Restoration Plaza
1368 Fulton St., Between Brooklyn & New York Ave.
A to Nostrand, C to Kingston-Throop, B44, B43, B25
The Safe OUTside the System Collective of the Audre Lorde Project will host a Safe Neighborhood Summit, the kickoff event for the S.O.S. Collective's Safe Neighborhood Campaign which works to prevent and intervene in anti-LGBTST violence without relying on the police. The Safe Neighborhood Summit will inspire and educate community members on how to prevent future violence with free workshops, performances, and speakers.
"On my way home from the last S.O.S. meeting I was verbally harassed on the Uptown C Train."
"My wife and I always call each other when we reach our destination. That way we can make sure that we get home safe."
At our weekly Tuesday meetings Safe OUTside the System Collective members write down incidents of violence that we've experienced and place them on our Community Updates Board. We do this to check in on each other, to strategize on how to support each other, and because statistics on violence against us are rarely kept. We dream about the day when our Community Updates Board will be blank and our community will be free from violence.
On April 12th, 2008 the Safe OUTside the System Collective, the anti-violence initiative of the Audre Lorde Project will be hosting a Safe Neighborhood Summit to kickoff our Safe Neighborhood Campaign. Since 2005 the S.O.S. Collective has developed strategies to reduce violence against our community members without relying on law enforcement. Recognizing our own experiences of police brutality and the experiences of our family members and allies, we use community based alternatives to law enforcement to prevent and intervene violence. We created the Safe Neighborhood Campaign to address an increasing amount of harassment and violence that our community members are facing. We're currently inviting organizations, businesses, faith based institutions, and schools who are willing to be Safe Spaces which pledge to intervene in and prevent anti-LGBTSTGNC harassment or violence on their premises. Some Safe Spaces also agree to be Safe Havens which agree to provide sanctuary to community members escaping violence.
The summit will include speakers, workshops on preventing violence and challenging police violence, and community strategy sessions. This summit will be a place where community leaders will gather to take a stand against violence against LGBTSTGNC (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two-Spirit, Trans, and Gender Non-Conforming) People of Color. We invite you to join us to remember all those that we've lost, and strategize on how to prevent future violence. After the summit we will work collaboratively with the Safe Spaces to develop a training series on how to prevent and intervene in anti-LGBTSTGNC violence without relying on law enforcement.
Current Endorsers & Safe Spaces:
- 123 Tompkins Community Space
- African Ancestral Lesbians United for Social Change
- Brooklyn Young Mothers Collective
- Bronx Community Pride Center
- Brownstone Books
- CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities
- Cafe 258
- Circle of Voices, Inc.
- Common Grounds
- CONNECT
- Education Not Incarceration SF Chapter
- FIERCE!
- Free the Jena 6 SF Bayview TAsk Force
- Girls for Gender Equality
- Griot Circle
- The Hetrick-Martin Institute, Home of The Harvey Milk High School
- House of Art
- Idriss Stelley Foundation
- INCITE! - Women of Color Against Violence
- Justice Committee
- Langston's Lounge
- Lesbians Against Violence and Aggression
- Little Red Boutique
- Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
- NYC Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project
- NO2POLICEABUSEagainstLGBT San Francisco
- The October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality
- Queers for Economic Justice
- Rashawn Brazell Memorial Fund
- SF Bayview CEDP (Campaign to End the Death Penalty)
- SF Village Voice Community Radio
- Sylvia Rivera Law Project
- Tapa San Francisco (Transgenders Against Police Abuse)
- United Bristas of Unity