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The entertainment industry is built on creating a fun, comfortable atmosphere where people come together to relax, let loose and celebrate. The reality is that on any given night employees see customers who are uncomfortable and unsafe and they don’t know how to help. SAFE Bar Network members are changing that.
Over the weekend the SAFE Bar Network’s Haleigh Harrold led conversations with the teams at two of the most successful college bars in the country, The Boot in New Orleans and Fred’s Bar in Baton Rouge.
The teams at these legendary venues 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 the staff has noticed someone who is uncomfortable or unsafe, they’ve checked in to help that person, and they’ve gotten support from their coworkers. We heard so many of those stories this weekend. So many of their team members take pride in the active bystander skills that have been part of their customer service skills all along.
We’ll share one of our favorites.
Sarah shared that the week before she noticed a couple on her side of the bar. The man buys the woman a shot. Afterward, the woman walks away and the man starts to follow her. The woman tries to ignore him and walk away but again he follows her. He is not getting the message. Sarah walks over and says, “Hey girl, I haven’t seen you in forever. Let’s go talk.” The woman smiles and Sarah leads her over near the door and some of their security staff. They give the security team a heads up about the guy who followed the woman around and Sarah helps her find her friends out on the patio.
We’ve met so many people like Sarah, who take pride in the active bystander skills that have been part of their customer service skills all along.
The magic of the SAFE Bar Training conversation is getting everyone in one room (security, barbacks, bartenders, servers, managers, GMs) and teaching them how to have continuous conversations about safety. What we saw this weekend 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.
Cheers to the Everyday Active Bystanders and our SAFE Bar Network member bars.
Do you want to help us expand? 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 joining the SAFE Bar Network contact us at info@safebarnetwork.org
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.
There are everyday active bystanders practicing the skills to keep people safe every day. Watch their stories here, Everyday Active Bystanders.
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
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