In partnership with Shelby County Crime Victims and Rape Crisis Center (CVRCC) and Heal 901, learn about how the Safe Bars program assist bars, restaurants, breweries, and other alcohol-serving establishments create safe and welcoming culture for patrons. The culture Safe Bars provides a safe and respectful workplace for the staff. Such cultures encourage customer satisfaction, loyalty, and better-performing teams, with lower turnover. Our program focuses heavily on active bystander skills.
Safe Bars 901 is a free bystander intervention program for alcohol-serving venues in Shelby County. The program helps create safe and welcoming cultures for patrons and a safe and respectful workspace for staff. In the webinar, we will review the qualifications of the program, provide a training overview, and share some exciting updates for our participants.
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At Heal901 the slogan is “See Something, Say Something MANE.” Safe Bars is a bystander intervention program for alcohol-serving venues, breweries, all of the above
The founder and executive director of Heal901 is Durell Cowan and Heal901 is a nonprofit organization where the motto and mission is “cultivating the minds of young leaders” and we do that through our youth-serving youth initiatives as well as our mental health services. And we also have another leg which is Heal901 Cures which helps with outreach as well as violence prevention and our motto for Heal901 Cures is “Eradicating Violence and Creating a Safer Shelby County for All” so we’re just proud to be able to cultivate the minds of youth and make Shelby County a safer place for everyone. But one of my favorite partnerships out of all the work I do is the partnership with the CVRCC and I’m with my favorite colleague Arriell tell me about yourself.
Arriell Gipson 4:18
So my name is Arriell Gipson and I am the Community Engagement Manager here at the Crime Victims and Rape Crisis Center (CVRCC) also known as CVRCC. And one of the initiatives we have here is violence Prevention. So we’re really excited to partner with Heal901 to be able to bring you the program Safe Bars 901, which we launched October of last year. We’re almost looking at a year so we’re really excited about the work we do and we want to prevent violence here in Shelby County. And that’s exactly with Safe Bars 901 is – a free bystander intervention program for alcohol-serving venues.
Durell Cowan 4:50
Emphasis on the free! so like I say we have a motto of “See Something, Say Something MANE” and the purpose of this is at bars, restaurants, breweries and other alcohol-serving spaces, to create safe and welcoming customer culture and Places for the patrons. Understanding that most of the staff are there more than they’re at home. And when people are coming to your establishment to unwind before going home, it’s imperative that we create safe places for them to do so.
Arriell Gipson 5:23
All right so the steps of becoming a safe bar are pretty simple. We need at least 75% of your front house staff to be there to be trained. We ask that you engage with check-ins every six months we want to drop in and see how we can further serve you do we need to retrain you? Do we need to help with any materials or any cases that might have come up?. We want to walk on this journey alongside you. We have the decals and Durell will talk about all of the really amazing swag we have in a second. We also give out posters and then we give you a resource binder that we do recommend you keep behind the bar in case your staff needs a refresh or reminder. And then there’s some surveys that you complete and that’s pretty much it. You go through the training, it’s been amazing interactive with training.
Durell Cowan 6:08
Most definitely. What is a bystander? Well, bystander intervention I know we’re going to talk about that a lot. Bystanders are individuals who are out there and able and willing to do something they’re willing don’t know how don’t want to get involved. And we’re gonna talk about all of those different things. And bystanders are typically the largest groups of individuals that are there when violence is going on. Everybody sees something everyone’s there, but what are we doing except for standing we’re standing around while someone else is being harmed and is victimized? So regardless of how close to the assault are bystanders, you have property and power. You do have the ability to do something and we’re going to go through the different ways that you can hop in intervene and areas. We’ll talk about those five Ds later on.
Arriell Gipson 6:52
I think it’s awesome. We understand support and know that people don’t always intervene for a lot of different reasons, right? That is a future responsibility. I don’t know who’s gonna take care of it, right? I’ve seen this happening, but who’s going to actually address it? Situational ambiguity. I don’t know how we got here. I don’t know the history. I don’t know if they know each other the perceived cost. Maybe it might cost you your life to intervene. Sometimes you just you’re aware and of social norms. There are so many social norms in our community in different cultures, mind your own business and such a sense of that nature. And so, there are a lot of reasons why people don’t always intervene and so part of the program is we like to break down those myths and equip and make sure your staff feels prepared to intervene when situations do occur.
