Leeds safety bus appeals for funds from local residents and businesses.
Leeds residents and businesses are being asked to support Women’s Night Safe Space which could close due to lack of funding.
The bus has been a fixture every Saturday, from 10pm to 3am by the Corn Exchange in Leeds city centre, since it began running on November 2022.
The local project supports women on nights-out when they are feeling unsafe and has supported over 1000 women.
Women Friendly Leeds and the Safer Leeds Partnership say there is only enough funding to run the service until this September and they would need to raise £100,000 in order to continue providing essential services.
The team which consists of mental health professionals, paramedics and other support personnel are appealing for Leeds residents to help raise the £10,000 portion of the wider £100,000 funding needed to help continue the bus.
Shreena Gobey, Co-ordinator at Women Night Safety Bus, said:
“Unfortunately, we are at a point where we are seeking fundraising opportunities. We are putting in bids. We are approaching businesses and are welcome for businesses to approach us in terms of sponsorship or partnership working.
“We’ve got a public campaign and they’re JustGiving pages to help raise the profile of the project and the funds for the project to make sure that it can keep going.”
Women’s Night Safe Space provides fully confidential support to women and girls. The bus allows those vulnerable with healthcare support; help reporting incidents; further signposting; phone charging and even ordering a taxi home. Additionally, women can access crucial products free of charge, such as flip-flops, period products, condoms, bottled water and hot drinks.
More widely, the safety of women and girls remains a priority in West Yorkshire. The re-elected mayor Tracy Brabin has worked on initiatives that improve female safety across the region.
Alison Lowe OBE, West Yorkshire Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime exclusively told Yorkshire Voice:
“After two years in office the mayor developed a safety for women and girls strategy which identified that male behaviour needed to be one of the things that we addressed.
“So, the team worked with a marketing company, and we’ve come up with this thing called- Just Don’t, which has had over three and a half million views and it’s a behaviour change video, showing how quickly male behaviour can deteriorate into threats and potential violence against women and girls and we’re doing that to target boys aged fourteen to twenty-five.”
According to Women’s Night Safe Space, their service has: prevented 49 admissions to A&E; supported 39 women to make reports to the police; ensured 284 women got home safely and found 43 women who were missing and alone.
The bus decorated in fairy lights is easy to spot when situated in the busy streets of Leeds city centre.
To help support this local project, visit: Save the Women’s Night Safe Space! – JustGiving