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There are some topics that the majority of people are simply uncomfortable talking about and the frequency of sexual violence, particularly date rape druggings, is one of them. Ayla Boyle learned this first hand after a drug was put into her drink which caused her to black out for many hours in the summer of 2015.

Boyle says she left her drink at her table when she went to play pinball. She lost consciousness within minutes of sipping her drink. However, because she was still interacting with people and somewhat communicating, her friends, at first, thought she was just really drunk. They eventually realized this was not the case, that something was really wrong with her, and they took her to a safe place where she slept for hours.

"When I woke up, I didn’t have a hangover, but I was covered in bruises from falling over so many times before I finally passed out," says Boyle. "I remembered nothing after playing pinball."

Boyle decided to try to get answers and piece together what happened to her. She posted to Facebook what happened and engaged in conversation with many people. She was unable to decipher who or why her drink was tampered with, but she made connections with numerous people who had been in similar situations.

"There is so much apathy from people when you tell them what happened to you," says Boyle. "The day after I felt scared and afraid but I wasn’t ashamed because I knew it wasn’t me."

Boyle decided to start a Kickstarter fund to raise money to buy date rape drug test strips to donate to local bars so men and women who leave their drinks for any amount of time could ensure it was drug free. Within five hours, she had met her monetary goal on Kickstarter.

"I quickly realized that test strips weren’t going to eradicate date rape culture," says Boyle. "We needed to start a movement."

Meanwhile, Erika Wolf and Lian Markovich were doing similar work, also trying to expose the issue of sexual violence and rape culture while educating people about it at the same time. Wolf was particularly inspired to speak up after the violent attack of a 33-year-old woman in Snail’s Crossing, a Riverwest park, in December of 2014.

Wolf organized a Take Back The Night event in the park, and 200 people showed up.

"This was the beginning of a lot of great conversations that weren’t already happening," says Wolf. "People were angry and afraid and they weren’t hearing anything from the police."

Wolf reconnected with friend and fellow community organizer, Lian Markovich, and before long, they were introduced to Boyle and the three women started Date Rape Awareness Milwaukee (DRAM) in early 2015.

"Everything started happening very quickly and at the same time," says Markovich. "It immediately had a lot of momentum."

The mission of the group is to "educate and eradicate rape culture" through a collaborative process with everyone in the community. "We are building a network of people to take action, to be intolerant of sexual violence … who will hold themselves and each other accountable for our choices," reads one of their printed statements.

DRAM developed the Upstanders Program, which is an effort to create consent culture in local bars, businesses, schools and community in general. The program is a work in progress, but has already been implemented in a few different ways.

Recently, the women facilitated three days of workshops at the Sojourner Truth House in conjunction with a Healthy Dating Summit for Milwaukee Public School high school and middle school students.

"We talked to young people about what consent is and how to ask for it. How to hear 'no,' and what to do when you hear 'no,'" says Markovich. "When we were growing up, no one ever talked to us about this.

 DRAM also focuses on education in bars and offers a certificate training course for service industry employees to create and maintain a safe space for themselves and their customers. Alcohol is the number one date rape drug, not roofies," says Markovich.

The Rverwest Public House will be the first bar to go through the program this spring. After a bar completes the program, they are also given the drug test strips for free, which were purchased through the Kickstarter campaign as well as through a $3,000 donation given to DRAM from Riverwest FemFest earlier this year.

Unfortunately, the technology of test strips is still lacking, and the strips only check for the two most common date rape drugs.

"The strips are a part of a holistic approach to change the culture," says Wolf. "We’re not the date rape drug test strip fairies. The idea is that they are part of a tool kit for bars that are serious about being a safe space and being responsible for their patrons."

Often, the focus is put on the victims: what they "should" have done differently in order to avoid the outcome. Overall, DRAM is attempting to "shift the focus from victim responsibility to engaging and deconstructing people’s choices to behave violently in order to stop violence from reoccurring," says Markovich.

The women of DRAM know that it is beyond the ability of some people to help, but they want to provide referrals for people who are violent and need help.

"We can’t write off people because they did something terrible. They still matter and we all have the capacity to grow and to change," says Wolf. "We’re not going to be able to solve everyone’s problems, but we want to help people find what they need – provide them with a list of resources – whether they need professional help or a safe space. It’s really about everyone working together to show that we are a city that does not accept sexual violence."