Right To Walk

What More Can We Do?

One of my favourite things about working in Manchester is the community. Over the last few years I have found a core community of women in the city who take great pride in working together. Some of our lives overlap professionally, some socially, some both. We all have huge respect for one another and what we do and I have seen a phenomenal drive to help each other in any way possible.

This has led to a lot of shouty WhatsApp groups - often started by the unstoppable Lucy Noone. These groups have led to campaigns and friendships and a lot of late night posting. One thing I am so glad that it led to is Right To Walk.

When we describe our members as a ‘highly mobilised collective of women’ I’m not even sure it does them justice. We’ve formed a group of women with a passion for our city and the industries that make it what it is - in particular small business and hospitality. It’s hard not to be passionate about these two elements of Manchester and the streets and spaces that allow them to thrive.

When the unthinkable happened to Sarah Everard, I was shocked at how many women I know vocalised something that I understood only too well. Being afraid at night in public spaces is something I have normalised and I see now that this is true of every woman I know. Men too.

Our city, one of the most liberal and welcoming in the UK, is not safe. It has dark scary parts and it has wide open, bright parts which are equally unnerving. So the shouty WhatsApp group was pulled together to talk about what we could do.

We started with an online vigil but that wasn’t enough. We had started something that we weren’t ready to finish. That lead to myself, Helen Aldridge and Emma James coming up with What More Can We Do. An awareness campaign to shine a light on how women feel in the city as COVID restrictions began to lift and life returned to our streets.

The always supportive Nick Massey, from Forever Manchester, agreed to support the campaign financially meaning that we could buy digital ad space across the city and print posters for hospitality venues. You can find out more about it here in this piece from the Manchester Evening News.

You might recognise some faces you know - thank you so much to everyone who gave their time to make this happen and bring our campaign alive with the faces that make our community what it is.

What More Can We Do was designed to encourage those that live and work in the city to remember that making the spaces we inhabit safe is something for all of us. It’s not just the council’s job or the responsibility of the property owners, every single one of us can do more by just being aware.

As we opened up conversations it raised questions about what those working in hospitality could do. They understandably feel on the sharp edge of the late night experience, but they rarely have the appropriate training to help someone in distress. How do you recognise someone that needs help and what do you do to help them. With this in mind we hope to launch some practical sessions to take the campaign into a more hands on arena and make steps to define exactly what more we can all do to make our city safe.

Want to get involved? Get in touch with me or check out our website which has been designed by the incredibly supportive team at DS.Emotion - RightToWalk.co.uk.