Not One More is a community driven initiative centering youth to reimagine safety for riders on BART. To date, there have been two phases of this groundbreaking and award winning work.
Phase I of the Not One More initiative launched in April 2021 and was a partnership between BART, the Alliance for Girls, Betti Ono, Black Girls Brilliance, and The Unity Council’s Latinx Mentorship and Achievement (LMA) Program. Phase II launched in 2023. Click here to visit the Phase II page.
Not One More uses youth participatory action research, cultural strategy, art, and policy change to dismantle the systems that have enabled gender-based violence and instead create systems of empowerment for riders.
BART’s Communications Department partnered with BART’s Art Program Manager and worked through the partner organizations to engage local youth about their experiences on BART and to develop campaign materials to serve as BART’s first ever sexual harassment prevention campaign.
Planning for the campaign took place starting in December 2019 and included listening sessions with youth, slogan and campaign development workshop sessions with students from Oakland Unified School District, and continued engagement with youth related to messaging, vision, and artistic elements. Roughly 500 Bay-Area youth (ages 9-24) contributed to Not One More through youth research and narrative-driven art.
Anyka Barber, Director of Betti Ono, led the cultural strategy of the initiative with her team.
Haleema Bharoocha, Senior Advocacy Manager at Alliance for Girls led policy and overall strategy to ensure the campaign included structural changes and long term plans for policy change. Dr. L.B. Williams, Founding Director of Black Girls Brilliance (a non-profit organization serving youth in Oakland, CA.), and Jessica Peregrina LMA Coordinator at Unity Council led efforts to ensure meaningful youth engagement and youth inclusion through the campaign. Without these leaders, this work would not be possible. Learn more about the leaders of this work below.
Not One More Phase I included the following actions:
We Made the Commitment: On February 29, 2020 the BART Board of Directors approved a resolution in support of partnering with the Alliance for Girls and other partner organizations to launch a harassment prevention campaign and form a working group to make recommendations to advance a safety action plan for transit spaces. BART was the first transit system in the Bay Area to step up and make a commitment to work together.
We Started Collecting Data: While at the time BART tracked crime data related to sexual assault and battery, BART was not collecting sexual harassment data. In October 2020, BART added the following question to its ongoing Passenger Environment Survey: Have you experienced gender based sexual harassment in the last six months at BART? We post the survey data results here.
We Added Reporting Tools: The group worked with BART’s Police Chief to add a new reporting category to the BART Watch app in March 2021, which can be used by BART riders to report criminal or suspicious activity to police dispatch. “Unwanted sexual harassment (non-criminal)” was added as part of the launch of Not One More. Previously the only related categories were “Sexual assault/lewd behavior” and “Human trafficking.”'
We Educated the Public: Three campaign posters were created, with the design and slogans selected by youth. 300 copies were displayed on board BART cars and 50 were posted on station walls beginning in April 2021. Not One More Phase I lead artist in residence Nisha Sethi, a Berkeley-based multi-disciplinary artist specializing in typography and hand-painted signs, designed the campaign visual aesthetic and artwork produced as posters, billboards, and other media installed as public art on the facade of select BART stations inside train cars and stations throughout the Bay Area transit system.
We Rolled Out Training for the Public: Bystander Intervention Training tips were developed.
We Created a Resource Hub: The www.bart.gov/NotOneMore website was launched.
We Increased Unarmed Safety Staff: The group recommended BART increase unarmed safety personnel such as transit ambassadors across the system and hire youth leaders with a violence prevention background to be on the hiring panels for such roles. On April 8, 2021, Board President Mark Foley and Vice President Rebecca Saltzman made a formal request for staff to set up a program to hire transitional-age youth to serve on the hiring panels for BART’s new Transit Ambassador and Crisis Intervention Specialist positions as part of the BART Police Department’s Progressive Policing and Community Engagement Bureau. In April 2021, BART worked with the Booker T Washington Center to identify three transitional-age youth to sit on the hiring panels to select 10 additional Transit Ambassadors and 20 Crisis Intervention Specialists. These panelists helped select the interview questions and were paid $18 an hour for their work.
