We’re partnering with student government to offer self defense classes & safe nighttime events. Can you help?
SafeBears showed appreciation for local law enforcement with a billboard up for three months in Berkeley in summer ‘24.
Join us as we work to make our Bears safer
Exciting news: SafeBears is fundraising for two new programs we’ve developed in partnership with UC Berkeley student government, known as the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC):
Personal safety classes – Berkeley students contend with high levels of street harassment and predation. Help us fund convenient and free personal safety classes where students will build confidence and learn self-defense strategies. Learn more
Safe socializing after dark – Many Berkeley students want to de-stress and make friends outside of the party scene. SafeBears and UC Berkeley student government are joining forces to create a grant program to help student organizations host nighttime events that are inclusive, fun and safe. Learn more
We’d be honored if you would help us support students with a tax-deductible, earmarked donation to the program that speaks to you - or to both! Every dollar donated using the two links above will go to the programs.
We’re also working on other projects to support student safety, including some in partnership with student organizations. If you’d like to support our work with a non-earmarked donation, please give to our general fund.
Please keep reading for a letter from the SafeBears leadership team highlighting our recent work and explaining our current fundraising priorities. Thank you for your support . . . and Go Bears! 🐻
SafeBears tabling and hosting two parent mixers at new-student move-in, August 2024. Attendees included UCPD, BPD, campus administration and city leadership.
Dear SafeBear,
The SafeBears mission is simple: we fight for the safety of Berkeley students through advocacy, partnership, education and action. If you get our email updates or follow our Facebook group, you know that in recent months we’ve:
Organized advocacy directed at the California Governor and the UC Regents
Seen the positive results of our earlier advocacy efforts for automated license plate readers (ALPRs) in the City of Berkeley – including the recent arrest in the Oct 26 gunfire incident
Collaborated with campus to improve student education on the risks of spiked drinks and predatory drugging
Educated parents about safety news, resources, and best practices with Facebook posts and our website Resources page
Met regularly with administration to get answers, advocate for more safety measures, and keep them honest on their safety promises
We also strive to develop and deliver programs that will make tangible improvements to student safety. This programming, as we said at our recent all-member meeting, takes two things: time and money.
Earlier this year SafeBears ran an 18-day private security pilot program, which garnered extensive media coverage from coast to coast, and got the attention of UC leadership at the highest levels, including systemwide president Dr. Michael V. Drake.
We believe our private security pilot was wildly successful: among other things, it motivated university administration to work with our organization more closely and to take safety concerns more seriously.
Did you know that beginning this fall campus residential services contracted with UCPD for Security Patrol Officers (unarmed, non sworn) to guard Units 1, 2 and 3 in the evening and nighttime hours? Sounds a lot like our private security program, doesn’t it?
We’re sometimes asked if we will repeat our private security program. We have absolutely not ruled out the possibility, and believe we could quickly reprise it given the tremendous amount of volunteer work that past and current leadership put into it. But, currently, we’re not actively planning for it, because we think the program served its purpose and is not at this time sustainable long term from either a financial or time perspective. (The 18-day contract with Streetplus cost $42,000.)
Rest assured: we will continue to advocate, relentlessly, for the return of the police patrols that not so long ago protected Cal students: such as dedicated bike patrols in Southside and downtown and the joint UCPD-BPD Telegraph Avenue Patrol (TAP). And we will never let UC Berkeley forget that it used to staff UCPD with far more sworn officers (70 in 2014 and 80 in 2007, compared with fewer than 50 today).
So what do we plan to do next? In recent months SafeBears leadership and other parent volunteers have focused on listening to the people our organization exists to serve: STUDENTS. What are their safety concerns? What do students think would help them feel and be safer? What assistance can SafeBears offer?
Based on our work with students, we’re proud to present two programs in which SafeBears will partner with UC Berkeley student government, known as the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC):
free and convenient personal safety classes where students will build confidence and learn self-defense strategies;
a grant program for nighttime events to promote safe and inclusive socializing after dark.
Both programs will begin fairly small, with a goal of benefiting hundreds of students in the spring semester. But both are highly scalable, and could grow to reach thousands of students, depending on interest level and the generosity of parents and students with their time and treasure.
Before you read the details of the two programs, we have some exciting news to share: an anonymous donor has covered our expected overhead expenses for 2025. That means every dollar you give using the two program links will go to the programs.
As we approach the end of 2024, please consider including SafeBears in your charitable giving. We hope we’ve earned your trust and would be honored by your support.
Continue reading after this letter, or click on the links in this sentence, for details about personal safety classes and the grant program for nighttime events. Also, at the very end of this blog post are some FAQs about our nonprofit status.
Go Bears! 💙 💛 🐻
Warmly,
Steve, Victoria, Melissa, Ingrid & Roberto
Help us fund free and convenient personal safety classes
Does anyone else feel like walking around campus this semester has been significantly harder? – so begins a heartbreaking recent r/berkeley subreddit post that continues: I am a woman of small stature and have been followed TWICE in the last two weeks. One of these encounters included a man screaming that he "was just looking for someone who wanted to f[*%]k" him. And I just had to let it roll off my back, because I had homework and studying to do.
