On Wednesday night, Sept. 14, some 500 people of all ages and backgrounds gathered at the Prospect Avenue R-train station on Fourth Avenue. Together, they marched through the neighborhood to Joseph Mayrose Park at Seventh Avenue and 17th Street, chanting messages of safety for the community. “What do we want? Safe streets! When do we want them? Now!” “No more silence! No more violence!” “People unite! Take back the night!”
The march was organized by Safe Slope, a grassroots volunteer group that came together in response to recent assaults in and around Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Greenwood Heights, and Sunset Park. Since March, there have been at least nine sexual assaults and one rape in the area. All the women had been attacked at night, from about 8:30 p.m. to 3 a.m., making many residents feel unsafe.
Safe Slope is a group of seven women and men who came together because of an urgent need to make our community safer. To that end, we seek to share resources and find solutions with our neighbors. Our hope is to inspire a network of residents across the city who want to jumpstart resources in their own neighborhoods.
The “Take Back Our Streets” rally on Sept. 14 was the organization’s first project to unite the community and increase awareness of the greater need for safety. Following the march was an array of local speakers — leaders and activists who have worked on similar issues, from keeping our streets safe to preventing sexual assault and empowering people to defend themselves.
At the event, Tracy Hobson, executive director of the Center for Anti-Violence Education, provided a brief self-defense demonstration for the crowd and signed up community members for free classes. The classes are being organized in collaboration with City Councilmembers Brad Lander and Sara Gonzalez, who also spoke. Other speakers included Oraia Reid, executive director of RightRides; Nancy Schwartzman, filmmaker (The Line) and director of The Line Campaign; Catherine Hodes, program director of the Safe Homes Project at Good Shepherd Services; and Antonia Clemente from the Healing Center. Many other elected officials joined the rally, including Councilmember Letitia James and State Assemblymember Jim Brennan.
In light of the fear, many have felt in our community over the past few months, SafeSlope wanted to send the message that we can all come together and be proactive, not reactive. The rally succeeded in raising awareness and showing that, as a community, we care and we are strong.
Our organization now looks forward to launching other projects that will require more support from fellow community members. Our Safe Walk initiative, for example, is a volunteer-based program providing free walks home to women- and LGBTQ-identified community members. To arrange a Safe Walk, users can call us, and a pair of Safe Slope volunteers will walk them home. We are currently looking for volunteers to help launch this program. E-mail us at safeslope@gmail.com.
Our Safe Space initiative seeks to partner with local establishments (such as bodegas, delis, restaurants, and churches) that are willing to create spaces where community members can retreat briefly if they feel unsafe. These locations would post our decal and be open at night, welcoming community members inside to do what they need to feel safe (e.g., arrange a Safe Walk, call RightRides for a free ride home, wait for a friend or neighbor to walk home together, or call a car service or the police). We are looking for local business owners to participate.
Safe Slope also wants to empower our community by providing education and advocacy: information and tips, access to free or low-cost self-defense workshops, raising awareness about local issues, holding community meetings, providing information about local resources and services, and organizing events.
Many of us in and around our neighborhood have felt unsafe over the last few months. It’s important for us to come together and create immediate responses to these acts of violence, but we cannot stop there. We also need long-term, sustainable solutions that not only make our streets safer now but also promote social justice and prevent violence by addressing its root causes.
For more information about the organization and these efforts, visit www.safeslope.org.
— Jessica Silk is a co-founder of Safe Slope.
from the September 2011 Civic News