NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — In a city known for a good time, there's always a good bar nearby.
"Statistically 50% nationwide of all sexual assaults do involve alcohol," said Vice President of Development & Marketing for the Sexual Assault Center, Lorraine McGuire.
That is why the Center launched the 'Safe Bar' program. "It is a bystander intervention program where bar staff are trained on how to handle situations and how to also give people in their bars resources to help them feel safer when they're there," McGuire said.
The center is hoping to bring the training to more bars downtown.
"We don't like to pick on Broadway but Broadway is where a lot of people come in from because it's such a highly concentrated area of drinking and tourism and people coming in," McGuire said.
Joe Guerra is the Director of Hospitality at Teddy's Tavern. He said the decision to train his employees was easy. "So when I first found out about this it was just 'yes this is something we have to do'," he said.
With the training came Safe Bar materials like these free drug test coasters and posters with the crisis hotline number.
While Guerra hopes his employees will never have to rely on their training, he knows it could make a difference in someone else's life.
"These kinds of programs will help, I think, keep that in the right direction in keeping us safe on lower Broadway," he said.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, you can call the Tennessee Statewide Sexual Assault Hotline 24/7 at 1-866-811-RISE (7473). You can also visit the Sexual Assault Center's Safe Clinic which is open 24/7.
