Educating and empowering students to have a safe night out
Safe Night Out
The Safe Night Out Campaign builds on years of good practice in making Canterbury a Safe Night Out for all. The Campaign aims to coordinate and add value to five key stages to support everyone having a Safe Night Out in Canterbury:
1. Education
Working with local drug and alcohol charities to create educational elements including a pamphlet aimed at educating students about potential dangers to drugs and alcohol and encouraging healthy attitudes. Training and educational events will also be available to students.
2. Safe ‘Pre Drinking’
We recognise that a Safe Night Out starts before students go out. We will encourage a more healthy attitude towards ‘pre-drinking’ sessions through alcohol-free events and messaging about the dangers of spiking and what you can do to keep safe.
3. Safe Night Out
We want to ensure that everyone has a safe night whilst out in Canterbury with clear perpetrator-targeted messages about spiking and promoting well-established safety messages such as Zero Tolerance, Expect Respect, Ask for Angela and promoting safe spaces.
4. Getting Home Safe
Safe Night Out is not complete without geting home safely. We want to promote our fantastic safety initiatives including the Street Marshalls, Street Pastors, Safe Taxis Scheme, Connected Routes and Walking Taxis.
5. Feeling Safe in Reporing
We hope nothing bad happens to anyone on a night out, but if it does we want everyone to feel comfortable reporting and getting support through Report and Support, Nightline, Crimestoppers and more.
The universities and students’ unions in Canterbury are working together to support the patrons of Canterbury’s night-time economy with the Safe Night Out Campaign. This focuses on the students in Canterbury and aims to educate and empower them to enjoy the local offering whilst feeling safe. The campaign will provide additional information, resources and links to support, whilst promoting the existing safety provision and new initiatives in Canterbury as a result of Safer Streets 4 funding. The funding has supported the provision of safety packs, safer socials, security, and training.
Safe Night Out aims to support the government’s Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy in Canterbury, with efforts being made to support all students.
Making Canterbury a place to have Safe Night Out
Safer Streets Street Marshals
The primary aims of the Street Marshal scheme are to safe-guard students as they migrate through designated areas of Canterbury and Medway, and to build positive community relationships. The Street Marshals deploy throughout the academic year.
A new Street Marshal Patrol in Canterbury City Centre on Saturday nights will be able to provide support to both students and members of the public. The patrol will also support venues to ensure people get home safe and access support when they need it.
The Street Marshals can provide advice, first aid, a walking accompaniment service and support contacting emergency services.
Promo on of “Best Bar None” accreditation and Stop Topps
Kent Police are facilitating an increase in the deployment of “Best Bar None” accreditation* to the venues in Canterbury. These venues, alongside venues who have undergone “Zero Tolerance” training (facilitated by Canterbury BID), will be provided with Stop Topps for customers to use to protect their drink from spiking. The increase in “Best Bar None” accreditation in Canterbury will support the
identification of night-time economy providers that are dedicated to being safe spaces for patrons.
*Best Bar None is a nationally recognised scheme to accredit licensed premises to ensure they are safeguarding customers and the policies and procedures are in place to respond to incidents, such as an alleged spiking incident.
Videos
As a part of the Safe Night Out Campaign the universities and students’ unions will be supporting the creation of two videos.
The first will be aimed at communicating the plethora of safety information to help everyone have a safe night out.
The second will be from the perspectives of students communicating how they would like to be treated when enjoying the night-time economy, especially in any unfortunate situations where they may experience harassment.
Safer Streets
Universities and Students’ Unions in Canterbury
Safety packs for student groups
Through this fund we have been able to acquire resources to supply students with information and personal safety equipment which can be carried with them when going to a bar, club or pub in Canterbury.
Safer alternatives to pre-drinking events
The Students’ Unions in Canterbury have been provided with the resources to put on events which provide alternatives to “pre-drinking” before a night out in town, and to increase the number of non-alcohol “sober socials”. This approach aims to inform students of the risks of pre-drinking whilst providing fun and free alternatives.
Additional resource development
The project has also been able to fund the development of pamphlets, ‘Ask for Angela’ credit cards and promotional materials.
Pamphlets, co-created by students in collaboration with the Forward Trust, will provide alcohol and drug awareness information.
‘Ask for Angela’ credit cards will be available as a discreet way of getting the attention of bar staff when looking for support through this established scheme.
Lamppost signs will provide consent and anti-harassment messaging to spread awareness throughout the city and university campuses.
PARTNERS
