7 Nov, 2017

Uber Pledges $5 Million to Prevent xxxual Assault and Domestic Violence

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SAN FRANCISCO, 6 November 2017, (BUSINESS WIRE) – Uber today announced a $5 million commitment over five years as part of its “Driving Change” campaign for sexual assault and domestic violence awareness and prevention initiatives in partnership with groups including Raliance, the National Network to End Domestic Violence and NO MORE. These groups began working with Uber several months ago to begin building these important initiatives.

“Sexual assault and domestic violence are issues that affect millions of people around the world. As members of the communities we serve, we want to work with others to be part of the solution,” said Rachel Holt, vice president US/Canada Operations, Uber. “We’re not only committing major funding for awareness and prevention programs through leading community partners, we are driving meaningful change in this area from the highest levels of our organization on down.”

The $5 million commitment will fund programmatic partnerships focused on prevention. An initial portion of the funding will go to partners Raliance, the National Network to End Domestic Violence, Women of Color Network, Inc., Casa de Esperanza, A CALL TO MEN, the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs and NO MORE. These partners and the funding will also help address critical funding gaps with marginalized communities who are often the most underfunded.

In collaboration with its partners in the sexual assault and domestic violence space, as part of this commitment, Uber has made some important changes and is using its technology to help drive awareness and prevention of sexual assault and domestic violence to millions globally. Some of the initiatives that have already been implemented include:

Providing important information to drivers and riders – Utilizing its global scope, scale and technology to engage millions of riders and drivers on awareness and prevention.

• Executive leadership training – Engaged its executive leadership team in awareness training facilitated by experts from the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence and the National Network to End Domestic Violence.
• Specialized training for customer support agents – Worked with partners to develop and offer world class training to agents that reflects collective wisdom in this space and imparts understanding of this societal issue while building empathy.
• Making a commitment to employees – Joined the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence to develop and adopt a commitment to appropriately assist employees who might need help in this area.

“Our goal has been to listen and learn so that we are better equipped to make changes that matter,” said Tracey Breeden, head of Global Safety Communications, Uber. “These initiatives would not have been possible without the insight and guidance from our partners and members of our Safety Advisory Board.”

Uber will continue to develop, collaborate and launch initiatives in the coming months in an effort to drive change. Some of these initiatives include facilitating employee training and education, hosting global listening tours to capture feedback and concerns from local community organizations, continuing to engage on internal speaker series, and employee volunteerism.

For more information visit www.uber.com/newsroom/driving-change-together

The Partners

Raliance (National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA) and the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence (NAESV)):

“As a member of this partnership, Raliance values the opportunity to make lasting, impactful changes to safety needs not just within Uber, but throughout the entire commuter transportation industry,” Kristen Houser, spokesperson for Raliance said. “Pairing Uber’s technology expertise with our expertise in sexual assault prevention and response will pave a path for innovative ways to move the needle to end sexual violence.” (raliance.org)

National Network to End Domestic Violence

“The National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) is proud to work with Uber in its efforts to increase public awareness of domestic violence, and to make changes both internally and externally to help keep riders, drivers, employees and members of our communities safe.” NNEDV Executive Vice President Cindy Southworth said, “At NNEDV, we are dedicated to creating an environment in which violence and abuse no longer exists, and this includes innovations in outreach, public education and strategic collaborations. We are pleased that Uber is committed to becoming an industry leader on this issue.” (nnedv.org)

Casa de Esperanza

“Casa de Esperanza appreciates the commitment Uber has made to addressing issues of domestic violence and sexual assault. Uber has embraced a powerful opportunity to create meaningful change by taking steps to improve its organizational capacity and resources internally as they support prevention efforts externally,” said Patricia Tototzintle, CEO of Casa de Esperanza. “A major undertaking takes a major commitment from Uber, and it has shown its support to national and community efforts through current and future partners. This is a time to envision and work toward greater prevention efforts through our partnership.” (casadeesperanza.org)

Women of Color Network, Inc.

“We, at Women of Color Network, Inc., are extremely excited for this groundbreaking partnership with Uber and associated organizations,” stated Tonya Lovelace, CEO of Women of Color Network, Inc. “This is an amazing opportunity for WOCN, Inc. and other national culturally specific organizations to support Uber in their quest to directly reach those who are historically marginalized based on race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, faith, immigration status and other identities, and who experience sexual assault, domestic violence and other forms of intersecting violence at greater proportions than mainstream communities, but are least likely to feel the impact of funding. We look forward to being a catalyst in this effort.” (wocninc.org)

A CALL TO MEN

“A CALL TO MEN is proud to see Uber take a comprehensive approach to prevention education. These issues are not limited to the workplace – they are pervasive throughout our society,” said Tony Porter, CEO of A CALL TO MEN. “At A CALL TO MEN we educate men and boys about healthy, respectful manhood because we know that when men embrace and promote healthy respectful manhood, we will reduce all forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls.” (acalltomen.org)

NO MORE

“As an organization dedicated to getting the issues of domestic violence and sexual assault out of the shadows and encouraging everyone to be part of the solution, this partnership offers huge opportunities to raise awareness, support prevention initiatives, and ensure that potentially lifesaving resources are prominently available,” said Rachel Haas, Managing Director, NO MORE. “NO MORE is committed to working with individuals, organizations or corporations that are truly interested in bringing about change. We’re honored to join in this effort with these leading organizations that have been long-time members of the NO MORE coalition. To make real progress and to address a deeply embedded culture of violence, we want – and in fact need – to be in as many boardrooms, classrooms and living rooms as possible, as well as on the networks and platforms where people live, work and play.” (nomore.org)

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP)

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) works to respond to and end all forms of violence against and within lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities. NCAVP is coordinated by the New York City Anti-Violence Project (avp.org/ncavp)