Making Safer Places has started to develop a profile on women and
community safety. Harriet Wilkins has been invited to make presentations
at the following urban events:
- Urban
Forum ‘the environment’ Conference held in November
2002.
- London
Women’s Planning Forum ’24 Hour City’ Conference
held in January 2003. The paper for the 24 Hour City presentation
is attached for information
- Manchester
Women's Voices Conference
-
To work with organisations in the community, voluntary,
academic and statutory sectors to engage with women on community
safety issues
Meetings
have been held with academics with a gender and community safety
focus and based at London School of Economics, University of East
London, University of West England and Sheffield Hallam University;
with a view to developing our unique position on women and community
safety in urban settings.
In
addition, a number of site visits were carried out in Manchester,
Hammersmith and Fulham (although our focus has now changed to
the London Borough of Islington) and Bristol, which incorporated
publicising the project, developing our knowledge of the key issues
and making contacts with key stakeholders in the areas.
A
project outline has also been produced and distributed to range
of local, regional and national contacts, many of whom operate
beyond our target cities.
- To
convene a network on gender and community safety
Making
Safer Places is starting to develop a profile in and beyond our
target cities, which will form the basis of a network. We have also
started to monitor the work around regeneration, community safety
and community involvement both nationally (e.g. Neighbourhood Renewal
Strategy ODPM Neighbourhood Renewal Unit, Home Office Active Community
Unit, Living Streets, Secured By Design) and locally (e.g. Neighbourhood
Renewal Strategies Crime Reduction Strategies, Community Strategies,
Local Strategic Partnerships).
Project
plans
Our
current priorities are as follows:
Training
and supporting women
- Establishing
local bases
- Phasing
in community safety audits
Promoting
a gender perspective in community safety policy and practice
- Identifying
and setting up publications database
-
Develop contacts with media
Working
with organisations in the community, statutory and academic sectors
to engage with women
-
Continuing to raise the project profile
Convene
a network on gender and community safety issues
-
Develop contacts databases
These
priorities are underpinned by a need to establish a mechanism for
monitoring and evaluating the project, which will include establishing
baselines amongst audit groups, our target areas and policy makers.
Click
here for April 2003 project update.
The
24-hour city - implications for women's safety -
a paper presented to the London Women and Planning Forum January
2003.
Click
here to read and download details.
WDS's
Policy Worker on this project is Harriet Wilkins.
Contact: [email protected]
Manchester
Community Safety Audit
Click
here for September 2003 interim report Northmoor Community
Safety Audit Women's Group (Safety in Northmoor)
(Manchester)
WDS's
Training Worker on this project is Hawah Bunduka.
Contact:
[email protected]
Click
here for Safety in Northmoor Storyboard October 2003
WDS’s
Training Worker on this project is Hawah Bunduka.
Contact: [email protected]
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Women's
Neighbourhood Volunteering Project
Women's
Design Service has received three years funding from Home Office
Active Community Unit to run the Women's Neighbourhood Volunteering
Project (July 2002 - March 2005). The overall aim of the project
is to improve volunteering opportunities in partnership with women
living in the three London boroughs the project will work in: Tower
Hamlets, Newham and Haringey.
The
key objectives of the project are:
1.
To increase women's volunteering in London's deprived neighbourhoods
through creative and innovative approaches in partnership with
women and organisations;
2. To
enable women to volunteer, especially those who would not normally
volunteer such as refugees, disabled women and older women from
diverse communities;
3. To
enable organisations in voluntary and statutory sectors to support
and develop women's volunteering.
The
Women's Neighbourhood Volunteering Project (WNVP) is a great opportunity
to engage women in the renewal of their neighbourhoods using volunteering
as the vehicle. This project aims to get more women volunteering
especially those women who are unlikely to get involved because
of economic, cultural or social circumstances. This is a partnership
project between Women's Design Service (WDS) and the Women's Resource
Centre (WRC). WDS and Women's Resource Centre (WRC) are both committed
to ensuring that women have a wide range of opportunities and support
to be involved in the project. Our shared experience means that
we are familiar with the barriers encountered by women that prevent
their participation as volunteers in their community. Both WDS and
WRC have sound expertise and knowledge of local and London-wide
voluntary sector.
