Rightrides

RightRides for Women's Safety Inc is a volunteer run, grassroots organization that currently serves New York City. The mission of Right Rides is to reduce the risk of harassment, hate crimes and sexual assault by providing a free, late night ride home service to insure women, transpeople, and gender queer individuals have a safe commute to or through high-risk areas. The organization provides educational, violence-prevention opportunities in related programs to foster safety awareness within the greater community and also organizes a Safe Walk program that is available for all who need it.

RightRides For Women's Safety, Inc. received non-profit 501(c)3 status from the IRS in December 2005.

History

The primary program was conceived in August 2004 after founders Oraia Reid and Consuelo Ruybal learned of increasing sexual assaults on women walking home by themselves late at night in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, two North Brooklyn neighborhoods. Angered by the injustice and unwilling to let assaults effect women's sense of safety and independence, they took direct action.

The founders believed that by advocating for increased safety awareness and by offering a free and safe ride home late at night, the risk of sexual assault would decrease. Mobilizing quickly, they created the central program [http://rightrides.org RightRides] and using their own car, they began driving riders home themselves in September 2004.

In 2004 - 2005, RightRides drove 200 riders home in just four New York City neighborhoods. The service ran every Saturday night starting at Midnight and was operated by volunteers who owned their own cars.

Despite increasing demand in 2004 - 2005, RightRides was unable to respond to 50% of incoming calls for a ride home. The service at that time only had one car available and half the requests were from callers outside of the limited service area. Due to lack of available volunteers owning cars, RightRides was temporarily suspended in late 2005.

In May 2006, RightRides teamed up with [http://Zipcar.com Zipcar] to secure a fleet of 3 cars for volunteers to drive and the service expanded at that time to 19 neighborhoods.

In July 2007, Zipcar increased the donated vehicles to 6 cars, enabling over 100 driving team volunteers to help expand the service to 35 NYC neighborhoods. As of September 2007, RightRides drove it's 1,000 rider safely home.

Volunteer driving teams comprise a Driver and a Navigator. One member of this team must identify as female for the comfort of the riders, and all volunteers must pass a criminal background check. Drive teams wait to make sure riders are safely inside their building before driving away. Additionally, no cash is accepted in the RightRides car, not even tips. RightRides motto is, "Because Getting Home Safely Shouldn't Be A Luxury"

Awards and recognition

For it's grassroots efforts, RightRides has been honored with several awards including a Proclamation from the New York City Mayor's Office announcing December 12, 2005 as "RightRides For Women's Safety Day", presented by New York City Human Rights Commissioner Patricia Gatling. In February 2006, RightRides received the Susan B. Anthony award for excellence in furthering women's equality by the New York City chapter of the National Organization for Women. In March 2006, New York City Council Member Diana Reyna presented RightRides with the annual Pacesetter Award for capturing the spirit of New York City through their volunteer efforts.

RightRides has also been covered in The New York Times, Time Out New York, Ms. Magazine, FOX 5 Evening News, ABC 7 Evening News, Good Day New York, NTV Evening News (airing in Tokyo, Japan), BUST Magazine and WBAI - Pacifica Radio to name a select few.

The organization hopes to foster RightRides chapters in cities around the country. To assist in this effort, they are seeking nonprofit partners to bring this program to their city as well as qualified professionals to join their Board of Directors to help grow the organization. Experienced leaders in the financial, legal, anti-violence/risk reduction, human rights, LGBTQGNC, community organizing and/or fund development sectors supporting their mission are encouraged to contact them via the website. Additional information [http://www.rightrides.org/templates/about.php?page=mission is here]

External links

* [http://www.rightrides.org Official website]