Safe Bars Certification Training
Training production and service staff to stand up against sexual violence
As part of the commitment to good service, bars, restaurants, clubs, breweries, and other alcohol-serving spaces can build customer satisfaction and loyalty through improved safety. Establishments where staff is treated with respect also have better performing teams and lower turnover.
Safe Bars trains staff at bars, restaurants, clubs, breweries, and other alcohol-focused professional spaces to recognize and respond to sexual harassment and assault among staff and patrons.
Safe Bars works to:
• Increase staff understanding of the scope and causes of unwanted sexual aggression;
• Increase staff recognition of inappropriate behavior along the continuum of sexual and relationship violence;
• Provide staff with the skills to respond to such behavior safely and appropriately, whether by stepping up or when asked for help;
• Actively promote establishments that adopt safety standards.
Why bars?
About half of all sexual assaults involve alcohol. Unwanted sexual attention, including verbal harassment and touching, occurs frequently in bars, restaurants, clubs, breweries, and other alcohol-focused environments. We know that alcohol doesn’t cause sexual assault, but it’s used as a weapon to incapacitate targets and as camouflage to excuse aggressor behavior. Bars, restaurants, clubs, and breweries also have some of the highest rates of workplace sexual harassment of any industry in the U.S., harming workers and their workplaces alike.
Why bystanders?
Bystander intervention is key to preventing sexual violence. Bar owners, managers, security personnel, production teams, sales and marketing staff, and service professionals are in a unique position to observe and intervene to prevent sexual assault by creating a safe space for patrons and staff alike. Active bystander training programs show increases in both responsive and proactive bystander behaviors.
Safe Bars empowers bystanders with skills to:
• Identify high-risk behaviors of aggressors;
• Intervene either proactively or responsively; and
• Overcome barriers to taking action.
Safe Bars also offers empowerment and self-defense training, emphasizing assertiveness and boundary-setting, to those targeted for harassment. This way, everyone – those targeted and those witnessing it – has skills for stopping harassment, abuse, and assault and creating cultures of safety and respect.
What’s in it for you?
Bars, restaurants, clubs, and breweries trained by Safe Bars reap many benefits:
• They demonstrate to their customers their commitment to providing a safe and welcoming environment.
• They demonstrate to their staff (and potential staff) that they value their safety, comfort, and respect in the workplace.
• Their staff have a greater range of strategies to use in addressing unwanted sexual aggression.
• Customers who have positive experiences are more likely to return and to tell their friends.
• Staff are happier and less likely to leave.
• Safe Bars actively promotes organizations that have gone through the training.
• Safe Bars-trained facilities receive a window decal for display at their physical location and on their website.
• It’s the right thing to do.
Pandemic response
The pandemic brought with it an enormous surge in the number of people giving hospitality professionals a hard time. Safe Bars now offers de-escalation workshops to boost skills for dealing with people who refuse to wear a mask, spew blatant racism or sexism, are out-of-control angry, or otherwise creating problems at work.
The details
An active bystander training runs 2.5 hours. Training is available in English and Spanish. Contact us to discuss details. The fee varies depending on the size of your company or establishment. The decision about training virtually or in-person will be made together.
Want to join us?
If you work at a bar, club, restaurant, brewery, or other alcohol-serving establishment and you’d like to become a Safe Bar, we’d be happy to work with your staff. Contact us!