Philadelphia City Council Collaboration

On November 7, 2014, Philadelphia City Council met for a hearing to address the problem of street harassment in Philadelphia. This was the second hearing in the world where legislators met specifically to discuss street harassment, and Feminist Public Works team members (formerly HollabackPHILLY) spearheaded this effort with the goal of civic collaboration on a citywide safety audit. The team coordinated this hearing, presented a report summarizing data from a recent survey on street harassment in the city, played of high school girls' experiences with street harassment, and many community members testified about the impact of street harassment on their daily lives. Our end goal for this public policy work is to conduct a gender-based safety audit of Philadelphia, to determine what factors contribute to making women and LGBTQ folks feeling unsafe, and what could be done to make them feel safer. The hearing garnered significant media coverage, including NBC, Philadelphia City Paper, WHYY/Newsworks (Philly's NPR), The Philly Gay News, Next City, Women's Media Center, Stop Street Harassment (article two), and Generocity. City Council Member James Kenney committed to collaborating on a citywide safety audit, which will occur in late 2014.  

Video from the November 7, 2013 hearing:

http://youtu.be/B3y_11p9IEs