We Changed Policy: On April 22, 2021, BART Board President Mark Foley requested the full board to amend BART’s Customer Code of Conduct to specifically list prohibition of sexual harassment. Director Lateefah Simon made the motion to approve and Director Janice Li made the second motion. The board approved the update 9-0. In early 2022 the Code of Conduct decals inside all new train cars began to be updated to include sexual harassment.
We Measured Effectiveness: BART conducted surveys to measure the impacts of the Not One More Phase I campaign. An online survey among randomly selected BART riders showed the effort raised awareness about sexual harassment and what to do if it occurs and it made people feel safer when riding BART.
- 65% responded they are more aware of sexual harassment
- 59% responded they now know what to do if they witness harassment on BART
- 52% responded they know more about how sexual harassment impacts people on BART
- 46% responded they know where to get help if they experience sexual harassment on BART
- 36% responded they felt safer riding BART
Surveys that were provided at in-person Not One More pop-up events in 2021, had even higher scores with 43% of respondents feeling safer riding BART after learning about the initiative.
Leaders of Not One More Phase I
Alliance for Girls: This BART project would not be possible without the leadership, vision, and advocacy of the Alliance for Girls (AFG), the largest regional alliance of girl-serving organizations and leaders in the country. Alliance for Girls staff approached BART’s General Manager Bob Powers during his Listening Tour to present to him a recently published report, “Together We Rise,” about the lived-experiences of youth in the Bay Area, including riding transit. Powers immediately worked to set up a listening session and asked staff to continue the dialogue. Alliance for Girls Senior Advocacy Manager Haleema Bharoocha worked tirelessly to develop an action plan for the overall initiative with a focus on policy change, engaging key stakeholders, and ensuring the work remains rooted in radical safety for youth. At Alliance for Girls, Haleema organizes a membership base of over 180 members and organizations who serve 300,000 youth in advocacy initiatives like this one. In addition, the AFG staff Kailin Chou, Nakia Dillard, Emma Mayerson, Chantal Hilderbrand, Livier Gutierrez, Membership Fellow Riss Myung, and Advocacy Fellow Samantha Parades played a pivotal role in the success of this work.
Youth Serving Organizations Supporting Youth: Bay Area powerhouses Dr. L.B. Williams, Founding Director of Black Girls Brilliance, and Jessica Peregrina, Latinx Mentorship & Achievement (LMA) Coordinator at Unity Council empowered the youth involved throughout the project and provided culturally responsive leadership.
Dr. L.B. Williams is an interdisciplinary scholar-educator and the Founding Director of Black Girls Brilliance (BGB), a non-profit youth development organization serving youth in Oakland, CA, and Johannesburg, South Africa. She has worked in the K-12 education sector for over 25 years and holds a PhD in Urban Education. With a shared leadership model, BGB is co-created with youth to facilitate and emphasize civic engagement, global collaboration, arts education, and healing circles to support their academic success and socio-emotional development.
Jessica Peregrina Latinx Mentorship and Achievement (LMA) Program Coordinator at Unity Council led efforts to ensure meaningful youth engagement and youth inclusion through the campaign. As a youth development practitioner, she noticed how overlooked her youth who had so much to say were. Jessica uses a trauma informed approach to support youth and create space to listen to their needs. The Unity Council believes that communities most impacted by issues must be at the center of creating solutions. When the Unity Council’s Latinx Mentorship and Achievement (LMA) program heard about Not One More, they immediately knew this was something that LMA youth needed to be a part of given that many LMA students talked about their own experiences with harassment and violence on their commute to school.
Local Youth Leaders: We are deeply grateful for the labor and love of youth leaders from the Unity Council’s Latinx Empowerment and Achievement Program, Black Girls Brilliance Oakland middle school program, Alliance for Girls, Rexy Tapia, and other youth leaders who led this work. Youth held over 100 roles in the project, including social media strategy, public speaking, art and campaign design, and in focus groups and were paid for $18 an hour for their labor.
