How to Plan a Take Back the Night Rally

Sexual Assault Awareness month and Domestic Violence Awareness month occur respectively in March and October in most states. Take Back the Night is usually part of one of these events but it's not a hard and fast rule. Planning usually takes more than one person and a lot of community cooperation but it can be done with empowering results.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• People willing to speak
• Empowering music
• Food
• Counselors on hand
• A megaphone
• A route for the march
• A central gathering place

1. 
    
   A pause to remember

   DON'T REINVENT THE WHEEL
   Find out if your local Domestic Violence program is planning a Take Back the Night event. If so, ask how you can contribute, get your friends together, male and female and volunteer. If a TBTN is not planned, find a local university, church, or city park who will allow you to use their facility. You may need permission from the city to use the public park and to approve a marching route.

2. SPEAKERS
   Once you have found an appropriate space, the fun of planning begins! Speakers are a very important pat of Take Back the Night. Don't be shy, call the Mayor, the media, people with poetry to read. Be creative. Put together a survivor panel to tell their stories. Have advocates or counselors on hand to help process with them afterward or in case someone chooses to disclose and wants counseling help.

3. MUSIC
   Find a local band or put together a CD of empowering music that can be played over a loudspeaker. Music will draw a crowd, even if they don't know why it's playing. If possible have someone sing. Make your song list positive.

4. FOOD
   The smell of free food will always bring in the curious. Talk to a local restaurant about donating food. Most places will be happy to advertise at a community event. Have a volunteer who is only in charge of this because things need to be monitored, loaded, unloaded, and cleaned up. Don't forget to send a thank you card to anyone bearing donations.

5. TABLEING
   Find community agencies and groups such as the police department and other protective agencies to put together tables of their information for visitors to peruse. Think of any agency that would be a resource to a survivor or their family. Tables can also include projects like the T-shirt project of the Paper People project. Details and examples of these can be found on most Domestic Violence web sites, they are very common in the world of advocacy.

6. SHOUT
   Make a list of shouts and chants for the march portion of the rally. Try something like Survivors unite, Take back the night! think up your own empowering slogans.

7. EMPOWER
   Have fun and know that you may be offering someone validation and the chance to be heard. This is a time for awareness, for people who have never considered that violence is an issue in the world and in their community.