The safety of women and girls is a key priority for the Staffordshire Commissioner’s Office (SCO), and this International Women’s Day (8 March), we’re reminding people about the work undertaken by the SCO to help keep women and girls safe.
International Women’s Day celebrates the social, economic and cultural achievements of women, as well as asking people to challenge any discrimination, stereotypes or bias they may witness.
Staffordshire Commissioner for Police, Fire & Rescue and Crime, Ben Adams said: “International Women’s Day is an opportunity to highlight the work underway across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent to make our region a safer place for women and girls.
“My office has so far secured £2.8 million funding through the government’s Safer Streets fund for a range of practical partnership initiatives to reduce anti-social behaviour and violence, with a focus on the safety women and girls.
“We’ve also used the Safety of Women at Night fund to develop safe spaces, vulnerability training for staff in the night-time economy and other initiatives to not only increase the safety of women and girls, but also ensure they feel safer.
“As part of this, we funded thought-provoking partnership campaigns to shine the spotlight on issues everyone should be aware of, such as harassment, spiking and violence against women and girls.”
- The ‘Make No Excuses’ campaign aims to tackle harassment against women in public areas by highlighting real-life scenarios of harassment, such as sexual jokes, wolf whistling and inappropriate touching
- The ‘Safer Nights’ campaign focuses on spiking, preloading and informing the public about the support networks and safe zones available in the night-time economy, with the aim of making nights out safer for women
- The final campaign, ‘Unite’ aims to unite communities against harassment by providing insights into those who experience it and giving signposts to call it out
The SCO also commissions a range of free services to ensure victims get the specialist support they need to cope and recover from the impact of crime, in a way that is tailored to their individual circumstances. These include:
- Survive, a county-wide service delivered by Staffordshire Women’s Aid, which offers a non-judgmental, confidential service for adults, children and close family members affected by sexual assault or abuse
- The New Era domestic abuse service, which offers help to all those affected by domestic abuse in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.
Find out more about International Women’s Day.
ENDS
The Safer Streets and SWaN funding forms part of a wider preventative approach to reducing violence more broadly across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, which includes:
- Launching the partnership Violence Reduction Alliance (VRA) to deliver the local Violence Strategy
- The VRA is made up of a number of partners across the third sector and public services, such as the SCO, Staffordshire Police, Staffordshire County Council and Stoke-on-Trent City Council
- Establishing a Violence Against Women and Girls Commission, to deliver related actions