The
vision of the project is a city where women are at the heart of
local regeneration and enjoy a diverse range of volunteering opportunities.
This project is part of the process that will achieve this vision.
In regeneration and community development women have been acknowledged
as the "glue that holds communities together", and in our own work,
women have proved to be crucial to the success of community and
regeneration initiatives. The women that will be targeted by this
project are those who do not normally volunteer or who are excluded
from participation such as disabled women, elderly women, young
women and Black and minority ethnic women. They will live in the
three London boroughs the project will work in.
This
is a London-wide project, which will work in partnership with communities
and organisations to develop and support women's volunteering programmes
in 3 deprived neighbourhoods, Tower Hamlets, Newham and Haringey.
These programmes will act as working models of good practice from
which other boroughs and neighbourhoods can learn and emulate. The
dissemination of the project will be across London in seminars,
training, good practice briefings and a London wide-network.
Click
here for Borough Sub-Groups.
Click
here for Sub-Group Poster.
Click
here for Women's Volunteer Network.
Click
here for Women's Volunteer Network Poster.
Click
here for Borough Sub-Group Membership Form.
Click
here for Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form.
The
project is overseen by a Steering Group, which is made up of professionals
in the fields of regeneration, volunteering and community development.
If you or your organisation is interested and would like to be involved
in the project then contact Shahanara Begum:
Tel:
020 7490 5210
Email:[email protected]
Cycling
for Women
Cycling
for Women is a year-long pilot project seeking to understand and
begin to address the reasons why comparatively few women compared
with men cycle as a means of transport in London. Based in the boroughs
of Camden and Lambeth, it uses 'action research' methods as well
as traditional research to understand gender issues relating to
cycling and the urban environment. The project aims to encourage
and enable more women to cycle, and to disseminate good practice
to policy-makers and practitioners in order to raise the status
of cycling and encourage more cycling as a healthy means of transport.
The
project is funded by the New Opportunities Fund via the SEED programme,
and supported by a range of project partners.
Project
partners and associates
(each
open in new browser window)
Transport
2000 www.transport2000.org.uk
Cycle Training Ltd www.cycletraining.co.uk
London Cycling Campaign www.lcc.org.uk
Social Action for Health www.safh.org.uk/
Brixton Cycles Co-op www.brixtoncycles.co.uk
Lambeth Cyclists www.lambethcyclists.net/index.htm
Camden Cycling Campaign
www.greengas.u-net.com
Transport for London:Cycling Centre of Excellence www.tfl.gov.uk/streets/cycling/cycling-centreofexcellence.shtml
BikeFix www.bikefix.co.uk/
London Borough of Lambeth www.lambeth.gov.uk/
London Borough of Camden www.camden.gov.uk
Sustrans (London) www.sustrans.org.uk/
CTC (Cyclists' Touring Club) www.ctc.org.uk/
Action
Research and Practical Activities
Two
groups of women, six in Lambeth and six in Camden, will be kitted
out with equipment and provided with training to enable them to
cycle as a means of transport, and as a way of improving fitness
and health. They will then complete travel diaries at regular intervals
over several months to provide a detailed qualitative insight into
the factors that affect the frequency and distance of journeys made
by bike by new female cyclists in an urban environment.
At
the end of the project the women will be offered the equipment loaned
to them by WDS at a discounted price in order that their cycling
can be sustained.
If
you are a woman living or working in Camden or Lambeth and would
like to apply to be an Action Research participant, please contact
Alix Stredwick [email protected]
tel 020 7490 5210
Maintenance
classes and on-road training for women who can ride a bike (but
not confidently in traffic and therefore not as a means of transport)
will compliment the action research groups in obtaining 'before'
and 'after' results for attitudes towards cycling and the ability
to cycle. WDS will be holding three cycle maintenance workshops
in Camden and three in Lambeth, plus holding an additional six on-road
group cycle training sessions in each borough for 60 women (groups
will consist of between three and five women).