Durell Cowan 7:40
The part is a bystander intervention I was speaking about earlier, here they are, are we going to be direct, go straight to the situation, and be able to say something you can delay there are various ways that you can when you see a situation happening, that you can delay that time period that someone has been victimized or what you see going on, and we talk about those different distractions on how you can distract someone when you see someone bad victimized or victimizing someone, the delegate if it is not for you. If you’re a waitress and you’re like, “hey, this is bigger than me.” You can go get security going and get security and bar staff or the bar back. Those things are the way that you delegate when you see something and you send someone else to intervene while watching their back and making sure you’re able to do the D that everyone does, which is document right now like document is the easiest one to do. How do I know so we see YouTube’s about documentation every day. And those YouTube videos and those videos that are being recorded are helping people in the situations that they’re in. So it’s important to document but we got to do the other things along with it. So we’re talking about what all of those are we come into your establishment and change training your staff and your front end people.
Arriell Gipson 8:48
And we walk your staff step by step through all of this to an excellent so one of the things that we equip you with is how to communicate with your patrons with your regulars, people just hopping in and maybe they’re in a situation where they don’t feel like they’re safe to communicate directly to the staff, right. They ask for an angel shot and so many people nationwide use the concept where you order Angel shot, you’re being discreet, but you’re asking for help at the same time. So what we do is we walk through roleplay with your staff when you’re doing this a one on one training on how to help assist somebody should they ask for one. We also provide every entity with posters that you can put in your restrooms so your clientele can see that as they’re going to and from maybe if they are in an unsafe situation. And then we also ask that people use it to there’s other really nice ways that people can use ANGEL shots and once you go through the program, we’ll show you how to do that.
Durell Cowan 9:47
Coaster we got to talk about the coasters right. So when it comes to these causes, we do have coasters that test for some of your normal date rate drugs. Two things to note when doing these coasters you have to use both sides of the coaster there are two testing areas make sure you use both of them. False positives are possible specifically with drinks made with fruit juices and certain mineral waters and or blue liquid. There’s one thing I do emphasize that anybody does make sure you test out all of your house drinks, everything on your menu you just test them out on the coasters so when the customer receives this and they are like hey, there’s something here you’ll be able to say you ordered this drink which will give you a false positive. And we also have other things that we’re talking about later on in this presentation to let you know how you can also make sure your staff is safe outside of those two normal date rape drugs.
Arriell Gipson 10:46
Absolutely. And we provide the coasters Can you and your staff for free it is there’s no cost that comes with it. When you get low, you just fill out a form. It’s really simple and again, no cost to you. Or we’d like to drop off to you just so we can come.
Durell Cowan 11:00
We bring these coasters every time we come and once again we emphasize on this free this is something that is free offered to all restaurants and alcohol-serving establishments. There is no training that you’re going to get this more beneficial to you and your patrons than this and it’s something that doesn’t cost you anything but the recognition that comes with it is everything. But coming soon. Is this a new thing that we have going on please go to the next slide area.
Arriell Gipson 11:26
We live in Memphis and Shelby County and we’re aware and I’m sure a lot of you are too that fentanyl cases are really high and people are overdosing at a higher rate and so if we’re going to talk about assessing for common drugs, we’ve got a test for the things that we see on a regular basis. And so we’re very excited to be partnering with Tennessee regional overdose prevention specialists, to provide the Naloxone overdose prevention kits, the training, and the fentanyl testing strips and we are going into a relationship with them and so we’ll do state bar training, they’ll come in and do their training for 20 minutes and when we leave your staff will be fully trained on both and you’ll be able to get the supplies for them as well. And so we’re really excited to interview with this partnership and just make sure that this program is for you all so we can save lives and reduce violence here in Shelby County.
Durell Cowan 12:20
So we’re gonna talk about these current Safe bars in Shelby County. We’re pleased to announce Tailor’s Union, Prive, and blind bear are all current Safe bars in Shelby County. We’re pleased that these bars and restaurants have taken the initiative speakeasy when it comes to blind bear has taken the initiative to go ahead and make sure that their patrons are safe as well as equip their staff and looting back to what Ariel just left with the fentanyl testing strips. Those things are important. So you’re seeing that this is something that’s proactive. We believe that an ounce prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. So if we get ahead of all these things that we see in the community, we can make Memphis and Shelby County a safer place for everyone. That’s not just those that are in the community, but everywhere we go and that’s what we’re looking for. I want every day in Shelby County to feel like a Grizzlies game. I mean every day to feel like I’m in this tiger game everything else goes through the back of our mind, and we enjoy the time that we spend with each other and just decompressing and that’s what we want to see on a daily basis, not just during those games and at those events.
Durell Cowan 13:29
Yes, so say bars on the horizon. We had Huey’s coming up. We’re really excited to be your first franchise. Yes. That will be able to go in and train all of their bars and restaurants. We have Fat Tuesday and then very soon we will be training up and down on Beale Street. So many people are just really excited to be a part of the program. They understand the value of this not just for their patrons that we get but also for your staff that feel more comfortable and safer and environment that they’re working out of. So we’re really excited about this.
