'Ask for Angela' campaign receives funding for West Yorkshire
The scheme was launched for Leeds at an event yesterday (11th November)
The Ask for Angela scheme has been rolled out across the whole of West Yorkshire, thanks to funding from the Mayor's office.
The ‘Ask for Angela’ scheme was founded by Lincolnshire County Council as part of a wider campaign to reduce violence and harassment against women.
It means that if you go to a participating hospitality venue, such as a bars and club, you can ask for ‘Angela’ to discreetly signal to staff that you feel unsafe or threatened and would like assistance.
Trained staff will then be able offer to help, for example by calling a taxi or providing a safe space.
More than 500 venues in Leeds have signed up to the scheme so far.
Emily Turner from Women Friendly Leeds, who are working with Leeds City Council on the scheme said:
"We want more women to report more serious incidents and crimes against them, but we need a reporting system that's better, so it's quicker, more straight forward, and that women can have confidence that something will be done.
"We need a whole societal approach, we need both men, women and businesses to work together to tackle this, it's no longer about how women behaviour, don't wear this, don't do that, don't go there after dark, this is about tackling the root cause of the issue."
Alison Lowe, the deputy mayor for policing and crime said:
"Women are as far from being safe today in 2021 than they ever have been, but what we have got is venues who have signed up to Ask for Angela who care about the safety of women girls and who are training staff to be part of the solution."
We asked Alison if this would help tackle the issue with spiking, she continued:
"So the staff are being trained to notice if things aren't quite right, so if a woman is slumped in a corner, they're going to go over and they're not going to allow some strange man to take her home, even if he says that he's her partner, they're going to test that out, because that's the training they've had."
Al Garthwaite, the councillor for Headingley said:
"The scheme is really important in making women feel more comfortable about going out at night, and if anything happens, they can go to the bar and say 'I want to ask for Angela' and they'll have trained staff who will know what to do."
Today is 44 years since the first Reclaim the Night march. Al Garthwaite was involved in that first march. We asked her if violence against women has changed since then.
"Things have changed and they haven't. But 44 years ago, we were 2 groups of about 25 women marching down the street, no back up from the police, the city council, and no one else involved, it just felt like we were seen as a bit weird that we were content to just stay at home or except that if something bad happened and we were on our own, it must be our fault. That has really changed.
"Sadly we still have to contend with all sorts of things. the threat is still there, we need to have a total culture change. Men, boys, they really need to change and ed__ucation needs to happen."