It's Not A Compliment

I am applying for the elevate prize because our work is fuelled by the belief that everyone – regardless of their gender, race, sexual orientation, religious background or disability – deserve to experience public spaces free from the fear of harassment. 

If selected as a winner, the Elevate Prize funding would help support and advance our work in the following ways:

• run grass-root campaigns tackling different areas of street harassment (SH) such as streets, public transportation and nightlife as well as the different manifestations of SH such as misogyny, sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, fatphobia and other forms of societal discrimination.
• start a men's allyship program after conducting extensive research so that men can start being active allies in the fight against SH. 
• continue to harness the power of artivism to increase civic engagement on the issue.
• developing community-led policies with important stakeholders focused on prevention through education and cultural change rather than criminalisation of street harassment.
• fill the considerable gaps in quantitative data that exist around SH.

What started as a brainstorming session for a fellowship task soon turned into something more personal when me and my co-founder realised how common street harassment was for many in our circles. Regardless of their gender, sexuality or racial identity – anyone that could in some way be coded as ‘other’ had a story to share about a time a stranger had made them feel uncomfortable or unsafe in a public space. And we were determined to share them. 

Our vision is to create a world where vulnerable communities no longer have to place limitations on their behaviours in order to feel safe when out in public. A world where all individuals know what street harassment looks like, how to call it out and how to safely intervene to stop or prevent it. 

Our Goals

• Promote a more inclusive understanding of what street harassment is.
• Increase awareness of street harassment as a form of harm.
• Create a space where individuals with experiences of street harassment. can safely and honestly share their stories.
• Disrupt common narratives surrounding street harassment.
• Fight for community-led, actionable policies focused on education and creating cultural change rather than criminalisation.

SH is not just a local issue but a global one. Despite the fact that it affects several thousands of people globally, in several countries, including Australia it has been trivalised to the point where it has become normalised.

It’s Not A Compliment grew out of a simple idea – making the everyday better for vulnerable communities.  

As a grassroots organisation fighting for the rights of all individuals to enjoy public spaces free of the fear of harassment, we run projects, conduct research, bystander intervention workshops and campaigns that break through the normalisation of street harassment and encourage communities to challenge the age-old norms that make this type of harm possible in the first place. 

The reasons we focus on SH is because:

• SH is a matter of rights and a freedom of movement issue. 
• SH has a detrimental impact on people’s mental health and wellbeing.
• SH exists along a continuum of violence. 

We believe in an awareness approach over criminalisation.

For a long time, street harassment (SH) has always been looked at through the gender lens. However, we know that it goes far beyond that and the Black Lives Matter movement demonstrates that thoroughly. 

When me and my co-founder were doing the initial planning for INAC, we realised the following: 

• there is a considerable lack of community awareness around what SH is. 
• existing narratives only looked at SH through a gender lens.
• there is a lack of quantitative and qualitative data around street harassment.

And so, we decided to take an awareness based approach:

• One of our main values is intersectionality because we recognise that interlocking systems of power can affect the way people experience street harassment.
• We share stories of SH submitted to us and while every person's experience of SH is different, we raise awareness of the fact that those who have experienced similar things know that they are not alone. 
• we have developed and tested a first of its kind intersectional bystander intervention training.
• launched a first of its kind survey of its kind in Victoria to investigate the impacts of race, sexuality, gender identity, disability, and housing on experiences of street harassment and their aftermath. 

We are dedicated to changing minds – we believe that education, awareness-raising and targeted policy action over criminalisation is the only way to create the true cultural change needed to tackle this issue. To us, equipping our communities with the knowledge they need to see street harassment (SH) for what it is and empower them to act to prevent it is an essential first step towards creating safe public spaces for all.

This is why we are currently in the process of:

• creating a timeline and project plan so that we can run our bystander intervention training workshops across the state of Victoria. Our training focuses on being able to recognise when someone needs help, to act as active, empathetic bystanders; to disrupt the myths and narratives which trivialise and normalise street harassment within their own communities, and to realise that they each have the power to build safer communities

• working on an outward facing story-telling campaign focused on highlighting racism during covid-19 to raise awareness that racism in public spaces is one of the manifestations of SH. 
• conducting our second survey which focus on SH faced by BIPOC communities.