At the beginning of this year we successfully bid for the West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner's Safer Communities Fund, receiving just under £5000 to carry out training on standing up to sexual harassment for local licensed premises. We are delighted to announce we have conducted our first training sessions with none other than our lovely partner bar The Warehouse and fellow local business Camel Club.

“The training has refreshed our own approach to incidents, but also given us extra support to work together to make students safer on nights out” according to Paul Morgan, Team Leader (The Warehouse). For us as a Students’ Union it is invaluable to hear from another perspective and being made aware of all the great work that is already happening in our local venues. It’s great when two organisations can work together to achieve a joint goal of making student life better.

The project set out to improve students’ safety whilst in licensed venues and to ensure the staff are well-equipped to support victims, feel prepared for any situation that may arise and that the appropriate facilities are available should they need them.

Kate Robinson, Team Leader (The Warehouse), said “This training has been great for highlighting some issues we just don’t talk about”

The training aims to overcome stigma and social boundaries in what and how we communicate about sexual harassment, we aimed to create an open and safe environment where both staff and trainers could speak about experiences without feeling judged. The Warehouse staff were really supportive of this idea and were open honest about both personal and venue related incidences and how they dealt with each situation- both Seona and I were exceptionally impressed with their existing protocol.

However, as would be expected, the training has supported The Warehouse to improve existing procedure and think more in depth about logistical issues for example, accessibility to their safe space, contacts other than the emergency services and support for staff following an incident.

Joel Sanderson, Assistant Manager (The Warehouse) said:

“We would encourage other bars to do the training as well so we know that, when students leave our bar, they’re going somewhere safe too”

The target for this project is to get all local bars and clubs to engage with this project as not only will it support students when out and about but also whether we as an organisation will work with them in the future.

Bars and clubs get tarnished by the reputation of other less reputable venues, however from the conversations withthe two venues present, I am confident with their abilities and proactivity towards removing sexual harassment from their venue. I can only hope that other venues will take on board the good practice shown by The Warehouse and Camel Club.

Once an organisation has signed up to the We’ve Got Your Back training, they will be given a contract agreeing to the terms and conditions, will be given a certificate and window sticker to ensure that students are aware of the training and will be promoted on our website as an official We’ve Got Your Back venue.

Thanks for reading!

Alysia 

VP Wellbeing & Equalities