While this anonymous post is unverifiable, it is sadly representative of what we know is the reality of daily life for too many UC Berkeley students: verbal harassment and threats, being followed and even chased, assault & battery, sexual battery, and more. We know because we hear about it from our own kids, from private messages from parents, from Facebook posts, and from our regular reviews of the UCPD Daily Crime Log and BPD Transparency Hub.
Students who have taken a personal safety class say they find the experience empowering. These classes do much more than teach basic physical strikes for self-defense. They also instruct students to listen to their inner alarm bells and practice threat assessment; to train their bodies to react to danger instead of freeze; and to enforce boundaries with body language, voice and distance.
But Cal students are busy, and need classes on or very close to campus, with multiple options as to day of week, time of day, and length of class. And even a modest fee can deter students who struggle to pay basic living expenses.
The details:
The SafeBears Sexual Violence & Sexual Harassment Committee (SB-SVSH) is teaming up with UC Berkeley’s student government, known as the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC), to offer free personal safety classes at the campus Recreational Sports Facility.
The ASUC-GA Student Safety Task Force has negotiated with the UC Berkeley Recreation & Wellness department (RecWell) to offer classes that are more accessible to students: for example, by shortening the existing martial arts self defense class to 3 weeks and by offering more one-hour personal safety classes.
ASUC and SafeBears will jointly fund class fees, eliminating cost barriers.
Separately, SafeBears is exploring a partnership with the Berkeley YWCA on Bancroft (across the street from campus) for even more personal safety classes.
Examples of how the money will be spent:
$45 = 3 students attend a one-hour personal safety class at RSF
$40 = 1 class pass for a shortened martial arts class at RSF
Please help with a donation, however large or small! Berkeley has 45,000 students, 33,000 of them undergraduates, and our initial goal is to serve at least 200 students in the spring ‘25 semester. Our longer term goal is to increase access exponentially during the fall semester when new students arrive on campus.
DONATE for personal safety classes
Help us fund safe and inclusive nighttime events
When UC Berkeley’s student government, the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC), came to SafeBears with an idea for how to encourage more nighttime events on campus, we immediately understood how this could promote safety in multiple ways. First, students should be able to enjoy their beautiful campus even after dark, and there is safety in numbers.
Additionally, we parents know all too well that many of our students struggle with stress or feelings of isolation or anxiety. And some will engage with alcohol or drugs in unsafe ways in a misguided attempt to cope. While the crisis of young adult mental health is a complex topic with many causes, and many necessary responses, we hope offering students safe ways to unwind, have fun and connect with each other can play a role in improving student wellbeing.
Nighttime events might include Movie Night on the Glade, a silent disco at the Student Union, or a concert on Sproul. This will be a program by and for students, limited only by their imaginations . . . and the funds available to them.
The details:
UC Berkeley’s student government, officially known as the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC), was founded in 1887 and is one of the oldest, largest and most autonomous student associations in the country.
ASUC will administer the nighttime programs grant via the ASUC-GA Student Safety Task Force. SafeBears meets regularly with the ASUC senator who chairs this committee.
The grants will be available for (1) student organizations to host (2) nighttime events (3) on or near campus, that are (4) no or very low cost (5) drug & alcohol free and (6) open and welcoming to all students.
Funding for the grants will come from several sources, including the Cal Parents & Family Student Safety Fund, the Chancellor’s Independent Advisory Board on Police Accountability and Community Safety (IAB), and SafeBears.
This is a pilot project, and we can’t predict how popular it will be initially or how long it will take to gain traction. But we think a vibrant nighttime campus with safe and inclusive events is a vision worth supporting. If you agree, please make a donation!
DONATE for safe nighttime events
Donate to our general fund
We’re working on other projects to support student safety, including some in partnership with student organizations. If you’d like to support our work with a non-earmarked donation, please give to our general fund.
And by the way, our expected overhead expenses for 2025 are already covered.
FAQs
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Yes, almost certainly, as SafeBears is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. But we can’t give tax advice, so you should consult a tax professional if you have any questions about your specific situation.
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Yes, you will get an immediate confirmation by email, and we will send a separate letter for tax preparation purposes ahead of the April ‘25 filing deadline.
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We strive to keep our overhead expenses as low as possible. But certain costs are unavoidable, such as web site hosting, tax preparation, insurance, and Zoom hosting, among other items. Our annual overhead is currently about $5,000.
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NO. The five board members are volunteers. There is no paid staff. Our by-laws require each board member to make at least a $100 donation annually, and most of our past and current board members have contributed more than that, not just in significant volunteer hours, but also in the form of additional cash donations as well as donated expenses (i.e., not asking for reimbursement for legitimate expenses).
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Yes. SafeBears has been tax exempt since May 2023. You can view our ‘23 tax filing here.
