Salisbury Soroptimists win award for city safety campaign

The group's been working to make Salisbury safer for women and girls

Author: Faye TryhornPublished 31st Oct 2023

Salisbury's Soroptimist Club's been given a regional award for their efforts to improve safety in the city for women and girls.

The group's 'Making Our City Safer' project has been running since 2021, with support from Wiltshire and Salisbury City Councils, Police, and charities.

They've just been honoured with the first ever Bluebell award, against seven other Soroptimist clubs from across Southern England.

The award certificate for Salisbury Soroptimists

Judges chairman Hilary Ratcliffe OBE said the scheme is:

“Imaginative, strategic, thematic and very practical. Very much Salisbury focussed but model could be transferred and used in another place. An excellent project working to make Salisbury a safer city.”

The Bluebell award is for Soroptimist Clubs that help to deliver projects which draw in new members, while having a focus on ‘doing’ rather than fundraising, specifically to benefit women and girls.

Liz Batten from the project team said:

“We were delighted that the judges noted how our project demonstrated good partnership working – with lead partners Safer and Supportive Salisbury as well as with Wiltshire Council, Salisbury City Council, Wiltshire Police, the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office, Pubwatch, Salisbury BID, Salisbury Street Pastors and FearFree. It has been wonderful to have so many sections of our community working with us to make a difference to women in our community.”

The award being presented to Salisbury Soroptimists during the Bluebell Award ceremony

The award comes with £1,000 worth of prize money, which will be spent on developing and expanding the project.

During 2023, the Salisbury Club members contributed more than 400 volunteer hours, held 35 project meetings and 25 members were actively involved.

12 new members have been recruited to the Club since October 2022.

Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, smartspeaker, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Rayo app.