Phone on the way home: Does a call help against the queasy feeling?

The home phone offers telephone support for anyone who feels unsafe on the way home at night. Wiesbaden is the first large municipality to cooperate with the project. How are the experiences?

Charly Hüther works in a bar in Wiesbaden. When she finishes work in the middle of the night, she often calls her mother or her boyfriend for the walk to the car. “Sometimes I just fake calls and then run as fast as possible until I can get to the car and drive off.” Her hope: that she will be avoided.

Because Hüther works at the weekend, the parking spaces directly in front of the bar are usually already occupied. Accordingly, she has to run for a long time after work. The 21-year-old bartender sees the journey as a big risk, because there are a lot of drunk people out and about at the weekends. “It’s difficult for you to judge people then.” If someone yells loudly and she has to walk through the city alone, she is often afraid.

Women want more security

Hüther is like many people who have to be out and about at night – especially women. That is also possible Report “Security and Crime” in Germany by the Federal Criminal Police Office out. According to this, more than every second person “often” or “very often” avoids certain streets, parks or squares and tries to avoid strangers or avoid public transport at night. Polls in Wiesbaden also showed that women wanted more security, explains Saskia Veit-Prang, women’s representative in Wiesbaden.

That’s why Veit-Prang came up with the idea of ​​cooperating with the non-profit association “Heimwegtelefon”. She sees an “unchangeably good offer” in the home phone, so that people feel safer at night and can move more freely. So far, however, the offer is rather unknown. The telephone hotline has been around for eleven years.

Wiesbaden is the first large municipality in Germany to cooperate with the association. The city wants to promote the offer and advertise it so that more people become aware of it. “The home phone isn’t the only solution for everything. But it’s a great offer for many who haven’t even discovered it yet,” says Veit-Prang.

Way home phone accompanies you home by phone

People who feel unwell on their nocturnal journey can call the home phone and one of the 100 volunteers on the phone will accompany them home. At the beginning of the call, you will be asked for your name and destination so that the information can be passed on to the police in an emergency.

Why people call is different, says Daniel from the phone on the way home. Some felt like they were being watched, others didn’t want to walk the streets alone. It is important that nobody has to justify a call. And even if it was mainly women who called, they wanted to be there for everyone.

The primary purpose of the home phone is to be there when someone has a bad feeling but there is no emergency. You can’t replace the police: “We can’t help on site. In the event of an emergency, you should always call 110.”

In 2021, 8,000 calls were received on the way home phone – 76 percent from women. Only in 15 cases would the police and/or emergency services have to be called. This also shows that there are many situations in which people, apart from acute emergencies, would like to be accompanied by telephone.

Beverage caps and stickers for education

Volunteer Daniel sees the cooperation with the city as positive. It helps to help more people and to work even more professionally, for example by enabling longer phone times. In order to make the non-profit telephone hotline better known, the city advertises in Wiesbaden’s nightlife. For example in the Badhausbar, where Charly Hüther works. There, drink lids and stickers with the home phone number are distributed.

Bar owner Christian Liffers believes that as a restaurateur he has a special responsibility. That’s why he immediately pledged his support after the city’s request. “There are simply people who are at risk. At night and in party life, it’s often women or gay men who are confronted with hatred. That’s why we’ve been training our employees for years,” says Liffers. However, the home phone can help people feel safer on the street.

Hüther also welcomes the support of the association. Not everyone can call someone they know at that time: “Of course there is a difference between being personally escorted and being picked up. But it helps a lot to have someone on the phone and to give strangers the feeling that there is someone who is on respect one.” That is a first big step.