Hollaback!

Country:

United States

Organization:

Hollaback! c/o RightRides for Women's Safety

Project Description:

Hollaback! combines community-based activism with technology to create a social media platform that is a safe, immediate, and empowering response to sexual harassment. This project is the ultimate social media tool: it makes use of current mobile technology (cell phones, texting, GPS mapping, camera phones) to answer a long-standing need: to empower women and LGBTQ individuals to document harassment when and where it happens to them. By tracking harassment and then reporting on it, communities can advocate for tougher laws to end harassment.

Olivia is nominating this project because:

I believe that Hollaback! will change how harassment is perceived by society and will help end harassment. Giving women and LGBTQ folks the ability to report harassment in a safe, empowering way is revolutionary! Addressing street harassment is long overdue. When sexual harassment happens, women and LGBTQ folks must often choose between ignoring it (and feeling victimized) or fighting it (and risking personal safety). Those that attempt reporting it to the police are frequently told there is nothing they can do, and authorities regularly fail to report these crimes to the public, making it virtually invisible. If there is no easy way for people to report, track harassment and push for tougher laws, how will harassment ever end?