Direct Services
“We need services that addresses the shortcomings of the pubic transit system.” — DC Resident
With the assistance of volunteers, Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS) provides two innovative programs to give individuals free and safe ride or walk to their homes.
Right Rides, which started in 2004 in New York City, found a home in Washington, DC with CASS. The CASS, RightRides program provides free, safe, and late night ride to women and LGBTQ individuals. We organize volunteer drivers and navigators to operate a fleet of cars donated by a car-sharing program. Driving Teams provide riders with a safe ride home (not to parties or bars), We accept no cash in the car, not even tips. We do accept donations to keep RightRides DC operational!
Our motto is, “Because Getting Home Safely Shouldn’t Be A Luxury”. We recognize that many women and LGBTQ people do not have the extra funds to take a taxi and walking home or taking public transportation late at night can increase one’s risk of sexual harassment and assault.
To learn more about RightRides DC, please click here.
We are always looking for Drivers, Navigators, Dispatchers, and interns to keep RightRides DC going. If you are interested, please fill out this form.
Safe Streets
Businesses are our partners in crime. Let’s get them involved in addressing public sexual harassment and assault through “Safe Streets.” We do that by training businesses about public sexual harassment and assault and how businesses can assist someone who is being harassed or assaulted. After taking our Safe Streets course, businesses will receive a sticker to showcase in their window that alerts a community member that if they are being harassed, this business is a safe place.
Safe Streets is another way CASS is creating a community-based response to public sexual harassment and assault.
Advocacy & Policy
Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good action; try to use ordinary situations. –Jean Paul Richter
Police, public transit workers, taxi drivers, business owners, individuals are all parts of the DC metro ecosystem and vital to the fight against public sexual harassment and assault. We believe in engaging each of these entities, and advocating for the safety of all DC metro residents to live lives free of public sexual harassment and assault.
To engage in policy work, we will:
- Collaborate with other organizations with similar mission or are working with populations that are facing sexual harassment and assault.
- Develop policy papers on prevalence of public sexual harassment and assault in the DC metro public transportation systems.
- Create community town forums and rallies that address the need to make our streets and parks safe, increase community education, and develop anti-sexual harassment campaigns in our metro system
- Work with experts from the community in social science, psychology, education, public transportation, urban development to address the safety needs of women and LGBTQ individuals.
Community Trainings
To see things in the seed, that is genius. –Lao Tzu
Creating community dialogue around public sexual harassment and assault is a necessary component to ending this problem. CASS does this in a variety of different ways.
Community Workshops
We conduct anti-street harassment workshops. Supported by the generosity of attendees and organizations, we provide the following workshops:
- Stop Street Harassment and Holla Back DC!, where we define street harassment, focus on tips for victims of street harassment, brainstorm community-based solutions to this issue.
- Sexual Violence Culture, facilitate discussion on societal definitions of masculinity and femininity and the cultural norms that perpetuate sexual violence, deconstruct media clips of pop culture, and its relevance to the prevalence of street harassment.
- Planting Seeds, training grassroots activists to become successful online activism, generating offline activism, and finding ways to end gender-based violence.
Each workshop can be tailored to fit various populations and your needs. To request these or any other presentations, please click here to fill out the presentation request form.
Town Halls
We value listening to our community. That is why CASS is committed to conducting town hall meetings to determine if our advocacy & policy recommendations, direct services, and community trainings are reflecting what is happening in different parts of our community. We meet in churches, community recreation centers, and community spaces, to discuss street harassment and assault, coming up with community-based solutions.
Check out our calendar [LINK] to plan on coming out to the next town hall. Or if you interested in organizing a Town Hall, contact us at info@collectiveactiondc.org.