Art and Cultural Strategy: We are in gratitude for the creative, artistic, and innovative work of Betti Ono, an active neighborhood anchor whose mission is to build power through culture. Named by Essence Magazine as one of the 5 reasons to visit Oakland twice in 2018, Betti Ono was founded by Oakland native Anyka Barber in 2010. Anyka Barber is a mother, an artist/activist , curator and entrepreneur. Betti Ono is a creative social enterprise and center for arts, culture and community committed to the cultural, social, political and economic emancipation. In her role as director and curator of Betti Ono she has curated and produced more than 60 exhibitions and public programs, as well as designed and integrated art, enterprise and social impact strategy to leverage creative capital, cultural products, and networks for good. Betti Ono’s team which includes Nisha Sethi, Maud Alcron, Tayleur Crenshaw, and Alexis Conway, provided consulting services on cultural strategy for campaign narrative and aesthetics, communications and messaging, leadership on meaningful community engagement, and a team of artists and cultural strategists. As a major contributor to Oakland art and activism work, Betti Ono was excited to co lead this initiative, developing culturally responsive strategy, intentional narrative and messaging, and ensuring those from communities most impacted were leading the process. Betti Ono is a leading example of what meaningful and authentic engagement looks like and in addition to developing the art and cultural strategy for this initiative, Betti Ono also created a series of community engagement initiatives to directly connect with community members.
BART Leaders: This work has given space for BART to build trust in the community and to change policy and culture.
Alicia Trost, BART’s Chief Communications Officer spearheaded BART’s involvement:
“BART had never done a harassment campaign, primarily because I didn’t want to put another text-heavy poster up about how to report a problem and then consider the job done. I refused to have a hollow approach, especially one that placed all the responsibility on the person being assaulted. Frankly, I was too scared we would miss the mark on such an important topic. When Alliance for Girls approached us and brought in Betti Ono and direct access to youth through BGB and LMA, I knew this was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up.”
Jennifer Easton, BART’s Art Program Manager:
“The BART Art Program strives to center the voices of artists, designers and culture bearers to issues that are important to our customers, communities, and the organization. This project is a brilliant example of how artists and cultural strategists can creatively collaborate to bring attention and solutions to important issues. Harassment on transit is a worldwide and age-old issue. This project, with these collaborators could not be more timely.”
Research: We are grateful for the youth participatory action research which affirmed the experiences and stories shared by youth in our community. Thank you to the youth researchers (Gabrielle Battle, Maren Frye, Esme Kalbag, Anna Sara Mehouelley, Sofia Orduña, Sasha Williams, and Andrea Zamora) of the Alliance for Girls Together We Rise: The Lived Experiences of Girls of Color in Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose report published in August 2019 and the youth researchers at One Day at A Time for the Youth Transportation Justice report on the experiences of youth on public transportation in Contra Costa published in December 2019.
Policy Advocacy Coalition: We are also grateful to the Alliance for Girls member organizations across the Bay Area who helped develop the policy recommendations for this initiative including: The Office of Women’s Policy in Santa Clara County, Family Violence Law Center, EveryOne Home, San Francisco Department on the Status on Women, Bay Area Women Against Rape, YWCA Silicon Valley, Ignite, CARAS: Community Agency for Resources, Advocacy and Services, YOALI: Youth Outreach and Leadership Institute, Bill Wilson Center Youth Impact Partnership, CURYJ, Big Brothers and Big Sisters - Bay Area, Futures Without Violence, GirlVentures and the Women’s Building of San Francisco.
Phase I Events
Betti Ono curated a series of public activations throughout Oakland to engage impacted communities. With youth speakers, spoken word poetry, musical performances and free healing kit giveaways, all members of the community were invited to create safe and just passageways for people.
This campaign is led by BART and community organizations. We activated safety events in the Fruitvale, Deep East Oakland, and West Oakland neighborhoods.
At these events we offered music, conversations about how we’re addressing violence and harassment on BART, and free healing kits with unique items for inner and outer safety.
For our West Oakland Art Activation, we showcased art from our ‘Call for Art’ that was extended to local youth, plus large-scale versions of the campaign art.
3 safety booth activations took place in April and May 2021.
Campaign leaders held a virtual watch party and youth panel to close out the events for the Not One More Phase I initiative.