Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Need a gift idea?

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Do you need a gift idea or a way to honor someone you care about through a donation to a worthy cause? Consider donating to RightRides!

RightRides is an amazing organization in NYC helping women and LGBQT folks get home safely late at night on the weekends, and through New Yorkers for Safet Transit, they are working to make public transportation free from harassment and assault.

The following is from a RightRides email and details how YOU can make a difference in NYC and in your own city in 2010 to make all public places safer through making a donation to their organization. Consider making one today to honor the people you care about. I did.

JOIN OUR MOVEMENT FOR SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE NEW YEAR!

RightRides is a simple yet effective way of increasing community safety, and the program is now ready for national expansion! Our exciting plans for 2010 include:

* expanding our RightRides program to Washington D.C.

* expanding our RightRides program to San Francisco

* forming partnerships to help make expansion happen in other high-priority cities, including Boston and Philadelphia

* increasing service for RightRides New York, particularly on Friday nights

* working to make New York City’s mass transit safer as a founding member of the coalition New Yorkers for Safe Transit

* leveraging mobile technology to end sexual harassment with an innovative collaboration with HollabackNYC

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PLEASE SUPPORT OUR WORK!
You can give the gift of safety this season—make a donation in the name of a loved one!

Your generous contributions will be used for program costs such as the dispatch system, insurance policies, outreach materials, and driving team supplies. In addition to making a general donation, you can also direct your funds to one of our exciting new projects for 2010!

Help RightRides Expand to D.C.!
Click Here to learn more about the team working to foster RightRides DC and how you can support our work.

Help RightRides Expand to San Francisco!
Click Here to learn more about the team working to foster RightRides SF and how you can support our work.

Help New Yorkers for Safe Transit Protect Our Subways!
Click Here to learn more about New Yorkers for Safe Transit and how you can support our work.

If you would like to make a donation by check:

Checks should be made payable to RightRides. You may indicate that your donation should be earmarked for RightRides NYC, RightRides SF, RightRides DC, Hollaback! or New Yorkers for Safe Transit. Please mail the check to:

RightRides for Women’s Safety
26 Court Street Ste. 505
Brooklyn, NY 11242

All contributions made to RightRides are fully deductible to the extent allowed by the IRS, as RightRides for Women’s Safety is a registered 501(c)3 charitable organization. EIN #84-1668109.

If you would like to make a contribution via wire transfer, appreciated securities, or gifts of stock, please email us so we can forward you the appropriate transmittal instructions.

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NYC steps up efforts to make subways safer

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As any woman living in or visiting NYC, or as anyone reading the website HollaBackNYC will know, street harassment is a major problem there.

Public transportation is one of the hot spots for such offenses. The NYC Transit says there have been 587 reports of sexual offenses in the subway system so far this year, mainly on the Lexington Avenue 4, 5 and 6 lines. Harassment and assault are very under-reported, so the real numbers are far worse.

For more than a year, New Yorkers for Safe Transit have been working specifically to make the subway and bus systems harassment-free. For example, for over a year there have been anti-sexual harassment print ads and, for almost a year, audio ads on several subway lines, thanks to their efforts. Recently they testified at a hearing on sexual harassment on public transportation.

Their continued pressure and activism is leading to more efforts on the part of NYC’s transit system.

  • MTA reports they will increase the number of automated messages in the subway stations warning against assaults and they will begin distributing anti-groping posters and brochures.
  • They are working with the NYPD to have more officers at stations, especially during rush hour, so targets of sexual harassment can more easily report offenders. Victims of subway sexual harassment can also call NYPD’s Sex Crimes Report Line at 212.267.RAPE.
  • Building off the method HollaBackNYC uses for “hollaback”ing at harassers with camera phone photos, NYPD is working on a pilot program that would enable victims to send photos of harassers to police officers, who can investigate the case even after the harasser has slipped away into a crowd. This is essential because so often harassers only harass when they know they can escape or when they know there will be no witnesses.

Lastly, here are recent tips released by the NYPD for dealing with sexual harassment on the subway:

  • Do not be ashamed or afraid to report the offense to the police or an MTA employee immediately.
  • During off hours, wait at the marked waiting areas on the station platforms and sit in the conductor’s car when the train arrives.
  • Know your way around your subway stations: the locations of exits and where stairwells lead.
  • If the sex offense happens on a crowded subway car, if you can do so safely, step away from the perpetrator and loudly let others know what the offender is doing.
  • If you are in an empty car, leave the car and find one with more passengers.
  • If you can do so safely, use your cell phone to take a photo of the perpetrator, or make a note of any distinctive features or items of clothing.
  • If the perpetrator follows you off the train, call the police and stay in a crowded area.
  • Remain alert and awake.

Kudos to the New Yorkers for Safe Transit for keeping on the pressure and to the MTA and NYPD for stepping up their efforts to make subways safer and freer of sexual harassment.

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