This may seem silly, but think about the seasons when you're planning it. There was a local Take Back the Night walk a few years ago here in Columbia, MO, that was clearly planned in the winter, but took place in the spring.

Because of the change in seasons, the walk was taking place more than an hour before sunset! Take back the night walks really work better, you know, at night.

As far as format goes, the path of the walk went through the campus slums to University row, where there was a speech about rape at frat parties (from someone in the Panhellenic council), and back to campus, where there was another speech about rape on campus. The speeches were a decent mix of information on protecting yourself and the acknowledgment that women shouldn't have to protect themselves.

If there are particularly notorious areas on/near your campus, I'd include those as well, and try to get speakers from diverse sources.

hi! I have never organized a Take Back the Night, but I have participated. I think the most important thing is creating as safe and supportive an atmosphere as possible. Probably avoid choosing a weekend night (in college I suppose that would be thurs-sun) and any night that there is a popular sporting event happening around campus. that might help in discouraging unwanted or intoxicated parties from stumbling by and contributing their two cent. having an open mic time is great, you hear stories from survivors and friends of survivors. people who might never have spoken before could choose that moment. i did. because most schools try hard to keep on-campus assault cases quiet, it can mean everything for students to find out they are not the only ones. i think the presence of school media is important, as long as they are respectful of the proceedings and would be willing to not print the names or photos of person participating that do not which to be revealed. candles for the participants to light and hold is very moving. for people not feeling brave enough to speak, please have a table with resource material available. maybe ask if someone from the school's counseling center be present and state that they've made themselves available to anyone who wants to talk, since these events can stir up strong emotions. lastly, i'd suggest a thorough review of local resources for survivors and their friends, both on campus and off. most students don't have a clear understanding of what is available to them and how to get help without being led in a particular direction. names of local crisis centers, contacts within the school, judicial policy, hospitals that having caring trained professional to perform exams, etc. whatever you can think of to empower the students. if you can think of a way to incorporate more men into the night, that would be great. something to get boyfriends and friends to show up, because they generally get squeamish around the issue or think it doesn't apply to them. appealing to their reputations for all the men out there giving them a bad name, etc. being the friend that steps in and tells a buddy to back off a girl, etc. setting an example. that was a long stream of consciousness here, hope some of it is helpful!

My collegetown does TBTN every year. I also have never planned it, but I really enjoy the format that they use.

There's two large colleges in my town, so they have one march each start from there. At my school, we meet outside the student union. Then we march through "Collegetown", an area populated entirely with off-campus student housing and tons of bars and restaurants. We usually pick up a number of late-comers this way. There's lots of chanting and sign-waving.

Then we all march to a central point downtown, where three marches meet: one from my college, one from the other college, and one made up of residents of the town. There's a pavilion where the three groups meet, and there's an open mic mixed with presentations from various sexual violence awareness and advocacy groups in the community. Tables lined the sides of the pavilion with more info, tee-shirts to raise money, etc. It's a very informative night.

Also, everyone is invited to where an armband, which are just strips of cloth tied around the arm. Last year, there were three colors: purple (survivor), blue (supporter), and orange (professional advocate). You could get a blue one from any of the volunteers. To get a purple one, you had to ask one of the professional advocates who would discreetly add something along the lines of "If you need any kind of help, even just having a chat, you can take this card from my hand." The card had info on all the groups present.

No helpful comment here, but I remember meeting you at the FMLA national meeting last year. You guys are from UCF, right? How are things going with you? :)

Marc

My school does "safe space" speakouts separated by gender before the march. We always provide water, rissues and a rape crisis center volunteer in each room (we try to keep rooms to 30 or fewer people). Then we do a silent candlit march around campus. We stop at places where a rape has occurred and read off the police report. Then everyone says in unison "For this Woman, for all People, We march tonight." At the end we gather in circle, count off and have a moment of silence. We work very closely with the police department and we always have two female police officers escort us on the march and plan the route.