Mission
Our History
Our Guiding Principles
Our Values
Steering Committee

MISSION.

New Yorkers for Safe Transit Coalition (NYFST) is a collection of organizations and advocates dedicated to eliminating harassment and assaults, particularly gender or discrimination based, on public transportation in New York City. NYFST focuses on raising public awareness, community building, and facilitating changes that ensure New Yorkers can get from one location to another safely and securely.

OUR HISTORY.

In 2007, New York City groups already working on and organizing around transportation and street safety issues worked with the Manhattan Borough President, Scott Stringer, to release a report which indicated an alarmingly high number of New Yorkers had been harassed or assaulted on the subway. When it became apparent that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and the New York City Police Department (NYPD) were not adequately addressing the problem, these groups united as New Yorkers for Safe Transit to focus on educating the community, seeking their involvement in solutions and pursuing policy changes.

OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES.

We believe that all individuals should be treated equally and with dignity and respect, recognizing that women, LGBTQ individuals, gender nonconforming individuals, people of color, youth, and those who live or work in areas with lacking or limited access to public transit face the biggest safety challenges on public transit.

OUR VALUES.

1. All individuals have a right to feel safe in public spaces.
2. Public agencies should be held accountable for ensuring public safety.
3. All individuals should be able to ride public transit free of harassment or violence.
4. Individuals and communities have the power to make social change through education, organizing, and action.

STEERING COMMITTEE

ORAIA REID – Co-Founder, Executive Director of RightRides for Women’s Safety

With over a decade of grassroots organizing experience, Oraia is committed to empowering communities on behalf of LGBTQ, socio/political justice, and women’s rights issues with a focus on ending sexual assault.

Serving as the Executive Director of RightRides for Women’s Safety, Oraia has been instrumental in launching the organization from vision to operations and significant growth, by overseeing strategic and programmatic development, public relations, fund development, along with community and sponsorship relations.

Under her direction, RightRides has received awards, community recognition and press coverage. She is also sought for speaking engagements at conferences about her experiences as a young activist, community leader and social entrepreneur.

Recently, Oraia completed executive education certificates from Harvard Business School in Performance Measurement for Effective Management of Nonprofit Organizations, and from Columbia Business School’s Institute for Not-For-Profit Management, certificate of Middle Management and Personal Leadership.  She is also a Junior Fellow at the Nonprofit Leadership Development Institute at the United Way of New York City (Spring 2007).

KAT NOEL – Community Organizer of NYFST

As a native New Yorker and RightRides rider since 2008, Kat Noel knows firsthand the need for safer transportation.  Dedicated to RRWS’ mission, she has joined the team as the Community Organizer for New Yorkers For Safer Transit, a coalition dedicated to eliminating harassment and assaults on public transportation in New York City.

Kat has served as a gender-specific youth development counselor for the Harlem Educational Activities Fund, program assistant for City-wide Dialogues on Boston’s Ethnic and Racial Diversity and assistant director of Teen Safety Night at Boston’s Wang YMCA of Chinatown. Kat also brings eight years of journalism experience which includes an editorial assistant position with Smart + Strong, a publishing company that produces POZ, a magazine that chronicles the lives of people impacted by HIV/AIDS, and Real Health, a leading health magazine for African-Americans.

She is committed in using her skills and interests to increase the overall wellness of marginalized communities.

EMILY MAY – Co-founder, HollabackNYC.com

Emily May is the co-founder of HollabackNYC.com, a website dedicated to ending street harassment through social media. Now, HollbackNYC receives over 1000 hits per day and over 15 Hollabacks were established worldwide.

In 2008, May co-founded New Yorkers for Safe Transit, a coalition dedicated to making public transportation safe for all New Yorkers. The Coalition was successful in getting anti-harassment ads up in the subway in fall of 2008.

In addition, May works at Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow, a youth workforce development agency serving low-income neighborhoods in Brooklyn where she develops creative solutions to poverty through programming and policy work. May also serves on the board of Girls for Gender Equity, an organization that teaches leadership and community organizing skills to low-income girls.

She has been featured as an expert on women’s safety in public on Fox, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, and ABC. May is a recipient of the Stonewall Women’s Award and has an undergraduate degree from New York University and a Master’s Degree from the London School of Economics.

MEGHAN HUPPUCH – Director of Community Organizing at Girls for Gender Equity

Meghan leads Sisters in Strength, GGE’s youth organizing internship for young women of color, and coordinates the Coalition for Gender Equity in Schools (CGES). GGE’s current community organizing work focuses on advocating and educating towards safer schools, free of sexual harassment and gender discrimination, where students’ civil rights are respected.

Meghan is a strong believer in young people’s power to create change and has focused her energy on work that directly affects youth. In the past she has worked as a teaching assistant in a summer reading academy, artist’s assistant for a community mural designed and painted by teens, fundraising support for the Hudson Valley chapter of the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network, and a programmer/representative for the Center for Multicultural Education and Programming at NYU. Originally from Ossining, NY, Ms. Huppuch resides in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

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