The Time's Up Movement, USA Gymnastics, and the Me Too Movement. What do all of these things have in common? Sexual harassment. More and more stories of sexual assault are appearing in the news whether it’s celebrities, athletes, or your twitter feed. We keep hearing about women and men speaking up about the endless accounts of harassment but what do we do now? And how do we continue to make day-to-day life a safer place for every individual?

We must do more. More than just tweet and forget about it in a month. More than march and raise money. More than blame higher institutions for which we have no control over. To create a big change we must start small, change starts with each one of us.

We need not to accept this kind of behavior from one another but to instead create an environment that no longer allows people who enact or support these crimes. We need to teach our sons and daughters that when someone says no, they mean no. We need to raise kids with ideals and standards that advocate that sexual harassment is not okay.

The first step is simply making the conscious decision to pay attention and keep paying attention. Don’t allow for this to be talked about for just a couple of months in the media. Don’t let this be a passing moment. Don’t allow people go back to their naïve way of thinking. Don’t let people forget. We must use our voices to change the way in which we treat one another, and we must learn from our mistakes in order to create that change. And it simply starts with you.

Better Brave: www.betterbrave.com

EEOC: www.eeoc.gov/index.cfm +1 (800) 669-4000

Equal Rights Advocates: www.equalrights.org +1 (800) 839-4372