Call For Volunteers: Safe Carbondale

Do you want to help keep Carbondale, Illinois safe? The Illinois Initiative is looking for volunteers for our Safe Carbondale program. This program provides students and community members with bystander intervention training. Learn how to respond effectively when you witness harassment or violence. We also want to start Safe Zone and Safe Walk programs based on this training. For more information, call 618-525-0625 or email info@illinoisinitiative.org.

About Safe Carbondale

Safe Carbondale is our campaign to make Carbondale safer by providing bystander intervention trainings, a Safe Zone program, and a Safe Walk program. The campaign originally focused on the idea of creating a specific Safe Zone during “nightlife” hours on weekends. Eventually, we realized that the trainings themselves are in fact the central goal of this campaign, with the Safe Zone and Safe Walk serving as practical applications of the training.

We want to get as many people as possible trained in bystander intervention! The long-term goal is that Carbondale will be full of a large pool of people who will intervene in helpful and effective ways any time they witness domestic violence, sexual harassment and violence, racist harassment and violence, anti-LGBT harassment and violence, or any other forms of harassment and violence. We want these trainings to be co-facilitated by several people and tailored specifically to the needs of our local community and sponsoring/partnering groups.

Take Action: Safe Carbondale is currently looking for both volunteer trainers and volunteers seeking training. The main training will be a one-hour bystander intervention training. If and when we organize the Safe Zone and Safe Walk aspects of the program, we’ll also need at least one volunteer per shift who has completed a self-defense training and first aid training. For more information, contact Treesong at info@illinoisinitiative.org.