Safety in Stem

Sexual violence remains a pervasive issue within the workplace, particularly in male-dominated fields such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Research shows that women in STEM are more likely to face sexual violence than their non-STEM counterparts. According to a survey by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 58% of female STEM students face sexual harassment during their academic years. This problem in the STEM community isn’t just limited to students. In 2015, a report showed that 1 in 3 women professors of STEM experienced sexual violence. A 2022 report commissioned by the National Science Foundation (NSF) showed that out of the 290 female respondents, 72% agreed that sexual harassment and sexual assault are a problem.

One survivor in STEM reflects, "I know none of this is news to you, it's just a known fact around the station. It's so self-evident that [it's] barely worth speaking out loud. [Sexual assault and sexual harassment] are a fact of life [here], just like the fact that Antarctica is cold and the wind blows."

Another survivor explains how their experience changed their ability to work, "When that mission finished, it really influenced my whole career because I thought this would be the start of my research project with the space agency or the start of my field of work, but I was just totally pushed out of the system."

According to a 2019 report by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, women make up less than 30% of people working in STEM, and half of them are likely to face sexual harassment. Women and girls already face a myriad of obstacles in entering these male-dominated fields, and once they’re granted a seat at the table, they are disproportionately pushed out by acts of sexual harassment. Or, perhaps worse, they are forced to choose justice or their careers. No one should have to make this choice.

Women in STEM are surviving in a highly toxic space. We need to acknowledge the problem, remove the stigma on reporting and on rape, and let women thrive, regardless of what they study or where they work.

Rise's solution to addressing the increased sexual violence against women in STEM is the expansion of our existing Survivor Safe Haven (SSH) program to areas with high concentrations of STEM facilities.

The Survivor Safe Haven program was initiated in 2020 in response to a significant spike in sexual and domestic violence during the pandemic, reaching three times the average rates globally. To address this issue, Rise established a network of supportive establishments, including businesses, restaurants, libraries, and pharmacies across the nation. These establishments serve as safe havens for survivors, offering a place where they can seek help and support.

The program operates through the use of a discreet code phrase, "Where can I see the sunrise?" When an individual in crisis enters one of our Survivor Safe Haven partner locations and uses this code, trained staff members are alerted to their situation. These staff members provide immediate assistance by guiding the survivor to a secure area within the establishment and contacting the designated hotline for further support.

Surviving sexual violence can be an isolating experience, which is why the Survivor Safe Haven program has a dual purpose. Firstly, it aims to provide a safe and secure environment for survivors to access the help they need in their time of crisis. Secondly, it aims to foster a community of allies who send a powerful message to survivors that they are not alone in their journey to healing and recovery.

Through our growing network of Survivor Safe Haven partners, we are providing access to vital information and resources to an estimated 55.5 million Americans. This outreach enables survivors to connect with the support they require, while also raising awareness about the prevalence of sexual violence and the need for a supportive community within the STEM field.

By expanding the Survivor Safe Haven program to areas with a strong STEM presence, we aim to create safer environments, increase access to support services, and ultimately empower survivors to thrive in their professional pursuits. Our solution directly addresses the issue of sexual violence against women in STEM by providing tangible support and building a network of solidarity and understanding.

Our solution serves survivors of sexual violence in STEM, which is not limited to women, though women are disproportionately affected by sexual violence. This solution was developed by our team, which is staffed by survivors and allies. We have also hosted several survivor town halls throughout the years, allowing survivors from all walks of life to share their stories, their experiences, and the ways the systems failed them. With this information in mind, we sought to create a community-based solution that would address the needs of survivors who are afraid to seek help or do not know how. By creating accessible and common points of safety and resources, we empower survivors to get the help they need in a safe way.  

Rise started when our founder and CEO, Amanda Nguyen, began to change the laws in the United States to protect survivors of sexual violence. Amanda, as a survivor, saw firsthand how she was failed by the policies and practices used to respond to sexual violence survivors. In 2016, Amanda passed the Survivor Bill of Rights unanimously through the U.S. Congress, and, through Rise, continued to pass similar laws in the years that followed on a state-by-state basis. Since Rise’s inception, we have passed 62 laws protecting over 104.9 million survivors, and one UN Resolution protecting at least 1.3 billion survivors of sexual violence. 

Rise is made up of survivors and allies, because we believe that the best people positioned to respond to issues are those at the center of them. Rise maintains an open dialogue with survivors of all walks of life, hosting town halls that allow survivors to share their experiences. We use this information to inform the bills we support and the laws we pass, as well as the programs we build to address the needs of survivors across the globe. 

