Project Night Light
Shining the light on respect and equality in our venues.
Everyone deserves to feel safe on a night out. Unfortunately, many women feel unsafe when commuting, working or going out at night.
Our goal is for women to feel safe, confident and welcome at night.
This is why we have partnered with key stakeholders and city venues to launch Project Night Light.
Project Night Light is a pilot program that prioritises women's safety and aims to enhance Adelaide's status as a safer city for all to enjoy. It will focus on staff training and providing support for venues to create and promote a culture that is safe and respectful of women.
Commitment of venues
The venues that have already signed up for Project Night Light will enact 6 important commitments to provide women with a safe environment.
- Champions: each venue will nominate two champions to actively promote women's safety.
- Training: City of Adelaide's free Bystander Intervention Training and Responding to Disclosures Training will provide the background, tools, and ideas to support a venue's involvement in the program.
- Communicate: venues will promote the program to staff and patrons to spread the important message.
- Support Staff: education will be provided for staff on what to do if they experience harassment in the workplace, when going out or commuting to and from work.
- Support the public: implement procedures to responding to reports of harassment or assault in your venue.
- Check your venue: undertake a free venue audit to identify ways to reduce opportunities for crime and anti-social behaviour.
Participating venues
Steering Group Members
- SA Police
- Office for Women
- Working Women's Centre
- Consumer and Business Services
- Australian Hotels Association (SA Branch)
- Encounter Youth
- Youth Inc.
- UniSA
- Equal Opportunity Commission
- United Workers Union
- Not So Hospitable
- Gender Equality Solutions
- Purple Orange
Three important tips
- Safe: Keep yourself and others safe.
- Active: Do something. Focus on what you can do to improve the situation.
- Calm: Always stay calm and try to calm others. Model the behavior you want to see.
Types of bystander action
Direct action
- Call it out: name or acknowledge the offence (“that’s pretty sexist”)
- Use “I” statements: focus on the behaviour and its impact on you (“I don’t feel comfortable when you talk about women like that”)
- Interrupt the behaviour: pretend you know the victim and move them away from the potential perpetrator
- Use body language: to show disapproval (shake of the head, eye roll)
- Use humour: with care/without trivialising (“no wonder you’re single with attitudes like that!”)
- Publicly support the victimised person: “Hey are you ok?” “What they did/said is not ok.”
Indirect action
- Get Help: someone else might be in a better position to intervene eg police, security
- Privately support an aggrieved person: ask them if they are ok, provide resources
- Report the incident: e.g. to a workplace or an online platform
For people you Know
- Encourage dialogue/facilitate a discussion: “hey, what’s going on for you?”
- Bring it home - make it personal: “we’re friends right…” “how would you feel if someone said that to your daughter/mother/partner…”
- Offer resources/information: e.g. 1800 RESPECT, No To Violence, MensLine, LifeLine
Examples of positive bystander intervention
If your friends are telling sexist jokes: speak up and say you don’t want to hear it.
If someone sends you emails or texts with content that demeans women: ask them to stop.
If someone can’t make their way home safely: help them to get home safely.
If you see a woman being harassed in a bar, let the security guard or bar manager know, or if safe interrupt them and pretend you know the victim.
If you see a serious situation that looks like police assistance is required: call the police.
Sometimes there is no one clear answer about which form of bystander action to take. But understanding why it’s important to intervene, and what different strategies you can use can help you decide which might be the best form of action.
Intersectionality
While Project Night Lights focus is on gender inequality, sexism and gender-based violence, we understand that gender inequality is not experienced in the same way by everyone, and that it intersects with other forms of inequality including racism, colonialism, homophobia and transphobia, ableism, ageism, classism and other forms of discrimination.
We can and must be positive bystanders against these and other forms of discrimination, and our messaging, tools and strategies will reflect that. We encourage our champions to consider this too when thinking about their own messages and the broader campaign.
Learn more about intersectional feminism.
Read Our Watch's resource on supporting the prevention of violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.
Additional Resources
Respect Women, Respect Victoria
Racism. It Stops With Me, Australian Human Rights Commission
How can my venue get involved?
Project Night Light is a pilot program. We are accepting expressions of interest from venues in the city and North Adelaide interested in becoming a Project Night Light venue in the future.