A nonprofit organization is urging businesses in Dallas to prioritize women’s safety to make them feel more secure when patronizing their establishments.
24HourDallas is asking restaurants, clubs, and bars to make a pledge to protect women when they visit their locations.
Jasmin Brand, vice president of 24HourDallas, said prioritizing women’s safety is a vital part of creating a robust nighttime economy.
“It’s so important, I know, for me as a woman who goes out to eat and travels around the city, to feel safe,” Brand told CBS 11 News.
The nonprofit has now created the Women’s Nighttime Safety Charter, where businesses can sign a pledge to:
- Identify someone who will champion the safety of women who work at or patronize their establishment at night.
- Emphasize to their staff and customers through their organization’s policies and communications that they take women’s safety seriously at their establishment.
- Train their workers to “believe any woman who claims to have been harassed verbally, physically or sexually” in their establishment and to make proper record of the incidents.
- Recognize when a woman’s drink has been spiked or if she is binge drinking and take steps to ensure her safety.
- Ensure all women employed in their establishment, directly or through a third party, are working there by choice and not as forced labor.
- Participate in some women’s safety programs, like those offered by the “Hospitality Coalition Against Domestic Violence” or “Ask for Angela.”
- Apply for 24HourDallas’ 2023 Copper Star certification program, where achieving the benchmarks listed above can lead to an honored accreditation.
Brand said she immediately starts to think positively of any organization that has signed the pledge. She added that women would get excited once they heard about the charter.
The Nonprofit will promote the charter by hosting a night-out event on March 8 between 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the AT&T Performing Arts Center.