The idea for a Survivor Safe Haven in STEM originated from conversations between women in STEM and our founder, Amanda Nguyen. Amanda is currently an astronaut candidate and in her classes, she often discussed with the other women how sexual harassment was the norm. Thus, the idea of creating safe access points for women in STEM who are surviving or who have survived acts of sexual harassment, came to be. 

This is the idea we are proposing today: Survivor Safe Haven - Safety in STEM.

55 Million People have access to our current survivor Safe Havens

Rise is applying to the Challenge to drive the expansion of our Survivor Safe Haven program and establish Safety in STEM. We recognize the critical need to address gender equity in the STEM field and believe that collaboration with Solve and Tiger Global Impact Ventures can help us overcome specific barriers in the financial, technical, legal, cultural, and market realms.

Financial Barrier: We face challenges in securing adequate funding to support the scale-up and sustainability of our Survivor Safe Haven program in the STEM industry. Solve and Tiger Global Impact Ventures can provide financial support through the grant, enabling us to allocate resources towards program implementation, capacity building, and outreach initiatives.

Technical Barrier: Implementing the Survivor Safe Haven program across diverse STEM institutions and sectors requires technical expertise. Solve and Tiger Global Impact Ventures can connect us with a network of partners who possess specialized knowledge and resources in the STEM field. These partners can provide valuable insights and guidance on adapting our program to different technical environments and optimizing its effectiveness.

Cultural Barrier: Addressing gender equity requires sensitivity to cultural nuances within the STEM community. By collaborating with Solve and Tiger Global Impact Ventures, we can benefit from their diverse network and gain access to thought leaders and practitioners who possess deep understanding and experience in promoting inclusive cultures within STEM organizations. Their guidance and mentorship will empower us to tailor our program to the unique cultural contexts of different STEM industries and foster a more inclusive and supportive environment for survivors.

Market Barrier: Overcoming market barriers is crucial for the successful expansion and sustainability of our program. Solve and Tiger Global Impact Ventures can connect us with a wide range of industry partners, creating opportunities for collaboration and market access. Their extensive network can help us identify potential stakeholders, strategic partners, and funding opportunities within the STEM market, enabling us to scale our program's impact and reach a larger audience of survivors.

By participating in the 6-month Support Program offered by Solve and Tiger Global Impact Ventures, we aim to leverage the comprehensive needs assessment, access to resource partners, learning and development modules, leadership coaching, and peer-to-peer network. These resources will accelerate our impact, refine our business model, strengthen our theory of change, and develop plans for scaling our Survivor Safe Haven program across the STEM industry.

Together with Solve and Tiger Global Impact Ventures, we are committed to advancing gender equity in STEM by fostering a safe and inclusive environment for survivors and creating lasting change within the STEM community.

Rise’s founder, Amanda Nguyen, is a woman in STEM who experienced sexual violence. Because of her rape, Amanda decided to pause her astronaut candidacy and create Rise. After 8 years of protecting over 1.3 billion survivors around the world, Amanda has restarted her astronaut training. Thanks to the support of many individuals in the aerospace industry, Amanda has continued to build a network of astronaut women. To launch Survivor Safe Haven: Safety in STEM, Rise proposes to create a historic gathering of women astronauts. 

Amanda reflects: “Every time I speak or attend a space community gathering there are women who share with me their survivor stories. A painful pattern emerges in these conversations. Already grappling with a male-dominated field, women share with me their survival strategy and the heart wrenching decision to not speak up, in fear of risking their career.”

Rise's solution, Survivor Safe Haven, addresses a critical gap that often exists between survivors of sexual violence and the resources available to help them. This gap may arise due to a lack of awareness about available resources, safety concerns, or language barriers. Our innovative approach focuses on creating a bridge that connects survivors with the support they need in a discreet and accessible manner.

While other initiatives may focus solely on awareness or counseling, Survivor Safe Haven goes beyond that by creating a network of physical locations where survivors can find immediate refuge, support, and access to resources. By combining safe spaces with a comprehensive support system, we address the urgent needs of survivors in a unique and comprehensive way. Survivor Safe Haven establishes safe spaces in locations that survivors visit regularly, ensuring that they can access resources without alerting their abusers or feeling pressured to disclose their experiences before they are ready. By strategically locating these safe havens, we empower survivors to seek help while simultaneously building a larger network of safety and support across the United States.

One of the key aspects of our solution is its ability to foster a greater understanding of the survivor experience and promote empathy. By establishing more Survivor Safe Havens, we aim to destigmatize surviving sexual violence and create an environment where survivors feel comfortable reaching out for help. Through these safe spaces, we provide tangible evidence of our commitment to supporting survivors, which can influence societal attitudes and perceptions surrounding sexual violence.

