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Violence

Hi Amy,

Last year, I received a copy of your book, Grassroots.

I'm a student at UCLA, but over the summer I am working at a gourmet grocery store in Orange County. I told my manager about the woman in Germany with the Stop Rape bags and he was interested in trying to replicate that with our grocery store bags.

I was just wondering if you could help me make that interest a reality, and if you had any advice as to what I can do for funding to cover the printing costs. Thank you!

Sincerely, Alexis Flyer

P.S. I really, really, really liked the book.

 

Alexis --

It's great that you approached your employer about this and even better than they want to move ahead.

In general, I would suggest taking the same steps that Karen took. For starters, there is a great group based in CA -- the Family Violence Prevention Fund, they do national work as well as tons in state. I would contact them get some of the statistics from your state and start with those.

Choose one aspect of the issue that speaks to you and then build the campaign around that. I'm not sure the grocery store has their bags already printed with their logo, etc..., but I would approach the company who does those and see what the cost would be to have additional text on the bags. Ideally this would be a relatively nominal cost and the grocer would be willing to underwrite it.

I also think a key component of this would be to educate the employees of the store about the campaign -- this way they can answer questions when customers ask them. And on that note -- I think you have to be clear about your purpose -- public education? listing a local hotline number, etc..... I'm not sure what type of community your store exists in, but perhaps it's affluent and progressive and the assumption is that violence doesn't happen in their community/sphere.

The campaign then could be something to the effect of -- "it's closer to home than you think" or something to eliminate the stereotype that it's a certain person or community.

I hope those ideas help -- also I'm sure that Karen would answer questions. I don't seem to have her email in front of me, but I could get if you want.

Thanks for reaching out and good luck, it's a great idea,

-- Amy