Women Friendly Leeds is a social movement to make Leeds better for women, better for everyone. Established by the Women and Girls Alliance Leeds – a group of 12 girls and women’s charities in Leeds. Their mission is to mobilise women and girls to have their voices heard, ensure that their needs are considered in all decision making and empower them to lead safer, healthier, equal and more fulfilled lives. The initiatives they have brought about with partners from; Safer Leeds, West Yorkshire Police, businesses and the third sector help make Leeds a safer and friendly environment for women regardless or whether they’re residents or travelling through the city for business or leisure as part of a solo city-break.

This includes a Walk Safe App and a Women’s Night Safe Space as well as initiatives Ask for Angela and Stop the Spike. Find out more about the wider city ambition on the Women Friendly Leeds website.

You can find Women’s Night Safe Space, based from a bus, outside the Leeds Corn Exchange every Saturday from 10pm to 3am, and on the first Friday of the month on Lower Briggate from 9pm to 2am. It is a non-judgemental safe space for women and girls to come to, or be referred to for emotional and practical help if they feel unsafe, unwell or concerned for any reason. The team is made up of; Service Manager, Healthcare Clinician, Female SIA Security Staff and a Support Worker. They are they to help to seek refuge, support and advice.

Support may include: Phone charging, water, healthcare, help finding friends, talking through corners and signposting to longer term help, confidential advice, help reporting to the police in person with support or simply a friendly face and brew (or hot chocolate!)

The WalkSafe App is a national free app anyone can use. It has location sharing features to share your location and journeys with trusted contacts. In Leeds there is also a Safety Map to see venues and their safety information, submit anonymous feedback about venues, find where to get help and support (like live tracking of our Women’s Night Safe Space and Street Marshalls) find taxi ranks and submit community reporting on things like; catcalling and if a street doesn’t have good lighting.

If you ever feel uncomfortable or unsafe when out, Ask for Angela to get discreet help. Anyone can say the code word ‘Angela’ to staff at participating venues to signal that they’re in an uncomfortable situation and would like assistance. Staff at participating venues have been trained to help, they won’t judge and will aim to get people out of the situation without too much fuss. · You can see our Ask for Angela venue map on the link below as well as on the WalkSafe App.

With funding from Leeds City Council and Public Health Women Friendly Leeds worked with partners from; the police, businesses, venues, Forward Leeds and DrinkSafe to develop the Stop the Spike campaign. The campaign involves awareness raising about; signs and symptoms of spiking, victims’ rights and information about where to get help (both in the moment and after) We also delivered Stop the Spike training to venues and provided them with drink cover stickers and early indicator tests.