If you feel strongly about the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault, and are wondering what more you can do to prevent such violence, a workshop Sunday provides a strategy for bystander intervention.

The workshop is conducted by Taiwan’s first Green Dot-certified trainer Caritta Lin (林嘉萍) in partnership with Women’s March Taiwan.

Developed in the US, the Green Dot program trains people to prevent harassment and assault by showing them how to interrupt situations that pose a risk of violence. The training is available on college campuses and workplaces across the US, and has been adapted for different age groups and socio-cultural contexts around the world.

Lin, who was harassed by a stalker in Taiwan, says that she underwent Green Dot training in the US in 2016 because she was struck by the many people who wanted to support her through her experience.

Bystander intervention training empowers all the people around survivors — whether family, friends, co-workers or passersby — to help those at risk of being harmed.

Giving the example of a bystander witnessing a molestation incident on a train, Lin says that acts of intervention can take just two minutes and be as simple as approaching the victim to ask if they are alright, but many people do not even take that step.

The idea that “no one is a bystander” is often bandied around, Lin says, but “no one actually talks about how to take action and do something.”

So far, Lin has led only a few private Green Dot sessions with her friends and participated in a Green Dot activity by the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation (婦女救援基金會) in June last year. Sunday’s workshop will be her first public workshop.

The workshop will be conducted in Chinese, with English translation.

■ Sunday from 2pm to 5pm at Sit Together (來坐夥共享空間), 179-28, Jiaxing St, Taipei City (台北市嘉興街179-28號)

■ Workshop fee is NT$200, payable at the door after registration at: goo.gl/forms/FL7kN0yNysutpFTE3


Source: TAIPEI TIMES