SafeVibe: Together We Can End Sexual Assault

WAVAW collaborated with a cause marketing team who created powerful images and messaging on vibrant, engaging coaster and poster designs, and have designed tools for a grassroots and social media approach to the campaign. We recruited and trained a team of volunteers to be ambassadors for the campaign. They have been going out into the community to speak to bar owners, staff and patrons about the importance of joining the SafeVibe movement. We involved the Vancouver Police Department and local media. We launched a website and an on-line survey to provide education materials and to track the success and impact of the campaign. We have made all of our materials available to be printed directly from the website so that anyone can distribute the message. We invited members of the community to share their stories and help us expand our efforts. We have so far distributed over 20,000 coasters and hundreds of posters and fliers in Vancouver, Whistler and Squamish. The posters and coasters contain facts about drug and alcohol facilitated sexual assault as well as the number for our 24 hour crisis line. They also contain a call to action for bystanders to be aware and intervene to keep each other safe. In the next phase of the project we plan to build committed partnerships with Vancouver’s bars and clubs, engaging together in a collaborative effort aimed at keeping the party scene safe and preventing sexual assault.

One of the biggest obstacles to preventing drug and alcohol facilitated sexual assault is the denial that it is even a problem. Even though over 37% of our hospital accompaniments at WAVAW in 2009 were incidents of drug and alcohol facilitated sexual assault, the enormity of this problem is not widely understood. In the time leading up to the Olympic Games, the focus was placed on Vancouver as a party city, and the Games themselves were marketed as a big party. There was very little discussion about what this event would mean for women’s safety, or how such large events make it easier for predators in bars and clubs to drug and assault women. The biggest obstacle we face in preventing this crisis is getting people to talk about it and acknowledge it, both in the context of large events like the Olympics, and also in our day to day lives. We see a huge need to empower the patrons of bars and clubs by showing them how they can make a difference. SafeVibe has already been extremely successful in starting these discussions. The images and messaging of the campaign are positive, inclusive, and engaging.

SafeVibe has generated alliances across a diverse group of communities. Our first partnership was with SafeGames 2010, another community initiative aimed at making the 2010 Olympic Games safe. SafeGames 2010 partnered with us and distributed thousands of our materials at Olympic venues. We have since begun to build relationships with over 30 bars and establishments in Vancouver, Whistler, and Squamish. In March we have been invited to speak about SafeVibe at the Urban Women’s Anti-Violence Strategy Café Series. We are also working in partnership with the Aboriginal Women’s Working Group, Sacred Footprints Aboriginal Youth Group, Zoom Media, Justice Canada, Howe Sound Women’s Centre, The University of British Columbia and Good Company Communications. We are anticipating that the list of partners will continue to expand as the campaign gains momentum.

SafeVibe has already generated an increased awareness of the issue of drug and alcohol facilitated sexual assault. As more and more community groups and individuals become involved in the movement, there has been a growing discussion of the issue in the media. With our community-building initiatives we anticipate that bystanders will become more active, and will be better equipped to intervene in suspicious situations, and to take action to watch out for both friends and strangers at bars, clubs and events. Our ultimate goal is to build and sustain a community that will succeed in preventing sexual assault and creating a safer party scene. Coalition building is a key aspect of the campaign, and one of our greatest successes so far has been a partnership with the Howe Sound Women’s Centre in Squamish, who assisted us in bringing the SafeVibe message to Squamish and Whistler, where no previous campaigns like this had been done. The response to this campaign has been extremely positive.

The main impact that our initiative will generate is a safer party scene in Vancouver and a reduction in incidents of sexual assault. We know that people are going to go to bars, clubs, and events. We know that right now these are often not safe places for women and that there is a high risk of sexual assault and violence. SafeVibe aims to eradicate this problem by reaching out to women and men who are opposed to all forms of violence and harassment. We want to give them the knowledge and the tools they need to reclaim the party scene from predators, to intervene safely during suspicious situations, to take care of each other and prevent sexual assault. We hope that this project will create a better educated public on the risks of drug and alcohol facilitated sexual assault, enabling them to protect themselves and those around them from becoming vulnerable to these crimes. We anticipate that our growing community of active bystanders will deter perpetrators by blocking them from doing harm. We also hope to encourage survivors of drug and alcohol facilitated sexual assault to seek help and support from rape crisis centres, and to provide them with the tools and information they need to do so.