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2011 State of the Streets Report

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2011 State of the Streets Report A Letter from Emily and Sam To all our supporters -- It is with great excitement that we present to you Hollaback!’s first annual State of the Streets Report. This is an occasion for us to reflect upon the remarkable journey that our organization has taken since we launched our first blog in 2005, and it is an opportunity for us to look ahead and think strategically about how to continue along our phenomenal and progressive trajectory. As co-founders, we have witnessed the organization expand and strengthen in every possible way. We see Hollaback! at the center of the movement against street harassment, and an essential locus for discussion, debate, and collective action. But Hollaback! also represents the frontier of feminism--a leading edge that is being pulled along by the demand of young people around the world who envision a more safe and just society. We believe Hollaback!’s role is to serve as stewards of this energy and demand, channeling the enthusiasm, volunteerism, and dedication of our thousands of volunteers into productive, meaningful social change. We hope that each of you continue to support this remarkable organization in every way you can, and we look forward to our collective future of a world without street harassment. Sincerely, Emily May, Executive Director Samuel Carter, President, Board of Directors Introduction Hollaback! is an international movement dedicated to ending street harassment. Powered by activists around the world, our mission is to make public spaces safer for girls, women, and LGBTQ individuals. Despite the fact that comments from “You’d look good on me” to groping, flashing or assault, are a daily, global reality for women and LGBTQ individuals, they are rarely reported, and are culturally accepted as ‘the price you pay’ for being a woman, gay, or appearing different. Studies show that up to 99% of women experience harassment at some point in their lives [Kearl, 2010]. When harassment occurs, individuals must choose between ignoring it and feeling victimized or responding directly – and risking personal safety. Using iHollaback.org, more than 3,000 girls and women between the ages of 7 and 78 have submitted information about their street harassment experiences. Samantha, a 16 year old who witnessed public masturbation wrote, “I’ve been thinking about it, trying to forget about it because I don’t want this to ruin my life. I keep saying to myself, ‘it didn’t happen, it didn’t happen’; however, as I type this I’m beginning to realize, ‘yes, it really did.’” Many of those who share their stories on the Had such an app been available when I was visiting Morocco, I could have uploaded a picture of the Marrakech shopkeeper and told the whole world about how he’d touched my merchandise. By pressing a few buttons on my cellphone, I could have shared my story, warned other women, received support from others who’ve experienced something similar, and at the same time helped gather data on the incidence of street harassment, which is hardly ever reported to the authorities. ALISON STEIN WELLNER IN HER WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE (1/7/2011) Hollaback! site indicate the long-term impacts of harassment, including turning down networking opportunities, missing out on classes, and even changing jobs or moving because they feel unsafe. At Hollaback!, we believe that everyone has a right to feel safe and confident without being objectified. Sexual harassment is the gateway crime that thrives in a culture where gender-based violence is accepted as the norm. There is a clear legal framework to reproach sexual harassment in the home or at work, but when it comes to the streets – all bets are off. This gap persists, not because street harassment hurts any less on the streets, but because until now, there hasn’t been a solution. The explosion of mobile technology has given us an unprecedented opportunity to end street harassment, and with it, the chance to take on one of the final frontiers for women’s rights around the world. Our History Hollaback! started as a conversation among youth – four women and three men – in 2005. As the women told story after story of harassment, the men became increasingly concerned. Samuel Carter, who is now Hollaback!’s board chair, said quite simply, “you live in a different city than we do.” Collectively, they resolved to change that. Around the same time, a woman named Thao Nguyen bravely stood up to her harasser – an older, upper middle class raw-foods restaurant owner – who terrified her by masturbating across from her on the subway. She photographed him and presented the evidence to the police. When the police ignored her, she posted the photo on Flickr. Eventually the photo appeared on the front page of the New York Daily News, where it incited a city-wide conversation about street harassment. The youth who were to become the founders of Hollaback!, inspired by Thao’s story, decided to apply her model to all forms of harassment and to document these experiences on a public blog. Over the ensuing five years, interest in Hollaback! grew. Within months of Hollaback!’s 2005 launch we started to receive posts not only from outside New York City, but from outside the United States as well. Some of our allies suggested that Hollaback! become the “Craigslist of street harassment” posting stories from around the world. However, we knew that although street harassment is a global issue, the power of our project lies, initially, in local leadership. So we designed a 25-page start-up packet with the hope that by sharing the experiences that had contributed to Hollaback!’s success in New York, we could help other activists. However, as a team of part-time volunteers, Hollaback! had neither the time nor the resources to develop methods for providing – or receiving – the long- term support needed to sustain and grow the movement. In May 2010, Emily May, one of the original seven youth, became the organi- zation’s first Executive Director with the idea of growing the movement internationally. Under her leadership, what began as a simple idea – a blog to collect women’s and LGBTQ individuals’ stories of street harassment – began to grow into an international movement. In October of that year Hollaback! incorporated as a New York based non-profit, was granted 501(c)(3) status, and began to witness a tremendous surge in interest in its work along with a rapid expansion in social, political, and cultural capital for the broader movement that is crucial to ending street harassment globally. When we hollaback we inspire many other oppressed people whom we may never meet. But in so doing, we put them on notice: if we can hollaback, what’s your excuse? So when we hollaback we must be as loud as possible LT. DAN CHOI ACTIVIST, IRAQ VETERAN How Hollaback! Works At the core of our model lies the belief that movements start with people telling their stories – and they succeed with people taking action. Before the Internet age, there was only one mic, one podium, one speaker. But now, thanks to the proliferation of blogging and social media, it is no longer the loudest, wealthiest and most powerful who rule the airwaves: anyone with access to their local library’s internet portal can have a voice. At Hollaback!, we leverage technology to bring voice to an issue that historically has been silenced, and to build leadership within this movement to break the silence. We work with women, girls, and LGBTQ individuals to document in words and pictures, and to literally indicate on a map, where they experienced harassment in public spaces. Doing this provides a forum for individuals to share their experiences and brings attention to this long-ignored issue. Hollaback! is putting the holler back in feminism – and it’s about time. KATHA POLLITT FEMINIST POET, ESSAYIST AND CRITIC Hollaback! is making it clear that street harassment should not be tolerated or accepted. Hollaback!’s efforts empower women and the LGBT community by giving us a voice using technology and social media outlets that provide a safe space where we can share out stories, educate and support one another. GLENNDA TESTONE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE NYC LGBT CENTER Inspire international leadership: Much of Hollaback!’s power lies in its scalability. To scale effectively, we train young women and LGBTQ leaders throughout the world to use their skills to build a grassroots movement focused on ending street harassment. We train in the application of technology as we also work to ensure that their actions are strategic and high-impact. Shift public opinion: Our broad-based campaign is designed to reach the public at large by inspiring individuals to take action. We provide educational workshops to schools, universities, and community groups, and engage citizens through traditional and social media. Engage elected officials: We present collected and mapped data to elected officials and policymakers in areas experiencing high incidences of street harassment and engage legislators to work with our trained leaders to address street harassment in their communities. Our Impact to Date Broken the silence. More than 3,000 people have told their stories of harassment through our iPhone app, Droid app, and website, and over two million people have visited our website. Inspired youth leadership. What started as a New York City-based initiative has spread to, as of December 2011, 45 cities in 16 countries and 9 different languages with more sites to be added soon. Our 150 site leaders are young and diverse: 75% are under 30, 50% are under 25, 44% are LGBTQ and 33% are people of color.
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