Alliance for Girls has been conducting youth-led research on the lives of Bay Area girls of color. Most girls in their studies say they don't feel safe on public transportation because they’ve been targets of harassment and violence. This prompted youth and Alliance 4 Girls to call on BART to do something. They launched the #NotOneMoreGirl Campaign to protect girls and gender-expansive youth.
Haleema Bharoocha is Alliance for Girls’ senior advocacy manager. She led the policy strategy for the campaign. And Anyka Barber, founder of Betti Ono Gallery, led the culture and art strategy component. In this interview, they talk about the art that will be posted around the stations to bring awareness to the issue and BART policy changes for girls to be safer.
"We have met with other transit agencies in the Bay Area, with their executives, and asked them, 'If I were a young person who experienced sexual harassment, where would I be able to access to get help?' They did not know."Haleema Bharoocha
We also reached out to BART for a statement. They responded:
"Making BART safer for women, girls, and gender-expansive youth is essential to the future success of BART. We’ve embraced this initiative from the very beginning and worked side by side with the campaign leaders to change policy and culture with the goal of ending sexual harassment and violence and better serving those who face barriers to accessing safe transportation. We are currently exploring the next phase of this campaign and how to advance this important work."
Visit the #NotOneMoreGirl website for information and videos on what riders and bystanders can do and check out the campaign art.
