Within Active Calderdale’s work we look to encourage more Calderdale residents to use their parks and green spaces. Research and community engagement within our priority areas, however, shows that not all people feel safe within parks and green spaces.
Active Calderdale have been looking to utilise funding and make improvements to parks and green spaces that make them safer including cutting back bushes etc. with a goal to get more people into our parks, the busier an area; the safer it will be.
Following a growing national conversation around what the public can do to increase women’s safety; people and organisations want to take steps to address the prevalence of unwanted and aggressive behaviours such as harassment, that underlie the broader cycle of violence against women and girls. Right To Be started by collecting stories of harassment occurring in public places which led them to develop a training session.
To accommodate public demand, the Suzy Lamplugh Trust and L’Oréal Paris formed a partnership to bring the international expert-approved "Stand Up Against Street Harassment" training programme to UK audiences. The hour-long programme is free of charge and aims to drive awareness of harassment. The focus is on upskilling and empowering bystanders across various settings such as public transport, educational institutions, festivals, public spaces, and workplaces, to help defuse situations, discourage harassers, and support victims. This global programme has now trained over 1.3M people worldwide.
Anti-Harassment training (suzylamplugh.org)
Delivering Training in Calderdale
Our involvement with WYCA and their Safer Parks delivery led to conversations between the Active Calderdale team and Helen Forman. Helen advocated for this training to be available to those within the Council working in communities and who might benefit from it.
Suzy Lamplugh Trust offered 30 minutes of training and an open forum to generate conversations. A series of scenarios were then presented to trainees to explore how to deal with these situations and the options that can be utilised. The training sessions aimed to enable attendees to safely respond when they see street harassment or when they experience it themselves.
The training attracted good attendance from a range of organisations and services in CMBC.
| Service/Organisation | Number of Attendees |
| Calderdale Council (CMBC) Green Spaces & Street Scene (GSSS) staff | 10 |
| CMBC Highways Staff | 16 |
| Town Council Staff | 4 |
| Partner Organisations | 7 |
| School Settings/Projects | 4 |
Feedback
“Some weren’t sure about it but have come away having learnt a lot, feel more confident about these types of situations and spoke highly of it to other peers. They liked the trainer and her training style. I was going to ask how we could do this training for all the staff in our service as I feel this would benefit them all.
Fab course and thank you so much for inviting us to attend.”
Leanne Cole, Safety & Training Officer, Calderdale MBC | Public Services | Green Space and Street Scenes
“Nobody wants to be that person who ignores someone being harassed, but we don’t always know how best to help and fear making things worse. This informative and inspiring course shows that intervention needn’t be confrontational or risk escalating a situation.”
Rebecca Antcliffe, Active Education Manager, Calderdale MBC
Two CMBC staff attendees said they would use the advice in plain clothes but would be conscious of intervening in case of a complaint made against the Council – There is some legislation in place which covers anyone acting in the public interest if they were only trying to help – this also applies for intervening with first aid. Social Action, Responsibility and Heroism Act 2015 (legislation.gov.uk)
“The course was informative, well delivered and provided valuable insights into the best ways to deal with a complex societal issue.”
Holly Whitworth, Information and Asset Management Officer
Green Spaces & Street Scene | Neighbourhoods | Public Services | Calderdale MBC
"A huge thanks to Active Calderdale for arranging the recent Bystander training. It was really informative, and gave me some good techniques to use when witness to street harassment. I now feel more confident to know what to do in those situations."
Lisa Connelly, Community Partnerships Manager, Halifax Opportunities Trust
Following the success of previous sessions of the Suzy Lamplugh Bystander training further sessions were requested for other council services. Staff from Green Spaces and Street Scene, Highways and Bereavement Services attended 3 sessions at their facility with 56 attendees in total. One response to a scenario discussed as part of the training in which a female was receiving unwanted attention from a male in a park was “Not in my park”.
“I thought the bystander training was very informative and gave a ‘human’ side to what could be a very emotive subject. The cohort for the training I attended was quite diverse and hit at what seemed a good level for all to ensure understanding. I’m sure what information we gained could be taken back into the ‘real world’, whether that is in our working or personal lives. This type of training is something I would recommend most people should have access to at least once in their lives.”
Volunteer Co-ordinator, Green Spaces and Street Scene
“The training was powerful and succinct. It gave me lots of ideas for simple ways to intervene without feeling I would worsen the situation or put myself at risk.”
Emma Campbell, Playgrounds Projects Officer, Green Spaces & Street Scene | Neighbourhoods | Public Services | Calderdale MBC
At the end of each session, the groups were asked “If you saw harassment happening, do you think there is at least one thing you can do to help?” Each time the response was a resounding “Yes”.