Craft Beer Companies Create The Safe Bars P.A.C.T.
What started as frequent Zoom calls between multiple organizations, soon turned into a group of individuals making a stand for those who the beverage industry continues to marginalize and harm with gender inequities.
Those organizations are Craft Beer Professionals, Safe Bars, Not Your Hobby Marketing Solutions, Lady Justice Brewing, assisted by RadCraft, and HalfDay Studio. They have now formed The Safe Bars P.A.C.T.
This initiative is yet another way that breweries and beverage companies are trying to make a stand and acknowledge the discrimination and harassment that many have endured in their place of work.
“We had initially reached out to the community to talk about the state of the industry with Craft Beer Professionals,” owner of Not Your Hobby Marketing, Julie Rhodes said. “We formed frequent Zoom calls to help get the initiative together, and what started as a beer collaboration turned into helping gather resources for the P.A.C.T.”
If beverage companies want to make long-term commitments to safer spaces for consumers and employees, they can adopt the Safe Bars P.A.C.T. (Promise of Awareness, Compassion, and Trust).
Adopting the P.A.C.T. involves following the code of conduct “Our House, Our Rules” and having all employees read and sign off on it. Employees and management will also be able to take the 2.5-hour active bystander training on preventing and interrupting harassment.
“The P.A.C.T. (Safe Bars Code of Conduct) and training are merely the first steps a brewery should take to invest in creating safer space,” founder of Craft Beer Professionals, Andrew Coplon said. “Many breweries do not have a dedicated HR department/person and a code of conduct is the initial sign of dedication to being better.”
So far, there have been 65 plus breweries that have shown interest in joining and adopting the P.A.C.T. It is now just a matter of who will follow through with it.
“I am passionate about seeing our industry be better,” Coplon said. “Moreover, I first got into the industry with the desire to help breweries create the most memorable taproom experience possible. Creating safe and respectful places is a fundamental part of this. If we want to see continued positive change in craft beer, it starts internally.”
After having seen the many personal stories shared on Brienne Allan’s Instagram back in May 2021, the founders of the P.A.C.T. realized this was just a small insight into this problem that has plagued the beverage industry for quite some time.
“No one should feel dehumanized in their industry,” Rhodes said. “The industry sees you. We want survivors to see that they are not getting walked over.”
For companies that want to join the initiative, there are four simple steps that they can follow on The Safe Bars P.A.C.T. website.
Read more about Brianne Allan’s Brave Noise collaboration project here.
