Uber Pledges $5 Million to Raise Awareness and Prevent Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Uber today announced a $5 million commitment over five years as part of
its “Driving Change” campaign for sexual assault and domestic violence
awareness and prevention initiatives in partnership with groups
including Raliance, the National Network to End Domestic Violence and NO
MORE. These groups began working with Uber several months ago to begin
building these important initiatives.

“Sexual assault and domestic violence are issues that affect millions of
people around the world. As members of the communities we serve, we want
to work with others to be part of the solution,” said Rachel Holt, vice
president US/Canada Operations, Uber. “We’re not only committing major
funding for awareness and prevention programs through leading community
partners, we are driving meaningful change in this area from the highest
levels of our organization on down.”

The $5 million commitment will fund programmatic partnerships focused on
prevention. An initial portion of the funding will go to partners
Raliance, the National Network to End Domestic Violence, Women of Color
Network, Inc., Casa de Esperanza, A CALL TO MEN, the National Coalition
of Anti-Violence Programs and NO MORE. These partners and the funding
will also help address critical funding gaps with marginalized
communities who are often the most underfunded.

In collaboration with its partners in the sexual assault and domestic
violence space, as part of this commitment, Uber has made some important
changes and is using its technology to help drive awareness and
prevention of sexual assault and domestic violence to millions globally.
Some of the initiatives that have already been implemented include:

• Providing important information to drivers and riders –
  Utilizing its global scope, scale and technology to engage millions of
  riders and drivers on awareness and prevention.
• Executive leadership training – Engaged its executive
  leadership team in awareness training facilitated by experts from the
  National Alliance to End Sexual Violence and the National Network to
  End Domestic Violence.
• Specialized training for customer support agents – Worked with
  partners to develop and offer world class training to agents that
  reflects collective wisdom in this space and imparts understanding of
  this societal issue while building empathy.
• Making a commitment to employees – Joined the Corporate
  Alliance to End Partner Violence to develop and adopt a commitment
  to appropriately assist employees who might need help in this area.

“Our goal has been to listen and learn so that we are better equipped to
make changes that matter,” said Tracey Breeden, head of Global Safety
Communications, Uber. “These initiatives would not have been possible
without the insight and guidance from our partners and members of our
Safety Advisory Board.”

Uber will continue to develop, collaborate and launch initiatives in the
coming months in an effort to drive change. Some of these initiatives
include facilitating employee training and education, hosting global
listening tours to capture feedback and concerns from local community
organizations, continuing to engage on internal speaker series, and
employee volunteerism.

For more information visit www.uber.com/newsroom/driving-change-together

Our Partners

Raliance (National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), the
California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA) and the National
Alliance to End Sexual Violence (NAESV)):

“As a member of this partnership, Raliance values the opportunity to
make lasting, impactful changes to safety needs not just within Uber,
but throughout the entire commuter transportation industry,” Kristen
Houser, spokesperson for Raliance said. “Pairing Uber’s technology
expertise with our expertise in sexual assault prevention and response
will pave a path for innovative ways to move the needle to end sexual
violence.” (raliance.org)

National Network to End Domestic Violence

“The National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) is proud to work
with Uber in its efforts to increase public awareness of domestic
violence, and to make changes both internally and externally to help
keep riders, drivers, employees and members of our communities safe.”
NNEDV Executive Vice President Cindy Southworth said, “At NNEDV, we are
dedicated to creating an environment in which violence and abuse no
longer exists, and this includes innovations in outreach, public
education and strategic collaborations. We are pleased that Uber is
committed to becoming an industry leader on this issue.” (nnedv.org)

Casa de Esperanza

“Casa de Esperanza appreciates the commitment Uber has made to
addressing issues of domestic violence and sexual assault. Uber has
embraced a powerful opportunity to create meaningful change by taking
steps to improve its organizational capacity and resources internally as
they support prevention efforts externally,” said Patricia Tototzintle,
CEO of Casa de Esperanza. “A major undertaking takes a major commitment
from Uber, and it has shown its support to national and community
efforts through current and future partners. This is a time to envision
and work toward greater prevention efforts through our partnership.” (casadeesperanza.org)

Women of Color Network, Inc.

“We, at Women of Color Network, Inc., are extremely excited for this
groundbreaking partnership with Uber and associated organizations,”
stated Tonya Lovelace, CEO of Women of Color Network, Inc. “This is an
amazing opportunity for WOCN, Inc. and other national culturally
specific organizations to support Uber in their quest to directly reach
those who are historically marginalized based on race, ethnicity, gender
identity, sexual orientation, faith, immigration status and other
identities, and who experience sexual assault, domestic violence and
other forms of intersecting violence at greater proportions than
mainstream communities, but are least likely to feel the impact of
funding. We look forward to being a catalyst in this effort.” (wocninc.org)

A CALL TO MEN

“A CALL TO MEN is proud to see Uber take a comprehensive approach to
prevention education. These issues are not limited to the workplace –
they are pervasive throughout our society,” said Tony Porter, CEO of A
CALL TO MEN. “At A CALL TO MEN we educate men and boys about healthy,
respectful manhood because we know that when men embrace and promote
healthy respectful manhood, we will reduce all forms of violence and
discrimination against women and girls.” (acalltomen.org)

NO MORE

“As an organization dedicated to getting the issues of domestic violence
and sexual assault out of the shadows and encouraging everyone to be
part of the solution, this partnership offers huge opportunities to
raise awareness, support prevention initiatives, and ensure that
potentially lifesaving resources are prominently available,” said Rachel
Haas, Managing Director, NO MORE. “NO MORE is committed to working with
individuals, organizations or corporations that are truly interested in
bringing about change. We’re honored to join in this effort with these
leading organizations that have been long-time members of the NO MORE
coalition. To make real progress and to address a deeply embedded
culture of violence, we want – and in fact need – to be in as many
boardrooms, classrooms and living rooms as possible, as well as on the
networks and platforms where people live, work and play.” (nomore.org)

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP)

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) works to
respond to and end all forms of violence against and within lesbian,
gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities. NCAVP is coordinated
by the New York City Anti-Violence Project (avp.org/ncavp)

Contacts

Uber
Jodi Page
press@uber.com