Partner Spotlight: Her Voice Wales

Her Voice Wales

Submission by: Michaela O’Neill, Rights Ambassadors Project Worker, Standards and Provision, Vale of Glamorgan Council

I work for the Vale of Glamorgan Youth Service and for the past year I have been supporting Her Voice Wales and their #WEDONTFEELSAFE Campaign.

Her Voice Wales is a project facilitated by the Vale Youth Service that that aims to support young people to build the skills and confidence to become a champion of equality in their own communities and empower them to change perceptions and attitudes towards girls, so that girls can live free from gender inequality. Her Voice Wales members are a group of young women from across the Vale, aged 11-18.

Her Voice Wales members felt passionate about making the Vale of Glamorgan a safer place for young people, which lead them to create their #WEDONTFEELSAFE campaign. The aim was to find out from other young people how safe they feel and to gain a better understanding of how to tackle sexual harassment and street safety. To do this, Her Voice Wales members created a survey which received 129 responses from across the community.

Her Voice Wales members found three key themes within their findings:

1. Sexual Harassment and the reporting proceedings
2. Street Lighting and CCTV
3. Public Transport

Her Voice Wales members made it their mission to raise awareness of the results and promote their recommendations, which included:

• Better street lighting and CCTV
• Implementing the safe places scheme across the Vale of Glamorgan
• To promote a larger police presence
• To raise awareness of the sexual harassment reporting process

Her Voice Wales members created an informative young person friendly poster to inform others of What is Sexual Harassment, The reporting procedures and what happens next, which was distributed across the Vale and further. They have attended multiple events to present the campaign, in addition to ensuring that key decision makers hear their recommendations. Members have organised community safety walks with local Council members to highlight areas that they do not feel safe. Members have worked with Safer Vale to champion the implementation of the Safe Places Scheme within the Vale. Members have pushed for this scheme from the very beginning and have been successful. This is now being piloted across the Vale.

This is only a brief summary of the Her Voice Wales journey. They truly are an inspiration to all, and are dedicated to implementing change to make our community a safer place.