ST. CLOUD TIMES — Advocates hope a program new to the St. Cloud area will help prevent sexual harassment in bars.
Safe Bars is a Washington, D.C.-based organization that provides bystander-intervention training to help make bars safer and more welcoming for staff and patrons.
The Red Carpet Nightclub is the first in the area to complete the program.
“Unfortunately, a lot of harassment, sexual harassment, happens in the bars. A lot of sexual assaults start at bars,” said Lee LaDue, assistant director and gender violence prevention coordinator at St. Cloud State University’s Women’s Center.
Several people in the St. Cloud area attended a session in May to become certified Safe Bar trainers, including LaDue, several students and people from the Gender Violence Institute and Central Minnesota Sexual Assault Center with the help of a couple small grants the Women’s Center received.
