Learn more about the world of modern slavery: American Crime Season 3
American Crime Season 3 Watch Party Toolkit
As trafficking advocates we spend every day working toward a world without human trafficking. The first two episodes of American Crime have been intense and pretty emotional. They also present a pretty realistic account of what trafficking looks like. We’ve been so excited to see trafficking themes drive the plot of a TV show on a major network like ABC. The show has characters preying on vulnerable migrants and drug addicted youth to traffic them on a family farm, as well as pimps and buyers of sex preying on young, vulnerable boys and girls. Our team can’t stop talking about the show, so we thought we’d record our “watch party” conversations to share with you all. We encourage you to have watch parties of your own and really learn about the trafficking happening in our own neighborhoods everyday. - Medium Our team is live-tweeting each episode at twitter.com/fempubworks. For a sample of the ways the tweets directly engage with thematic elements and contextualize the plot in the reality of human trafficking work, checkout this Storify from episode 1. Every Tuesday we'll also release a blog post on Medium of our group-engagement and discussions around the themes each episode, hopefully they'll inspire and inform your discussions! See the post for Episodes 1 and 2! If you want to host your own watch-club parties, checkout the toolkit below for tips and resources!The Team:
Rochelle: former SVU/trafficking prosecutor, current program Director working to disrupt human trafficking
Meghan: Advocate working to disrupt human trafficking with a background in education policy and trauma
Veronica: Data Analyst doing anti-human trafficking work with a federal government background
American Crime Season 3 Watch Party ToolkitMarch to End Rape Culture

Assessing the Safety of San Diego’s Comic Con International 2014
RELEASE: An Exhibition and Program Series on Gender Justice and Mass Incarceration
Leeway Foundation and Bread & Roses Community Fund present RELEASE: An Exhibition and Program Series on Gender Justice and Mass Incarceration
On View February 26 – June 30, 2015 At the Leeway Foundation 1315 Walnut Street, Suite 832, Philadelphia, PA 19107 (Venue is wheelchair accessible)
HollabackPHILLY Officially Transitions to Feminist Public Works. Join them!
- The main Hollaback! organization, based in New York City, released the video independently.
- None of the 79+ international branches were involved in or aware of the project.
- While we all share a brand, each local Hollaback! branch operates independently and receives no funding or significant operational support from the paid Hollaback! staff at the main branch in New York City.
The Walking Dead’s Laurie Holden describes her role in Colombian sex trafficking sting
The Walking Dead's Laurie Holden describes her role in Colombian sex trafficking sting
Laurie Holden became famous playing the brave civil rights lawyer, Andrea, on the hit TV series The Walking Dead. But offscreen, the Canadian-raised actress recently took on the role of a lifetime. Earlier this year, she took part in an undercover operation that resulted in the rescue of 55 sex slaves in Colombia, some as young as 12. "I had a pretty good disguise — I had a wig and glasses," said Holden in an interview with CBC News. Her role in the sting was to keep the young girls distracted as armed authorities closed in on their traffickers.Watch her interview here, describing the sting and how they busted the traffickers in Colombia.
GeeksForCONsent (a project of Feminist Public Works) Takes on San Diego Comic Con International.
GeeksForCONsent (a project of Feminist Public Works) Takes on San Diego Comic Con International.
After receiving no response to multiple attempts to contact the conventions, our project, GeeksForCONsent petitioned San Diego Comic Con International this past spring asking for a more thorough and effective approach to the Convention's harassment issue at the July 2014 event. San Diego Comic Con did not respond to the petition, but in interviews stated that harassment was not a problem at the convention, and to put more energy into an anti-harassment effort would make it look like a bigger problem than it is. Their concern with bad press outweighed their consideration for the safety and enjoyment of the women and LGBTQ attendees of the convention. So, the team flew out to San Diego (thanks to generous crowdfunding for their comic book campaign to send them to the convention). While at the convention, GeeksForCONsent posted "COSPLAY =/= CONSENT" flyers throughout the convention and the events downtown but outside the convention hall. Staff tore the signs down and threatened to kick them out if they continued to post them. The next day, the team decided to post "official" anti-harassment posters, to show the convention how easy a solution would be to implement.



GeeksForCONsent (a project of Feminist Public Works) modifies the gender-based safety audit for use in convention spaces
GeeksForCONsent (a project of Feminist Public Works) modifies the gender-based safety audit for use in convention spaces
GeeksForCONsent modified the United Nations best practice gender-based safety audits for more streamlined use and relevance in comic-convention settings. The United Nations recommended gender-based safety audit is a tool used by community groups and municipalities to audit public spaces for gender-based feelings of insecurity, incorporating objective observations of the spaces as well as subjective interviews of the people who interact with those spaces on a regular basis. The objective and subjective data is then compiled into an audit report and used to make recommendations for improved policy and suggestions for making the spaces feel safer. Safety audits incorporate desires of the people using the spaces, validating women and LGBTQ folks as experts of their own experiences, and minimizing the risk of new policies that could make the space feel less safe by incorporating subjective experiences into the decision-making calculus. GeeksForCONsent changed the questions to be relevant to convention spaces and updated the objective inquiries for relevance. The first test run of their modified audit style was used this past weekend at San Diego Comic Con International. The GeeksForCONsent team audited the convention hall, the convention policies, and the overall mechanisms for gender-based safety in the convention space. The audit report is expected to be published late 2014, including data collected at the convention and recommendations for improvements for San Diego's 2015 convention. If you're interested in auditing a convention near you, stay tuned in early 2015 for opportunities to use their streamlined model at your convention!New bus shelter ad aims to undo VisitPhilly damage

