Fayetteville partners with international organizations to address street harassment
The Stand-Up Against Street Harassment campaign has made its way to Fayetteville through a partnership with the City of Fayetteville, Hollaback! and L'Oréal Paris.
Hollaback! is an international organization that works to provide people with tools to safely intervene when they witness harassment or experience it themselves.
Fayetteville Mayor Mitch Colvin said he hopes people who live, visit and work in the city will help promote peace.
"This is one way that we can all work to save our city," said Colvin. "We know that gender-based violence can happen to anyone. You could be the one to intervene, you could be the one to offer help."
On Tuesday, Colvin delivered a proclamation on behalf of the Fayetteville City Council, proclaiming the day Right to Be Day in Fayetteville.
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"Hollaback! works in communities to understand the problem, ignite public conversation, develop innovative strategies that result in safe and welcoming environments for all," Colvin said in his proclamation. "Whereas when we intervene, we do not just reduce the trauma for the person that is being harassed, we also start to chip away at the culture that allows gender-based bias, gender inequality and harassment to be so prevalent."
Hollaback! Deputy Director Jorge Arteaga said the organization felt Fayetteville was a good place to bring the initiative to address street harassment.
The Stand-Up Against Street Harassment campaign, which is funded by L'Oréal Paris, is held as part of the 16 Days of Activism international campaign.
As part of the campaign, Arteaga held two sexual harassment training sessions at Kiwanis Recreation Center. On Thursday, two more sessions will be held at Fayetteville State University at noon and 3 p.m.
Within the training sessions, participants talk about the problem of harassment, share their experiences and discuss the impacts of harassment on people.
"We talk about the five Ds; the five Ds are distract — create a distraction to deescalate a situation; delegate — find someone else to help you; document — create documentation of the situation and give it to the person who experienced the harassment so they can choose what to do with it; delay — wait until after and check in with the person to make sure they're OK; and then direct — directly intervene, create a boundary but then quickly turn your attention to take care of the person," Arteaga said.
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According to Colvin, the Stand-Up Against Street Harassment Campaign aims to train 40,000 people in the U.S. to become bystanders by the end of 2021 to "ultimately build a culture where street harassment is an unacceptable behavior globally."
Aside from the in-person training sessions Wednesday and Thursday, Hollaback! will also hold virtual training sessions, which will be available in both English and Spanish, according to Arteaga. To sign-up for training sessions, visit Hollaback!'s website.
Staff writer Akira Kyles can be reached at akyles@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville, Hollaback! and L'OréalParis join for 16 days of Activism
