#1: SHE/HER/THEY
The story behind the terms Visible Platform uses + more updates on our latest goings-on.
Welcome to Visible Platform's newsletter, The Platform.
This newsletter was created as we thought it was important to keep you updated on our journey and share resources to help you recognise, cope with and heal from incidents on public harassment.
If you like what we’re doing, subscribe and share with your friends 📣
September Reflections:
Does anyone else get excited about a September reset? We’ve been calling this month our September renaissance. This time of year provides the opportunity to regroup and assess our priorities.
In real terms - this has meant looking back over what we’ve achieved in the past 12 months, the things we’ve learnt, and the changes we’ve made. It’s also been a great time for looking forward, and setting our goals for the future.
We thought this would be the perfect time to start this monthly newsletter (see, new priorities being followed through already), and we’re so excited to fill you in on what we’ve been working on!
Visible Platform Team
Platform Updates:
Press, podcast and features:
🎙Listen to us on the The TalkSafe Podcast.
📹 Check out this documentary we were featured in… psst go to 13:00 to see our bit!
✨ An oldie but a goodie - read our interview with MyLondon.
SHE/HER/THEY:
At Visible Platform, our defining vision is to close the data gap and end harassment on public transport. Asking those who have experienced harassment on public transport to share their stories is of course incredibly important, but we do not see this as the only way to address the problem.
We also created Visible Platform as a way to provide educational resources for survivors, to embolden them, and reduce the stigma of harassment. With this in mind, we have been working hard on recruiting a team who’s sole focus would be on researching and providing updated resources. We now have two new pages on our website:
BLOG - this is where we’ll share information about Visible Platform, and deep dive into topics like the data gap. Check out our recent post, which explains why we use the default women, terms like “target” rather than victim, and the colour violet in our branding.
TOOLS & RESOURCES - this is where we’ll share material to help you recognise, cope with, and heal from incidents of public harassment. We’re keen to shed a light on what actually happens when you report an incident to the police, and help you make an informed choice about how you want to deal with your experience.
WE MAKE CHANGE x IMPACTARA
We Make Change help social enterprises find skilled volunteers to support them in growing their businesses and have a greater impact on more people. They teamed up with Impactara - an impact consultancy who provide corporate expertise help businesses, social enterprises and charities maximise their impact.
We were thrilled to join their first Change Programme, and for the past 3 months we’ve had weekly coaching sessions and mentoring from their business experts.
In this time we’ve grown our team and been intentional about creating an inclusive company culture. Meet the whole team by visiting our homepage.
We’ve also focussed on building strategic partnerships - we’ll save this update for a future newsletter though, so keep an eye out!
It was great to work with other social enterprises, and the passion everyone brought to their projects was really infectious. You can check out the other social enterprises who completed the programme here.
The Platform Recommends:
🎧 This month we’re listening to: Gender on the Agenda: why transport isn't gender neutral.
Professor Inés Sanchez de Madariaga has been a huge inspiration for Visible Platform. We’ve based much of our own approach and research on her work - so you can imagine our anticipation when we heard she was speaking at this month’s Gender on the Agenda talk. This is a great intro into what still needs to be done for gender transport equality.
📝 Action of the month: Sign the petition for free transport for low income women.
“Please sign this petition to show TfL that you want to see free transport introduced for women on low incomes after dark to reduce the need for walking alone at night…Free transport for those who can’t otherwise afford it will lessen the time they need to spend on the streets at night and therefore the risk of attack.”
📆 Save the date: If you are missing in-person events, check out the Bleaq’s Debut event at Protein Studios in London on 10th October - hope to see some of you there!
Visible Platform is all about creating a community, so if you want to talk to us please email us on: info@visibleplatform.org
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P.S. You’re receiving this because you’ve previously expressed interest in our work. But if you’d rather not hear these updates, you can unsubscribe at any time!