Moreover, the widespread adoption of Survivor Safe Havens has the potential to catalyze a broader positive impact within the field of addressing sexual violence. By showcasing the effectiveness of our approach, we hope to inspire other organizations and communities to establish similar initiatives. This collective effort can contribute to a cultural shift, where survivors are met with empathy and understanding, and comprehensive support systems become the norm.

Through Survivor Safe Haven, Rise is driving innovation by bridging the gap between survivors and resources in a discreet and accessible manner. We aim to create a society that not only recognizes and supports survivors but also actively works towards destigmatizing sexual violence. By expanding the reach of Survivor Safe Haven and fostering empathy within communities, we are confident that our solution will bring about meaningful change in the lives of survivors and contribute to a safer and more compassionate society as a whole.

In the next year, our impact goals through Safety in STEM is to begin developing this program in STEM academic centers - namely universities like MIT, Cal Tech, Georgia Tech and others - covering all 50 states and establishing Survivor Safe Haven partners for Safety in STEM in at least 2 regions within each state. 

According to a study by Erin Duffin, in 2021, institutions of higher education awarded over 700,000 degrees in STEM. Since 2010, institutions have annually awarded over 500,000 degrees in STEM. With our program focusing on academic settings, we estimate it to have an impact on over 500,000 students every year. While Safety in STEM works to address the issues faced by many women in STEM, it would be a service open to all survivors - male, female, and nonbinary.

In the next five years, our impact goals will expand to include non-academic STEM centers. This includes professional development spaces, institutional headquarters, and field offices. Places like NASA offices, National Institutes of Health offices, National Science Foundation Offices, Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, Bell Labs, and research centers for IBM, Google, Intel, and Microsoft to name a few. According to Pew Research, there were 19.1 million employees aged 25 and older in STEM fields in 2019 - with women making up 50% of the workforce. Our Safety in STEM program would thus target 9.55 million women, while offering resources to all 19.1 million workers. 

In order to reach these targets, Rise plans to create collaborative partnerships with the academic centers and their Title IX offices to disseminate our code-word flyers and provide education and training to campus staff. These academic centers would join an existing and expanding network of Survivor Safe Havens, with whom Rise communicates regularly to provide updates, news, and advice. Once we have established a solid foundation in academic centers, we plan to partner with the professional STEM spaces to continue to serve the STEM community. Similar to the plan for the academic centers, we would partner with HR offices to disseminate our code-word flyers and provide training and education to staff. Our flyers would be placed in discrete spaces, like bathrooms, in order to keep our code word working.   

With the collaboration of Solve and Tiger Global Impact Ventures, we confidently believe that these goals of providing over 20 million people, and 10 million women specifically, in STEM with resources and access to safety can come to fruition.

Share a few specific indicators you are using to measure your progress. These may be indicators you are already collecting and using to talk about your solution’s progress and impact. Or, if you need ideas, you may wish to draw from the list of indicators associated with the UN Sustainable Development Goals that align with your solution. You can view the list of indicators by clicking “More Info” for your goal, then “Targets and Indicators,” and finally “Indicators” under each target.

Rise, through our Safety in STEM initiative, is committed to achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls, as outlined in Goal 5 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. To measure our progress towards these impact goals, we have identified specific indicators related to the targets 5.1 and 5.c.

For Target 5.1, which focuses on ending all forms of discrimination against women and girls, we are tracking the presence of legal frameworks that promote, enforce, and monitor equality and non-discrimination on the basis of sex. Through our project, we collaborate with relevant stakeholders to assess the existence and effectiveness of such legal frameworks in the areas where we expand our Survivor Safe Haven (SSH) program. We monitor and evaluate the extent to which these legal frameworks are in place and effectively implemented to address gender-based discrimination. We also inform survivors of their rights in their state, to empower them with the knowledge of how to move forward after an assault.

In alignment with Target 5.c, which emphasizes adopting and strengthening policies and legislation for gender equality and empowerment, we are measuring the proportion of institutions with systems in place to track and make public allocations for gender equality and women's empowerment. We collaborate with our local partners to collect data on the allocation of resources, funding, and support dedicated to initiatives promoting gender equality in STEM fields. This data allows us to assess the effectiveness of policies and legislation, identify gaps, and advocate for necessary improvements to support women and girls in STEM.

Additionally, as part of our monitoring and evaluation process, we will collect qualitative and quantitative data on the number of survivors accessing our Survivor Safe Haven program, the satisfaction and support levels reported by survivors, and their successful navigation of support services. This data enables us to assess the reach and effectiveness of our program in providing a safe environment and empowering survivors to seek help and support.

