Guest Blog Post for International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2015

We are launching a new branch of Hollaback in York, UK and getting set up and running has been a pretty positive experience for us so far. York is a fairly small city and isn’t really known for its activism, so we had been worried at the start that there wouldn’t be many people wanting to get involved. But the response has been really great – it just goes to show that street harassment really is something that affects almost everyone and once you start the conversation, people are always keen to join in. The two universities in York have recently launched anti-sexual harassment campaigns and zero tolerance policies, and seeing people in our community take sexual harassment seriously makes us really hopeful that things can change in York to become a much safer space for everyone.

Having said that, we have had a couple of challenges, including being denied permission from the council to do a chalk walk during International Anti-Street Harassment Week. We were really looking forward to that; chalk walks from other anti-street harassment groups are always really popular, as they are a great quick and fun way to spread awareness that prompt the public to ask questions and get involved. So we are having to get a little creative and find some alternatives instead!

Our favourite part so far has been the incredible network of support from other anti-street harassment sites and blogs all over the world, all sharing and learning from each other and working together to build our knowledge and understanding of such a complex issue. However, what we are really looking forward to is making a difference to people in York when our site is officially up and running. Street harassment can be a dangerous and humiliating experience and we are keen to get stuck in with anything we can do for our community to show some support, provide some comfort, or empower someone to speak out.

We have found out that there are plenty of ups and downs in this work, but we are definitely looking forward to more of it!

This piece was written by the Co-Director of Hollaback York