Durell Cowan 14:03
So when it comes to our outreach efforts it’s more than just a restaurant thing is more than just a bar and alcohol serving establishment. What we’re looking at is we’re looking at going to beer gardens, restaurants, hotel, hookah lounges, cigar lounges, anywhere that people are chilling, and literally decompressing. We understand that where we live, and we understand that people are partaking in alcoholic beverages. That’s not a problem. But we do want to make sure that when individuals are drinking and we understand you’re extremely relaxed when doing so that the people around them that are serving them are able and equipped to make sure that not only are they able to relax, but they’re in a safe environment and what that safe environment entails also sometimes stepping outside of the box of what our norms are. If you see someone who’s in a situation where we may have to call an Uber for you and help you out well we may need to be able to find a way for you to leave this place safely distract the person who was literally trying to victimize you to get you out of this space or get you and your friends out. Those are the things that we want to make sure that bars and restaurants speakeasy beer gardens and all are equipped to do. So we’d love to show this really quick video that will be the next link that was inside of the chat. And you’re going to see this video and you’re going to hear directly from a bar, a restaurant that was able to bring safe bars to their establishment and you will hear directly from them. What the training was like and what did they think?
Speaker 4 18:12
Okay, Durell Cowan, Executive Director of Heal 901 says the goal is to eventually bring the safe bar program to Midtown and Downtown Memphis establishments that serve alcohol that’s exactly what we did.
Durell Cowan 18:30
Thank you all for taking time out of your schedule to see this and hopefully we’ll be in one of your some of you all’s establishment bringing the same thing. But the next slide we’ll talk about evaluation when you’re talking about an evidence based program. This is one of the most important pieces how do we prove that this work? How do we verify that these things that we say that we’re doing during this training is actually helpful? And during the evaluation the rape prevention education program is federally funded program which means that the Tennessee Department of Health is very involved with making sure that everything is going right and the training materials and all of that and the CDRC see the crime victim rape crisis center partners with us University of Tennessee at Knoxville, the Tennessee Department of Health, the Nashville sexual assault center for program evaluation and we’ve been able to be a part of all of this and it just pleased to be able to bring this wonderful information to the to the bars, restaurants, beer gardens breweries of Shelby County. And the next
Arriell Gipson 19:24
the slide is really a shameless plug. Just a reminder so people know that there are different points of entry for Victim Services, and if it’s a Shelby County, depending on what the crime type might be, and so we not only do we give you reminding you of what to do, and in case of an incident but we also like to for you to know who you can remit recommend your staff to the patrons that come in if something does occur, and any additional help and assistance. So this will also be in the binary that you get when you become a safe bar with the program.
Durell Cowan 19:56
Most definitely. Before we say thank you, there’s some I gotta show you guys. So like there’s this really cool swag that you get when you become a sidebar. So we have the same bar say some main tumblers that comes. We also like I say they get a bag, we have the coasters that you get. There’s this awesome night box and we’ll show them those. So the nightcaps there scrunchies in here that ladies could use to cover their drinks, just shows you different preventive items that bars restaurants and breweries could have actually personalize, personalize with your logo and information and just letting people know that they’re safe. And it’s just a wonderful thing. So is it something that we show because when it comes to the resources and making sure the individuals that visit Shelby County, we’re in Shelby County live in Shelby County to say there’s no limits to what we do.
Arriell Gipson 20:48
Yeah, absolutely. And so if you’re interested and becoming a part of the program, being a safe bar, you can email us. You can also contact him on a one you could contact CRCC and we’d love to sit down and talk to you and figure out how we can customize this program for your staff for your entity and how you can become a safe bar, and then I don’t want
Durell Cowan 21:10
awesome so thank you so much for your time. We’re going to open it up if anyone has any questions or comments. This is the perfect time to do some but always remember you seen some say Selma?
Sally Fienup 21:22
Does anybody have any questions? Right now I have a couple follow up questions, but I’m going to make sure that we give some of the people on here the option to ask first. So you can either your hand up or what I think goes Dan goes What have we got?
Shawn Danko 21:40
Now just curious. The program how long does it take to implement? Is this a multi day event? Is it a single day event?
Durell Cowan 21:54
Awesome. So we’re gonna make this as simple as possible. We know how busy it is. And we understand that most of the staff that work in these servers have other jobs. So we have catered and tweaked this down to roughly an hour if your staff is a lively staff and they like to have fun and make our hour and a half because it’s an interactive training. We’re not just sitting there and going through these steps. This interactive is something they can get involved in. So once they start moving around and opening up and speaking, they begin to do something but we also like we always tell people our hour and a half and that’s also including bringing in the regional overdose team. When and that’ll make it two hours at most when we bring the regional overdose team in because we do see the uptick in fentanyl cases and inside of Shelby County, and some of these are happening in bar so being able to bring those fentanyl testing strips in to be able to test drinks when someone thinks something has happened and having that as an extra thing that’s enter establishment. We think that that’s important as well. So just it’s just those extra preventative measures that may add a little bit more time.
