A group of teenage girls are staging the first-ever ‘Reclaim The Night’ walks through Hartcliffe in a bid to raise awareness of the issues of women not feeling safe in the area at night.
The three schoolgirls said lots of young girls - and boys - won’t go out in the evening because of the dangers. Similar ‘Reclaim The Night’ walks and events have taken place in the city centre in Bristol for years, but this is the first to be taking place in Hartcliffe.
The three young women are inviting anyone and everyone who feels strongly about the issue to join them this Saturday evening, as they will be walking the streets of Hartcliffe after dark in a group procession.
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The three organisers, Lannie, Kiera and Ruby, formed a Social Action Group that meets every Monday from 5.30pm in the Symes community centre, and the Reclaim The Night event is one of several projects they are getting involved with.
“We are a group of young people that sees what problems the community is facing,” explained Lannie.
Our community faces a lot of problems that are aimed towards young people and there isn’t really any support for those problems. Somebody needs to help the young people that are actually facing these problems,” she said. The group said they chose to tackle the issue of women’s safety after dark, because it was an issue that affects everyone.
“The reason that we are organising this walk as we feel that we need to address and raise awareness around the issue of women - and also the community - not feeling safe at night time,” the three said.
“We want to promote a culture within the community where people will feel safe to walk around the community in the dark and especially women who can be targeted by abuse and harassment within our community as we have found.
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“We want to spread awareness regarding rape culture, something that was highlighted a lot in the news over the last year with events such as Sarah Everard really showing the need to educate society around the dangers, and also how people’s actions can make others feel,” they added.
“Our aim as a group is to grow confidence within the community and show solidarity on this issue and by bringing the community together to make a stand against this.
“We want this event to be all-inclusive so that no matter your background, you can join us to raise awareness by walking through the streets of Hartcliffe and Withywood. We want to invite along all the different organisations so we can all help spread the word and try to ‘reclaim the night’ within our community,” they added.
Avon and Somerset police will also be there to show support, and to hand out free attack alarms, and the event has been backed by local city councillor Kerry Bailes.
“I think this is amazing, young people in this area are often overlooked and unheard so it's inspiring that they are taking action to highlight such an important issue,” said Cllr Bailes. “Women and girls safety should always be a priority, especially in our area where violence against women and girls, especially in domestic relationships is much higher than in other areas of Bristol.
“This also highlights the misogyny and sexism young women and girls face at school and college, if there's ever an age to start talking about sexism it's right now, at an age where it's paramount to their emotional development and mental well-being,” she added.
The event takes place this Saturday, March 19 - people are encouraged to meet at 6pm at the community room at the Symes centre near Morrisons, with the walk to set off at 6.30pm. The route is set to be a circular one taking in the Hartcliffe Inn, Mowcroft Road, Fulford Road and Willmott Park, before returning to the community centre.
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