The Red Zone & How The SAFE Bar Network is Working to End It

105,449, that’s the number of students studying, hanging out, and having fun in three college towns the SAFE Bar Network visited this week.

Bloomington, Indiana home to Indiana University

Fayetteville, Arkansas home to the University of Arkansas

Columbia, Missouri home to the University of Missouri

The SAFE Bar Network, with the help of our community partners, facilitated the SAFE Bar training conversation with over 200 team members at SAFE Bar Network member bars in these three college towns just this week.

Not only is this an incredible accomplishment, it goes a long way towards our goal of increasing safety and giving everyone a safe night out because of the Red Zone.

Have you heard of The Red Zone? No, not the red zone like the football red zone. The Red Zone is the time spanning from the start of the fall semester through Thanksgiving break when more than 50% of all college sexual assaults happen. The timing is not coincidental, the Red Zone time frame coincides with the countless parties celebrating students’ return to campus. At the SAFE Bar Network, we know that it's important to recognize how alcohol can be used as a tool to excuse bad behavior or make someone vulnerable so that we can recognize opportunities to step in and help to increase safety.

The teams at FieldHouse, Willie’s, Bullwinkles, Kilroy’s Sports, Kilroy’s on Kirkwood, The Green Room, West & Watson and You Know Uno talked through noticing concerning and unsafe behavior, ways to interrupt effectively, and working together to make a focus on safety part of what it means to work hard at their bars.

The best part of these conversations is always when we get to hear about the times people notice that someone is uncomfortable or unsafe, they check in to help, and they get support from their coworkers.

We heard so many Everyday Active Bystander stories this week just like this one.

The magic of the SAFE Bar Training conversation is getting the whole team (security, barbacks, bartenders, servers, managers, GMs) in one room and teaching them how to have continuous conversations about safety. What we saw this week were teams putting a renewed emphasis on giving everyone a safe night out and cementing the understanding that when you use active bystander skills to increase safety managers and coworkers will support you.

None of this would be possible without the help of our community partners in Arkansas, and Indiana. A big thank you and shout out to the Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault and Human Trafficking, Middleway House, and the NWA Center for Sexual Assault.

Interested in learning more about the SAFE Bar Network and our work to give everyone a safe night out, sign up for our monthly newsletter here. Or contact us at info@safebarnetwork.org

The SAFE Bar Network is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) you can join the team by donating your time, talent, and money to the mission of giving everyone a SAFE Night Out, just click here.

To learn more about active bystander skills check out our blog post, Obstacles. What obstacles? 3 Full Proof Everyday Active Bystander Skills.

Interested in learning more about bystander intervention? Visit our friends at With Us Center for Bystander Intervention.

If you or someone you know has experienced sexual harassment our partners can help. Visit MOCSA.org and RAINN.org

To learn more about the field of violence response and prevention visit PreventConnect.org and NSVRC.org