Last night I was honoured to join women from across Bristol – including Carly Heath, our Night-Time Economy Advisor, and members of my cabinet – to launch the Bristol Nights Women’s Safety Charter.
The Charter aims to be a centrepiece for how we all approach issues surrounding women’s safety at night, as we work to change attitudes and the culture around sexual harassment and enforce a zero tolerance approach to such behaviour. This covers women working in and enjoying Bristol’s night-time economy, which supports nearly a third of all jobs in our city.
We were also joined by Amy Lamé, the Mayor of London’s first Night Czar. Her work has helped inspire the Charter and other initiatives in Bristol and around the world to create safer spaces for women, including through this One City Approach.
The Charter is accompanied by a practical toolkit to help venues and businesses assess women’s safety. It aims to support businesses with a responsibility for staff, and follows on from training launched this month aiming to train 1,000 night-time economy workers on sexual harassment. The Charter also builds on the award-winning Bristol Rules campaign and our Stop Spiking efforts, which rolled out testing kits to venues across the city.
Councillor Helen Holland, my cabinet lead, wrote about women’s safety in her International Women’s Day blog. I was delighted to share a foreword with Helen for the Women’s Safety Charter and Toolkit, which you can read below.