If
you are a woman living or working in Camden or Lambeth and would
like to apply for the maintenance classes or the training sessions
to improve your cycling (you must bring your own bike to the sessions),
please contact Alix Stredwick: [email protected]
tel 020 7490 5210
There
is some evidence from women-only training sessions carried out in
Greenwich that women feel more comfortable and confident about learning
to ride a bike in women-only sessions than mixed sessions. As a
result, fifteen women in each borough will make up a Cycle Network
which will enable women to get together and support each other with
group rides and activities to boost cycling confidence. The aim
is to ensure that the cycling is sustainable and provides a base
for growth of cycling as these women encourage more women to cycle.
If
you are a woman living or working in Camden or Lambeth and would
like to apply to be an Action Research participant, please contact
Alix Stredwick: [email protected]
tel 020 7490 5210
The
participants of all these activities will be recruited from a range
of sources, including clients and staff of local community groups,
and contacts via cycling organisations such as the London Cycling
Campaign, Sustrans and the CTC (Cyclists' Touring Club - the UK's
national cyclists' organisation). We hope that their members know
women who would like to cycle but would benefit from training and
support. We also anticipate achieving coverage in local papers and
other publications, resulting in a range of different women coming
forward to be involved.
WDS
wishes to involve women of many different backgrounds in order for
the project to be inclusive and accurately reflect the experiences
of all women. Women of all ages between 18 and 108, of a variety
of ethnic backgrounds, various fitness levels and cycling abilities
and disabled women will all be involved in the project and contribute
to its findings and outcomes.
Focus groups and survey work
50
women in each borough (totalling 100) will be surveyed on their
opinions of cycling and 6 focus groups will be held to gain a deeper
insight to attitudes towards and barriers against cycling for women.
WDS will be investigating options that women come up with that would
enable more women to cycle as a means of transport.
All
expenses of participants will be paid by WDS and women will be able
to meet other women and share experiences and perceptions of cycling
and cyclists.
If
you live or work in Camden or Lambeth and would like to take part
in a focus group or survey please contact Alix Stredwick: [email protected]
tel 020 7490 5210
Policy
Cycling
for Women aims to feed into policies on transport, health and gender
in order to make cycling a more attractive option for women and
indeed the population as a whole. WDS hopes to inform and influence
the formulation and implementation of policy at the local, regional
and national levels so that cycling gains status as a serious transport
option. WDS hopes that we can contribute to achieving an increase
in cycling as a means of transport where previously car journeys
were made or women were forced to rely upon poor public transport.
Cycling
is good for physical health and mental well-being and can form an
easy and convenient part of a healthy lifestyle. We hope that health
policies can take cycling more seriously and tie-in with transport
policies to enable all people to feel safer and more confident about
cycling as a means of transport.
Ultimately,
Good Practice Guidelines will be published and disseminated at the
end of the project. WDS will be working with local bike shops in
Camden and Lambeth, aiming to sign-up five shops to the guidance.
We also aim to enable three employers to improve their cycling policy
(to enable staff and customers if relevant to cycle to their premises
more easily) and to inform both boroughs on how their Local Transport
Plans can address the specific needs of women cyclists and potential
cyclists.
Did you know that...?
In
places such as the Netherlands, Germany, York and Cambridge where
cycling enjoys a higher proportion of utility journeys than the
UK average, people who cycle more accurately reflect the population
as a whole: more women and older people cycle.
One in ten children and one in five adults in Britain are obese,
which makes the UK the fattest nation in the EU.
- Research
by the former Department of Environment, Transport and the regions
(DETR) between 1986 and 1996 showed that cycling accounted for
only 1% of passenger transport.
- DETR figures for 1995/97 show that on average,
men make about two and a half times as many bicycle trips as women,
and cycle about four times as far.
The
Public Transport Gender Audit carried out by the University of East
London on behalf of the DETR found that women account for only 4%
of journeys made by bike.
Factsheets:
WDS
is producing information sheets to help inform participants in
the project, and the public, on cycling issues.
1.
Helmets
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