Safety of women at night - a communications plan for Cheltenham

The Authority and its partners have been concerned about the safety of women at night in Cheltenham for a number of years as the reports of sexual harassment, abuse and intimidation have increased.

Extensive work has been undertaken with partners to make Cheltenham's night-time economy safe for women and girls. This has seen a number of projects implemented including awareness raising projects in partnership with GRASAC, Cheltenham's local rape and sexual abuse centre and implementing the Ask for Angela scheme, along with external validation through the Purple Flag scheme.

This partnership approach has strengthened the Authority's determination to push forward with new projects and this summer, the Home Office has made a specific pot of funding available to address the issues faced by women at night to which the Authority has agreed to make a bid. This would build in and grow the work already being done.

The Authority's bid to the Home Office funding was made on 1 September 2021 and successful bidders will be notified in early November.

A critical element of the bid was the Authority's commitment to develop a communications plan that will highlight the impact that sexual crimes have on their victims, and create a whole town culture change to the way we view sexual crimes. Men in particular will be encouraged to reflect that inappropriate behaviour is not acceptable, and they will be given the confidence to constructively challenge the behaviour of others.

Additional information:

To express an interest and download the tender documentation, please visit; https://in-tendhost.co.uk/publicagroup/aspx/Home

Is a Recurrent Procurement Type? : No