Right to the Streets raising awareness of need for healthy, active, and safe places

By Kelly-Marie Rodgers, GM Moving | 10 December 2024 | TAGS: Right to the Streets, healthy active places, Kelly-Marie Rodgers

You may have seen, at the end of last month, White Ribbon Day. An important time to raise and address the root causes of male violence against women.

White Ribbon Day is followed by 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence to further raise awareness and highlight the active role men must play in ending it.

The 16 days run through to Human Rights Day on 10 December, today. 

The themes highlighted like safety, bystander action, public spaces etc were all elements of our Right to the Streets initiative which continues to make ripples across GM and beyond.

More than 12 months after Home Office funding concluded, we’re continuing efforts to make public places and spaces safer and more welcoming for women and girls to be active.

What was the Right to the Streets initiative?

Right to the Streets was the result of nearly £500,000 of Home Office funding to make the streets safer for women and girls through tackling gender-based violence and harassment.  

As with all our work, we took a whole-system approach to the work focusing on everything from the individuals involved, organisations, the environment, policy and cultural norms.

We were also deliberate in being place-based, focusing on Trafford with local partners with a clear invitation for communities and cross-sector organisations to work alongside each other.

There was a clear focus on what everyone could do (individually, collectively and systemically) where they are, with what they have - drawing on their insight, relationships, and influence.

For a full story of our work between September 2022 and September 2023, read our report.

What’s happened since funding ended?

We continue to use the lessons we learned throughout our first 12 months building the Right to the Streets movement in our work across Greater Manchester Moving.

We knew that 12 months would not be enough to solve the issue of violence against women and girls and that only a long-term view to change could bring about lasting impact.

In October, we were delighted to win Best Podcast Award at the MPA Inspiration Awards for the two series of The GM Moving Podcast which focused on our work.

The 17 episodes which make up series 3 and 4 of The GM Moving Podcast are still available to listen to on our website, or wherever you usually get your podcasts from.

Can I still get involved?

You’re invited to be part of our Right to the Streets movement and there are lots of ways in which you can learn more as well as tools you can use in your day-to-day work.

In terms of learning, there’s the podcast as well as online learning sessions from Open Data Manchester and a policy report produced following our legislative theatre project.

Our tools include the No Place for It toolkit and a Place Review tool to support communities identify steps they can take to create streets and spaces that feel safer and more welcoming.

Finally, our card deck, developed with Publica, collates the experiences of women and girls and offers tools and case studies that create more gender equity.

We have been using the cards for various workshops for around a year, most act as a workforce development tool however they can also work as part of engagement discussions.

In 2024, Engineering Consultancy WSP hosted a Right to the Streets workshop. Ian Pennington, a Principal Consultant in Infrastructure Planning and Natalie Corless, an Associate Planner, reflected on the workshop in this blog.

We have also made the card deck available for free or £30 to over 20 organisations in GM and wider.

For more information on the card deck, workshops we can help facilitate, or anything else relating to our Right to the Streets work, contact Kelly.