Make Safe is a training program aimed at mitigating sexual harassment in the tourism and hospitality industry.
Just as in other industries, sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence occur in tourism and hospitality workplaces. The nature of jobs in places like bars, restaurants, hotels, and events can make people more vulnerable to unwanted sexualized behaviours from customers, colleagues, and even superiors.
Customers may also face sexual harassment and violence in these workplaces.
Unfortunately, such actions are often diminished as being harmless, playful, or “not that big a deal.” The result, they’ve been normalized in many establishments, cultures, and societies.
Make Safe is about eliminating these behaviours and creating SAFE workplaces. How? By being aware of what constitutes sexual violence, learning how to mitigate it, and taking a zero-tolerance approach.
Rise: defines key terms around workplace sexual harassment and violence to help team members recognize unwanted behaviour, explains the benefits of a positive and safe work environment, and outlines rights, responsibilities and legislation regarding sexual harassment and violence in the workplace.
Recognize: describes how to identify sexually-charged and inappropriate behaviour, or behaviour that is unwelcome by the person experiencing it. It defines power imbalances, and give examples of non-verbal, verbal and physical behaviour that may be inappropriate.
Respond: focuses on methods to intervene to stop sexually-charged, inappropriate or illegal behaviour at work. It explores the Address, Distract, Enlist, Disclose (ADED) model for intervention, explains conscious and unconscious bias and how they affect our decisions, and provides strategies for dealing with inappropriate comments in the workplace.
Reduce: provides examples of ways to reduce the likelihood of inappropriate behaviour from happening in the workplace. It outlines industry culture and the ideas and attitudes that contribute to sexual harassment and violence in the tourism workplace, and presents ideas on how to improve the culture in the workplace and in the industry in general by supporting co-workers, and following established behavioural guidelines. Finally, it explores the effects of alcohol as a risk factor for sexual violence, defines consent, and outlines how to deal with unwanted behaviour from guests.
Refer: provides resources to help implement an anti-sexual harassment policy at work, procedures for reporting workplace sexual harassment, and defines the role of the individual in improving safe practices in the tourism sector.
