / rape like that committed against a woman in Arizona with significant intellectual disabilities is shockingly common. I did a video interview about sexual abuse and persons w/disabilities for NowThis in November, using data from our 2018 research, and they released it this month to give context to this horrific news story.

Transit Campaign
This week, I joined Collective Action for Safe Spaces’ ED alicia sanchez gill and the marketing team at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) to discuss the 8th year of our joint anti-sexual harassment campaign. We have a few things we are still fleshing out, but stay tuned for some cool outreach actions and the possibility of a national transit ad campaign!

International Anti-Street Harassment Week
This year will be our 9th year leading an international week of action, from April 7-13!

We look forward to meeting you on the street to raise awareness about street harassment and strategizing ways to end it!

SSH in the News
Recent news coverage includes:
·  Guardian
·  Isthmus
·  KOLO 8
·  Newsweek
·  New York Daily News
·  Now This News

We look forward to working with you all this year on making public places safer for all!
-Holly
Stop Street Harassment Founder & CEO

P.S. Please consider a tax deductible-donation to support our work.

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SSH 2018 Year-End Achievements

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Hello SSH Community,

Thank you for being part of our work for the last 10.5 years!

In April, I gave birth to my first child. In his first seven months, he’s had a NICU stay, three major surgeries and dozens of medical appointments. Prior to his birth, I put thousands of unpaid hours into SSH to managing our projects and the blog and volunteers and interns, but I had to cut back on my time significantly after his birth. As a result, our achievements are not as robust as usual, which I feel badly about.

I hope that as my baby’s health improves, I will have more time to put toward SSH in 2019, but I may never return to the level I gave to the issue and organization prior to his birth — unless we receive funding that can help cover at least some of my time. If folks have suggestions for grants or funds as well as volunteers etc that can help make it more possible for us to keep doing our work, please reach out!

2018 SSH Achievements:

1. Released a national study on sexual harassment, produced in partnership with , Raliance and UC San Diego Center on Gender Equity and Health. It’s been covered by the New York Times (online and print), USA Today, LA Times, BuzzFeed, Newsweek, Guardian, BBC, NPR, Vox, Teen Vogue and Ms. Magazine, among other outlets.

Many advocates, researchers and educators are using the data and the CDC’s Intimate Partner Violence/Sexual Violence Working Group asked for a presentation on the data and survey methods and said they plan to apply lessons from it to their research.

2. Continued a partnership with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and Collective Action for Safe Spaces to produce a system-wide survey on sexual harassment, do an outreach day at Metro station in April and release the first-ever audio PSA on sexual harassment.

3. Oversaw our 8th annual International Anti-Street Harassment Week with participants from 38 countries.

4. Continued to run the National Street Harassment Hotline with RAINN. It was featured by CNN and “Ask Amy!”

5. Joined the coalition led by CASS that saw the D.C., the Council of the District of Columbia pass the Street Harassment Prevention Act of 2018 (SHPA), the first legislation of its kind in the United States. Our definition of street harassment was the basis for the law’s definition.

6. Advised Google on their #MeTooRising initiative.

7. Commemorated 10 years of activism and achievements!

8. Signed onto a letter to Congress: “Reforming Procedures in Congress for Combating Harassment and Discrimination.”

9. Board member Patrick McNeil crafted a “We Believe Survivors” letter for SSH in light of the US Supreme Court hearings earlier this fall.

10. Released a guide for hosting a discussion group on street harassment (Word | PDF).

11. Helped reduce sexual harassment at the Chicago Veterans Affairs Medical Center, according to a survey about an anti-sexual harassment campaign that our board member Lani Shotlow-Rincon worked on. The campaign may be replicated at other VA centers.

12. Hosted a cohort of Blog Correspondents.

13. Received nearly 100 street harassment story submissions.

14. Said goodbye to long-time board members and welcomed several new ones.

15. Cited in at least 75 media stories.

Thank you! Wishing you and yours a happy holiday season and safe and productive 2019!

-Holly, SSH Founder and CEO

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21,000 Girls Agreed…

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Plan International’s new report, based on interviews with 21,000 girls around the world, found that street harassment is a pervasive problem for them.

This is unacceptable – everyone should feel safe in public spaces. The real impact it has on millions of lives is is a big reason why we work to change the cultural acceptability of street harassment. We use research and story-telling to document it and then encourage community and government action to end it.

As the holiday season approaches, you can support us in your shopping by using our Amazon Smile link and you can donate to our forthcoming Giving Tuesday and Year-End giving campaigns in honor of the people in your life whom you want to feel safe.


If we raise enough money, we can fund a five-year update to our 2014 national study on street harassment in the US, oversee our 9th annual International Anti-Street Harassment Week, re-launch our Safe Public Spaces Mentoring Program and more! 

Recent SSH Activities

  • In September, we held our first board meeting with our newest board members – and held an in-person welcome session for the local DC-area members!

  • Board member Patrick McNeil took the lead on crafting a “We Believe Survivors” letter for SSH in light of the US Supreme Court hearings earlier this fall.
  • SSH volunteer Dr. Meghna Bhat represented SSH during the YWCA Week Without Violence campaign.
  • Board member Maliyka Muhammad represented SSH in New York at a Ladies First Astoria workshop on sexual harassment.

  • On Nov. 10, SSH Board members Lauren Pires and Ashley Badgley and I will present at Georgetown University’s WERC Summit in Washington, DC.

In the News:
It’s been one year since the #MeToo hashtag went viral and our study from earlier this year has been cited in many news articles, as has SSH’s work in general. Examples include: USA Today, Vox, Mother Jones, Daily Times – Pakistan, Times of India, San Diego Union Tribune, Lexington Herald-Leader 

Again, if you want to take action now, please consider a tax deductible-donation to support our work.

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SSH Believes and Supports Survivors of Sexual Assault

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We believe survivors of sexual assault.

As a national nonprofit organization working to end gender-based street harassment worldwide, we know that the public sexual harassment that we’ve documented for years doesn’t happen in a vacuum: It is part of a broader rape culture that minimizes and perpetuates sexual violence. At its core, street harassment is about exerting power over someone else, disrespecting them, and in most cases sexually objectifying a person without consent. It is on the same spectrum of behavior as sexual assault and rape.

It is this understanding that compels us to speak out about the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Since coming forward publicly with her allegations, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford has faced questions – including from members of the U.S. Senate – about her honesty and credibility. She has faced unreasonable requests to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee prior to the FBI conducting a thorough and independent investigation. She has faced death threats and has reportedly had to move out of her home and hire private security. All for sharing her story.

And this is not unusual, this is the system survivors have come to expect, and is one of the many barriers that prevent so many from coming forward to reclaim their narrative.

Dr. Blasey Ford does not deserve this treatment. No survivor does. And we demand better.

We stand with survivors of sexual violence and call on senators to do right by them and this nation. When someone comes forward and courageously shares their story, we must listen to them – not attack their character. As this process moves forward, we’ll be watching.

–Stop Street Harassment Board of Directors

For help and resources, contact RAINN’s national sexual assault hotline at 800-656-HOPE or online here. Along with RAINN and Defend Yourself, SSH operates the national street harassment hotline. Call toll-free at 855-897-5910.

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