WMCA recognised for tackling violence against women and girls

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has been formally recognised for its work in tackling violence against women and girls.

The organisation has been awarded White Ribbon accreditation for actively working to prevent harassment, abuse, and violence against women and girls.

To gain White Ribbon accreditation, an organisation must make a strategic commitment, appoint a senior leader as a White Ribbon Ambassador or Champion, and designate a lead contact to coordinate the development of a three-year action plan. 

The recognition came as the UK marked White Ribbon Day, which is held each year to raise awareness of the need to prevent such violence as well as harassment and abuse.

Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), which is part of the WMCA, has been working hard to create a safe and supportive environment for all public transport passengers, especially women and girls. Part of this has involved training its Transport Safety Officers (TSOs) to White Ribbon accreditation level.

TfWM employs 13 TSOs to provide reassurance while responding to incidents on the network.

Through the White Ribbon accredited training, all the TSOs are now White Ribbon Ambassadors (men) and Champions (women).

They also complete empathy virtual reality training to help male officers better understand women’s experiences on the transport network, as well as stalking and harassment awareness training provided by the Suzy Lamplugh Trust.

West Midlands mayor Richard Parker said: “Everyone has the right to feel safe, always. Violence against women and girls is utterly unacceptable, and we all have a duty to call it out and put an end to it.

“I’m committed to ensuring the West Midlands’ public transport is safe for all passengers, so I’m delighted that we’ve achieved White Ribbon UK accreditation.

“This will help to provide reassurance for women and girls who are travelling on our network that their safety will always be our number one priority.”

The WMCA has also launched an awareness raising video resource entitled ‘What Could I Do?’ .

The video was created based on real life incidents reported to the Safer Travel Partnership and shows information on how to report issues and how to encourage passengers to safely intervene and support each other in difficult situations.

Since 2014, the Safer Travel Partnership (TfWM, West Midlands Police and British Transport Police) has been running the Empower campaign to raise awareness on buses, stops and stations to encourage people to report incidents. 

Workshops designed to share information on understanding what is inappropriate behaviour, how to report incidents, real life scenarios training and information about what the partnership is doing to keep the network safe are delivered in education establishments and businesses across the city - engaging with nearly 150,000 individuals across the region.

In addition, the Project Empower campaign is being promoted across the network. This works similarly to the Ask for Angela initiative but is specifically tailored for use on buses, offering passengers a discreet way to ask for help if they feel unsafe.   

With a reduction in anti-social behaviour incidents and positive feedback, the TSO approach has been recognised nationally, with the Department for Transport (DfT) requesting support to roll out the TSO model in other regions.

Pictured: Mayor Richard Parker (centre) with Transport Safety Officers Mohammed Naqshbandi (left) and Simran Sheemar (right), who have been promoting the White Ribbon campaign ‘We Speak Up’