By employing these indicators and tracking their progress over time, we aim to demonstrate our impact in achieving gender equality, ending discrimination, and promoting women's empowerment in the STEM field. We continuously analyze the data collected, identify areas for improvement, and share our findings to foster accountability and drive positive change.

In summary, our measurement of progress includes monitoring the presence of legal frameworks for gender equality and tracking allocations for gender equality and women's empowerment. Furthermore, we assess the impact of our Survivor Safe Haven program by evaluating the number of survivors reached and their experiences in accessing support services. Through these indicators, we are committed to making tangible progress in achieving our impact goals and fostering a supportive and inclusive environment for women and girls in STEM.

A 2018 National Academies report titled “Sexual Harassment of Women” demonstrated that at least 75% of undergraduate women in physics experienced at least one instance of sexual harassment. Moreover, the report found that female faculty in STEM who experience sexual harassment most commonly report three negative professional outcomes: they step down from leadership positions to avoid perpetrators, leave their institutions, or leave the field altogether. These consequences are damaging to the scientific community as a whole, and make the goal of gender equity in STEM harder to reach. 

We expect our Survivor Safe Haven: Safety in STEM program to address these issues by creating the safe spaces these women needed when they were forced to step down, leave their workplace, or leave STEM. 

The immediate outputs of our activities include the establishment of a network of safe spaces and trained staff members who can effectively respond to survivors' needs. By providing safe havens and resources, we expect survivors to feel empowered and supported to seek help. This can lead to increased access to necessary services such as counseling, medical assistance, legal support, and community resources. Survivors will have a safe and confidential space where they can share their experiences and receive the support they need to heal and recover.

As survivors access support and resources through Survivor Safe Haven, we anticipate several longer-term outcomes:

Survivors will experience a heightened sense of safety and security, knowing they have designated places they can turn to for help and support; survivors will have the opportunity to access counseling, therapy, and other necessary support systems to address the physical, emotional, and psychological impact of sexual violence; survivors will feel validated, believed, and encouraged to reclaim their lives and thrive despite their experiences.

Survivor Safe Havens have the potential to generate a broader awareness and understanding of sexual violence in the STEM community. By building a network of supportive allies, we aim to create a community where survivors are embraced and where the culture of silence surrounding sexual violence is challenged.

Ultimately, we aspire to contribute to a cultural shift within the STEM industry, one that prioritizes safety, respect, and inclusivity. Survivor Safe Havens can serve as catalysts for change, influencing industry practices, policies, and attitudes towards addressing and preventing sexual violence. By establishing a new standard of care and support, we strive to create a safer and more equitable environment for women in STEM.

Through this theory of change, we expect Survivor Safe Haven to have a tangible and lasting impact on survivors of sexual violence in STEM. By providing immediate support, resources, and fostering a culture of empathy and understanding, we believe our solution can empower survivors, promote healing and recovery, and contribute to a safer and more inclusive STEM community.

Our team is made up of six full-time staff members, and one contractor. Seasonally, we also have help from 3 interns.

Our team has been working on Survivor Safe Havens overall for the past 3 years, and on Survivor Safe Havens in STEM for the past year.

We have implemented a range of initiatives and programs to promote diversity, equity, and inclusivity. This includes actively seeking diverse perspectives and experiences in our leadership positions, fostering an inclusive organizational culture, and providing resources and support to individuals from underrepresented groups.

Rise also recognizes the importance of amplifying underrepresented voices and perspectives. We actively seek input from diverse stakeholders, including survivors, community members, and experts from different backgrounds, to ensure that our work reflects a wide range of experiences and needs. [STATS on leadership and board?]

At the very core of our work is advocacy for equity. One of our principal goals is to help everyday people pen their own rights into existence by writing and passing their own laws. Through this initiative, we seek to lower the bar to entry to policy and legislative change for underrepresented communities. We are dedicated to addressing systemic barriers that perpetuate inequities. This includes advocating for policy changes, collaborating with other organizations, and implementing programs that provide equal opportunities for all individuals, regardless of their background or circumstances.

Through our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusivity, we aim to create a safe and empowering environment for all individuals impacted by sexual violence. We recognize that diversity brings strength and richness to our organization and the communities we serve. By valuing and embracing diverse perspectives, we can better address the unique challenges faced by different individuals and work towards a more equitable and inclusive society.

The economic impact on survivors of sexual violence is estimated to be $122,000 per survivor. By providing access to resources through programs like this we are directly lowering that burden and providing community to survivors who need it. Internally our revenue is fully generated by individual donations.