Sip Safely partnerships create safer nightlife for Austin
The city of Austin, Texas, is teaming up with local businesses to promote a safer nightlife with the brand-new Sip Safely program.
As Austin Development Services’ Nightlife and Entertainment Services Manager, Brian Block works with venues and businesses throughout the city to enhance entertainment for residents and visitors. This includes promoting safety and awareness when out visiting those venues and businesses.
An Austin council member initiated the Sip Safely program and included $100,000 in the city budget to launch it. The council member had seen a similar program in West Hollywood, and Block had seen one set forth in the United Kingdom. Austin’s Sip Safely program was modeled after such programs and modified and adapted to make it specific for the Texas city and the bars, clubs, and venues in the area.
The program was incorporated into the city budget in October 2023 and launched in April 2024.
Block’s office worked on ways to team up with local venues and businesses to enhance them as well as come up with specific branding for Sip Safely. The program is focused on education and awareness, and the goal is to bring attention to the fact that drink spiking can occur, educate the public and employees about how to identify a possible threat and then provide ways to support the victim if it does occur.
The city provides drink-testing kits to participating bars, clubs, and venues, as well as flyers for patrons on how to prevent drink spiking and raising awareness that these drink-testing kits are available. Another flyer is provided to business owners and employees, educating them on ways to reduce the risk of drink spiking and how to identify suspicious activity. Participating businesses then have the responsibility to put up the flyers and distribute the drink testing kits.
The second portion of the Sip Safely program is public outreach. This portion was launched with a press conference and received a large amount of exposure. Partnership with a local nonprofit, the Sobering Center, has been important since the organization is already well-known. The Sobering Center holds monthly tabling events throughout the entertainment district to provide education to the public.
“When we first launched, we made a big effort and had just over 50 bars participating,” Block explained. “We now have 70 venues and businesses participating. It is continuous work to build partnerships with more businesses.”
In the few months since launching the program, the city has continued to educate businesses about the new program in order to build relationships with them and partner with residents and visitors to keep them as safe as possible. Much of this involves simply getting the word out to the area businesses that the Sip Safely program exists and the ease of participation.
Businesses can learn about the program via direct communication with the city, word of mouth from other participating businesses, social media efforts, and local or national media coverage.
When it comes to partnering efforts with local businesses and venues, Block mentioned, “Some are really interested and excited. For others, it’s about raising awareness of the program. They hadn’t thought about it, but they wanted to do it. There is really no downside to participating. When the bars make the effort to enhance safety and create safer spaces, it is just a positive. It makes the community feel safer, which is really at the core of it.”
Bars, clubs, and nightlife venues are important places for entertainment and culture throughout the city of Austin. It helps them to be valuable partners to the city and a safe space for patrons.
So far, the data and metrics support a strong, positive response to the Sip Safely program.
“We think it’s going really well with the number of bars and venues participating,” Block said. “But we want to keep it growing. We also look at how many drink testing cards are being distributed, and currently, that’s 3,500.”
They also look at public outreach.
“In the first two monthly tabling sessions, an extra 550 drink testing cards were distributed. We have started distributing drink covers and have given away 132 so far. The plan is to continue to distribute drink covers monthly for at least the next six months.”
Everyone seems to want to keep it going and increase the efforts of Sip Safely.
According to Block, the Sip Safely program would not be possible without the partnerships. It’s the most important consideration for other cities who may consider implementing a similar program, he commented.
“You need to build those partnerships and get to know them, which helps them get engaged. Many already want to enhance safety for both patrons and employees. This gives the city a platform to work with them to enhance safety in other ways as well moving forward.”
The city of Austin, Texas, is teaming up with local bars and venues for its new Sip Safely program. This new program provides the bars and venues with flyers on how to recognize suspicious behavior as well as pass out drinking test kits to patrons. (Photo provided by the city of Austin, Texas) 
A council member included $100,000 in the city budget to launch the new Sip Safely program to help venues and patrons feel safer. This program is focused on education and awareness of drink spiking. (Photo provided by the city of Austin, Texas) There are now over 70 businesses participating by distributing flyers, drink testing kits and drink covers. For participating businesses, the program helps to make them a valuable asset to the city as well as a known safe space for patrons. (Photo provided by the city of Austin, Texas) (Shutterstock.com)