Arriell Gipson 22:55
Yeah, and if we can perfect your scenario, if you can give us two hours we can get everything done in two hours.
Sally Fienup 23:01
So it would be an hour to an hour and a half for y’all and then if you want the Narcan training it’s probably an extra half hour but it makes it more complete training
Arriell Gipson 23:09
See if you give us two hours we can get everything trained.
Shawn Danko 23:14
Is the training intertwined with Tennessee Alcohol Beverage commission guidelines, rules regulations? Yes.
Arriell Gipson 23:25
Yeah, so some of the partners that the rails talked about earlier to Department of Health, the CDC, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and a National Sexual Assault center, plus all their entities and partners all come together to make sure that this is intertwined with everybody’s rules, regulations,
Durell Cowan 23:42
most definitely in in Shelby County where the ones don’t so we’re just pleased to say that this is an initiative that’s taking place statewide, and if we’re not the only ones doing we’re also bringing in the University of Memphis sexual assault center their their team is coming in and learning about a being trained on how to do safe bars. So they can also do the bars they typically the students who like to hang out it around the colleges so when we’re looking at this holistically, we’re making sure that all bases are covered not just in Shelby County is the state of Tennessee’s twin an all the resources and the bringing this and one of the perks that we didn’t even speak about is also the the bars and restaurants that go through this will be a part of the on the on the app. So there’s an app, there’s a website that comes out and it talks about the site, it lists the same bars per county. So it increases the amount of individuals because once again, this is a national thing. We’re just we’re just now bringing it here at this rate. So you’re talking about other people from other areas, they do go out and check and see which bars are registered as a bar so know how to plan their trips and vacations when they go in these areas. So there’s another benefit for all of the individuals that are part of this.
Lana Danko 24:50
So for the individual restaurants and bars, is it funded then by the state of Tennessee or is it the responsibility of the bars and restaurants to pay to have this training? No, the
Durell Cowan 25:00
training is totally free is already by the state. So all we need everyone to do is go to the email sign up and say you want to be a part there is no cost associated the only time that cost will be associated if you wanted to add those personalized items from the nightcap and to your establishment and another one of the cool things is the stock tops. So these are little stickers that can actually go over the top of the beverage. It is perforated in the center for straw to go through but it prevents someone from just dropping something and someone drinks. No, it’s all of the not just the trainee that you get is the information in connection to all the preventative measures that are out there. And you can actually cater these to actually reflect your business and actually have your logo your information here. And that’s that helps us security especially when you don’t want anyone leaving with the alcoholic beverage. You know COVID is over. We can’t walk out with those anymore. So just understanding that you could put this top on the drinks and security would automatically know at that can’t leave and it’s just helpful preventive measures
Sally Fienup 26:07
anybody have any other questions? I think maybe my follow up would be for the for the smaller pubs or bars out there. Do you guys have a minimum number of employees that you’ll train? No,
Arriell Gipson 26:17
we just need 25 75% So you’ve got your three of them show up. We will train at three and we’ll have we’ll make it a fun we’ll make it a fun
Sally Fienup 26:25
time. When I can already tell you guys are dynamic presenters. So
Durell Cowan 26:30
but and the beauty of it is for that 25% That may not be there. That’s the beauty of the binder. See everyone else can go and be like hey, you know what, you missed this training. This is a time where we can sit down and tell you what so everyone’s still on the same page. And another reason for leaving the webinar, we understand the turnover rate. So you know, people leave establishments to start new jobs. Does that mean that you have to bring the new staff in to be certified? No, the binder is there and we’re still there to assist you in any way necessary. So that means that you want us to come out and talk to a new group that you’ve trained or a new snap, you opened up a new establishment new location and you want those individual Detroit we have no problem. We welcome the ability to come into your space and work with your staff. And I
Sally Fienup 27:10
guess the assumption would be that if the GM or the owner goes through your training along with some of the long standing employees if there is a little turnover, whoever that employee is that does the training has themselves been certified and now it’s like forever in your employee training manual that this is something that we’ve now implemented into part of how we train employees and that’s how the restaurant stays certified because it’s just now standard for your restaurant or bar to be training your employees in that.
Arriell Gipson 27:38
Yeah, we check in with you every six months to and so we can always give a refresher as well.
Sally Fienup 27:47
Does anybody else have any other questions? This was very informative. It was actually a lot more than what I more information than I was even expecting for tonight with the amount that you guys cover in your program is more than sort of covers all avenues. So I was very impressed.
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