About

Blue Porch Light by Kevin A. Slotemaker

The Blue Light Safety Project is a Santa Cruz local community effort to provide temporary safe spaces for people who are feeling unsafe. Community members who want to provide a safe space to those in need simply put a blue light on their house.

People in our communities, especially those in vulnerable populations, sometimes need a place where they can stop for a brief time to seek help or safety, make a phone call, wait for a ride, or rest for a moment. For example, female-bodied people or youth walking alone at night, people escaping intimate violence, queer or trans people who've been threatened, or elderly people who need a brief rest might feel supported to have a house in their neighborhood where they know they can find a temporary safe space.

The project is an attempt to provide safety in our community outside of institutional solutions such as police.

You may see signs at houses around town:

This is the Blue Light Safety Project.
A blue light signifies that this house is a temporary safe space,
open to anyone that feels in danger or threatened.
Knock on the door and the residents will provide support
until you feel safer or can make other arrangements.
If no one is home, you are welcome to sit on the porch
for a short time until you feel safe to continue on your way.

There are several ways to support the project:

• The simplest way is to become a Blue Light House.  Put a blue light on your home and become a temporary safe space in your neighborhood.
• Talk to your neighbors about the project
• Put a sign up to explain why you are a Blue Light House.
• Donate to the project.
• Come to a Community Safety Workgroup