UofL to host anti-street harassment event

A new event at the University of Louisville aims to spread awareness about sexual and street harassment.

The Women 4 Women Student Board and the UofL Women’s Center will host Cards Against Catcalling from 6-7:30 p.m. April 6 in the Red Barn.

The event is part of the national Anti-Street Harassment Week, organized by Stop Street Harassment, a nonprofit organization dedicated to documenting and ending gender-based street harassment worldwide.

"Street harassment, unfortunately, is an extremely common problem that so many women, minorities and members of the LGBT community experience on a regular basis. We hope this event will bring more awareness of what street harassment is, the prevalence of it, as well as ways to combat it in the community,” said Hadley Hendrick, a member of Women 4 Women and chair of Cards Against Catcalling. “We hope that students will gain tools that can make them feel more empowered as well as lead to a safer campus community.”

Cards Against Catcalling is free and open to the public. The guest speaker is Megan Schreiber Willman, Title IX outreach coordinator for the CASE Project, a program that connects victims of sexual assault and domestic violence with free attorneys and The Center for Women & Families. She will discuss the Title IX act and inform students on how to handle instances of sexual harassment.

The event will also include a presentation on street harassment and its prevalence, as well as bystander intervention training and a discussion.

For more information about street harassment see http://www.meetusonthestreet.org/participate/

Contact the UofL Women’s Center, 502-852-8976 for more details about the event or email womenctr@louisville.edu .