RightRides

Yesterday upon learning the horrible news about the rape which came to pass at Nassau Avenue and Diamond Street earlier this week I posted it here on New York Shitty to make you, dear readers, aware. Later in the day I was reminded (by buddy d of pointgreen) of a service unescorted women (and many more— as I learned) out late at night can and should use. It is called RightRides and I am going to dedicate this post to giving you the 411 about this organization.

To get the ball rolling, here’s an excerpt from their “About” page to give you a general idea of their mission:

The mission of RightRides For Women’s Safety, Inc. is to build safer communities by ending gender-based harassment and sexual assault. We work towards this by community organizing and offering direct service, safety education and advocacy programs.

In our RightRides program, we offer women, LGBTQ and gender nonconforming individuals a free, late-night ride home to ensure their safe commute to or through high-risk areas.

In our Safe Walk program, we offer walking escorts for any one who doesn’t want to walk alone.

We are also a founding member of New Yorkers for Safe Transit, which will pursue coalition building and policy change work to increase safety in mass transit…

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Very simple: if you are out and about Friday and/or Saturday night (11:59 p.m. – 3:00 a.m.) and am in need of a safe ride (or escort) home you call either of these two telephone numbers

• (718) 964-7781
• (888) 215-7233 (SAFE)

and they will dispatch a driver to pick you up. CAVEAT/POSSIBLE CATCH: your person and destination must be within their “service area”. Follow are their service maps for Friday and Saturday.

SATURDAY

As you can see I have not included the key for this map. This is because it is too extensive for me to screencap and publish here. You can view this map (along with the key) by clicking on the above image or clicking here.

HOW CAN I HELP?

RightRides welcomes donations, fund raising events and volunteers. You can learn more about how you can help this wonderful organization by clicking here. On that note, the peeps at RightRides will be hosting a series of fund raisers at the Parkside Lounge starting this evening at 8:00 p.m.

Professor Von Awesome’s Traveling Caravan of Cautionary Warnings
October 23, 24, 30, and 31, 2009 starting at 8:00 p.m.
Cost of admission: $15.00 (a portion of the proceeds go to Rightrides)
Parkside Lounge
317 East Houston Street
New York, New York 10002

In closing (and for those who are interested) you can receive a quarterly e-newsletter from RightRides by clicking here.

Stay safe!

Miss Heather