We, the Rogers Park Young Women's Action Team, came together to address the very serious problem of street harassment in our community. We started in July 2003 by conducting some research. We asked girls who were our age about whether they felt that street harassment was a problem for them. We surveyed 168 girls between the ages of 10 and 19. We also interviewed 34 other teen girls. 58% said that they had been harassed by men or boys. 54% said that they never responded to the catcaller or harasser. The finding that was the most surprising to us was that 53% of the girls that we surveyed said that there was "NOTHING THEY COULD DO TO STOP STREET HARASSMENT."

We are 18 teenage girls between the ages of 11 to 21 who disagree with the idea that there is nothing we can do about street harassment. Although, we don't believe that we will be able to STOP street harassment, we do believe that we can do something to lessen it and to educate people about its negative effects on girls. We do this work as a team. We get support from each other and we believe that we are already making difference in our community. We have met with our elected officials to share with them the results of our research and our recommendations, We have organized community forums and launched a RESPECT Campaign in Rogers Park.

Since 2003, we have also addressed other forms of violence (like relationship abuse, relational aggression, reproductive justice) that affect the lives of teen girls like ourselves.

Our latest project focuses on sexual harassment and violence on the CTA (trains and buses).  Please take moment to complete this survey about your experiences.

www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=kI41maR8uFHZisfRxGPkZA_3d_3d