Sexual Violence Awareness Week in Leeds: ‘How are we Preventing Sexual Violence?’ Event with Mayor Tracy Brabin
The University of Leeds hosts a panel event with the Mayor of West Yorkshire, on Sexual Violence Awareness Week, to talk about the ways in which the community are taking action to prevent sexual violence against women and girls.
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On Thursday the 6th of February, Emma Wilkinson and Mishika Gupta attended an event hosted by the University of Leeds to commemorate Sexual Violence Awareness Week. The panel event was hosted by Shivani Gug, who started the conversation about preventing sexual violence against women with the Mayor of West Yorkshire, Dr Anna Barker, Charlotte Webster and Amara Relf.
The first question Shivani asked that panel was: “Students experience a lot of sexual violence, since Leeds is a student city, what is being done to tackle the issue?”
Tracy Brabin, the Mayor of West Yorkshire, spoke of an organised student round table with the predominant concern of spiking. She also spoke of how West Yorkshire is working on building a safer nighttime economy, such as having a team of Police Community Support Officers patrolling busses and investment in the ‘Ask for Angela’ scheme. Tracy then touched on work being done to support survivors, such as training in front line staff and an improvement in the police process. She also addressed the student role in tackling the issue by stating: “You are my eyes and ears. Students make a massive change to the community with all their networks and allies.”
Charlotte Webster, Harassment and Misconduct Manager at the University of Leeds, who manages specialist support to students and works in partnership with local services to support survivors of sexual violence, also commented on this question. She highlighted the good practices the university has in place as an institution, such as the specialty support services and the ‘Prevention Model Campaign’.
Shivani asked Amara Relf about her role, as Equality and Liberation Officer, in preventing sexual violence in the University of Leeds. Amara told the audience about SASHA, which is a university society at the University of Leeds. This society advocates against sexual harassment and assault and raises awareness about these issues. The society offers consent and bystander training workshops.
Dr Anna Barker spoke about looking at sexual violence from research perspective. She advocated that research essential in addressing sexual violence. She spoke of the importance of evaluating what works against sexual violence. She pointed out that sexual violence is a complex issue, as it happens in different contexts, and that research is approaching sexual violence in all of it’s different contexts. Anna also addressed the need to focus on public spaces, as women and girls are 2-3 times more likely to experience fear in public spaces.
Shivani addressed the problem of a lack of reporting of sexual violence cases to the police because of a lack of confidence and asked the panel what steps are being taken to resolve this issue. In response to this, Tracy talked about an improvement in the police force taking sexual violence more seriously. She claimed that West Yorkshire police have zero tolerance for sexual violence and zero tolerance for bad people in the force. Tracy stated that “as a victim you will be heard and given justice.” Tracy then touched on the use of Smart Water spray, which is increasingly being used as evidence for sexual violence cases.
Towards the end of the panel, Shivani asked about how charitable organisations are funded to continue doing their important work in a sustainable way. Tracy responded by highlighting the importance of voluntary sector in spreading awareness and spoke of programmes in schools which have seen participation grow over time. Charlotte added that “students are legendary fundraisers.”
After the event, Emma had the opportunity to ask the Mayor, Tracy Brabin, a few questions about tackling sexual violence against women.
Emma: “What do you think is the most important thing that students can do to raise awareness of violence against women and girls?”
Tracy: “I don’t think there’s just one thing that students can do. I think talking about their lived experiences is really important. Bystander training, so you can help others if they’re in difficult situations [is also important]. For men and boys, [learning] about consent, what a healthy relationship looks like and respect.”
“I have a job to do, as a politician, which is to create safer transport, skills training [and] a safer nighttime economy.”
“When bad things happen, I would suggest, just speak up. Call the police, get it logged and make sure that those perpetrators don’t get away with it.”
Emma: “How would you say that we can make reporting easier for younger students?”
Tracy: “There’s helplines, there’s charitable organisations you can speak to. But I would always say call the police, log it. It may be that you don’t want to go all the way with the criminal justice system, but, if you have someone who is a perpetrator in your university, you can’t allow them to get away with it because it’s you today, but it’s going to be your friend, or sister, or colleague, or tutor tomorrow because they wont stop until they’re caught.”
Emma: “Finally, you spoke of the use of smart water. Can you explain what this is and how it can help?”
Tracy: “Smart Water is a DNA spray that stays on clothes and skin for three months. We give it to victims of domestic violence or sexual violence who have the perpetrator on an exclusion order, so a non molestation order or a stalking protection order. If they break the order, the victim can use the spray as evidence that that order was broken. Without it, it’s he said she said, there’s no evidence. We’ve had our first conviction using smart water. Those victims [who have used Smart Water] have seen a 58% drop in further offences because the perpetrator knows they’ve got this evidence base so if they do it, if they break that non-molestation order, then they’ll immediately go to prison.”
Emma also asked Dr Anna Barker, who has worked with Mayor Brabin on the project ‘Safer Parks’, some questions about tackling violence against women.
Emma: “In the panel you spoke about the impacts of the Green Flag Award. Can you expand on this?”
Anna: “The Green Frag Award is for a well managed park and green space. Our Safer Parks guidance has now been embedded into that programme. This means that, across the two and a half thousand parks that it covers, our guidance has to inform the design and management of those spaces.”
“Leeds itself has Green Flag Award parks. This means that there are good quality parks in this area that are taking ahead of the guidance. It also means that the Green Flag award is the, kind of, standard for the sector. So, in Leeds, the city council is using that [The Green Flag Award] to assess all of its parks and create a plan for them. It should hopefully mean that, in time, things become embedded into that.”
“One of the principles of our guidance is that people who are designing and managing these spaces need to see the park through women and girls eyes and, to do that, you need to speak to the women and girls who live around the different parks to make sure that their views around safety, recreation and facilities are embedded into these spaces.”
Emma: “What advice would you give to a student in a situation where they’ve witnessed a act of sexual harassment in person?”
Anna: “The bystander training essentially teaches five different strategies about what you can do in the moment.”
“You can create a distraction, which means you might, for instance, if you hear a sexual comment, say ‘I’m lost. Do you know where this room is on campus?’. You’re making sure it doesn’t escalate but in a non-confrontational, safe way.”
“You might ask others to intervene because it doesn’t feel safe for you to do so in that moment. It might be that you find a receptionist, campus security, the other student next to you or a lecturer next to you. So you’re delegating.”
“Then, you might document it. There are different ways of documenting it. You can document where and what has happened in order to help the person think about reporting it or to report it. Always ask for their consent.”
“Another action is, depending on what’s going on, you might not feel that it is safe to intervene at that point, but it’s still ok to go up afterwards. Validate that person’s experience. [You could say] ‘I saw that, that wasn’t ok. Are you ok? What can I do to help you? I took note, if you want me to help you report it, I’ve got the evidence’. Or, if it is safe to do so, you can think about directly intervening.”
“Again, I would suggest that students enrol on the bystander training so they are using the techniques I have just talked about in a safe way.”
