So What?...But What If?.....A gender-based approach to safety - creating a safer future for younger generations.

Background

Back in October 2021 Thriving Survivors launched a social media campaign around womens safety and partnered with Glasglow Girls Club and One4Growth host a very topical panel session on the issue as part of the International 16 Days of Action campaign in November.

Thursday 25th at November at 11am, we went live on zoom streaming onto Facebook, with a mixed panel of women. We were joined by local organisations, students, businesses, doctors and public transport representatives.

The open discussion covered a number of topics including:

> The Number of Apps aimed at women to keep themselves safe

> The dangers faced such as drink spiking and the current spike in injections

> Who do women actually trust and the stats around police convictions internally.

> That Guy Campaign

> What do we as women feel men can do?

On the panel:

Host - Heather Offord, One4Growth Ltd

Ashley Scotland - Thriving Survivors

Laura Maginnes - Glasglow Girls Club

Georgia - Glasgow Caledonian University Students

Emily Harle - YWL (YOUNG WOMEN LEAD)

Elena Soper - YWCA Scotland The Young Womens Movement

Emma - Hood Magazine

Tracy Scott - SWIB (Scottish Women in Business)

Ann Johnson - ASB Women (Association of Scottish Businesswomen)

Hayley Millar - Richland Scotland

Strut Safe

This session lasted over two hours and only left us with more questions and a desire to ensure this campaign didnt fade into the background like so many do. Thriving Survivors, One4 Growth and Glasglow Girls Club came back and went on to host a second panel as part of the 16 days campaign in December with the news team from Clyde 1 radio.

Panel:

Heather from One4Growth as host

- Ashley from Thriving Survivors

- Laura from Glasglow Girls Club

- Natalie from Clyde News #LightTheWay

- Selena from Clyde News #IWalkWithWomen

- Cassi from Clyde Radio

We came back together again on January 22 to discuss a plan for moving the idea forward and an idea from a member of Survivors Voices suggested that too many campaigns just come and go without any real impact. The survivor then came up with the slogan So What?.....But What If?.....

So What?.... All these campaigns are great. But What?..... If you brought them all together into one place. A multi-pronged, collaborative approach to campaigning would have a greater impact.

Thriving Survivors, One4Growth and Glasglow Girls Club decided to create a platform for all campaigns to be showcased. With all data being collected to allow us to create a report on our findings and recommendations on gender-based approaches to safety. With the aim of creating a safer future for younger generations. We now want to keep the campaign running for a year with the intention of submitting a full report to Scottish and UK governments at the end of the 16 days of action in December 2022

We have created a calendar of dates that cover a number of topical issues for the remainder of the year:

- 18th Feb - Youth: How, When & What we teach them

- 18th Mar - Success of Women: Women through the ages that have overcome

- 25th Mar - Campus Safety

- 22nd Apr - Perception: Women to Men, Men to Women, Historical Bias & Feminism

- 20th May - Pornography: Unrealistic Expectations & Permissions

- 17th June - Consent

- 15th July - Sex Workers

- 19th August - The Queer Perspective

- 16th September - Women's Safety Campaigns Come Together

- 21st October - Men's Panel

- November Reflections Panel

- December Live in person event that brings together all panellists from throughout the year to launch the final report.

We kicked off the year-long campaign for Womens Safety with Dawn Fyfe, Strategic Development Worker from Wise Women and Amy Rew, Chief Executive Officer of Glasgow Girls Club.

Throughout all discussions around Safety - we keep repeatedly coming back to the impact of teachings and impressions made at a young age, in shaping the opinions and actions as they become adults. This is our next panel which will take place on the 18th February.

Our guest panelists:

- Karen Gibb - Mind Marvels

- Dr Maryhan Baker - Child Psychologist

- Morven Douglas - BTO Solicitors

- Georgia - Student

- Lindsay Mullen - Stop It Now

After this panel took place it was very obvious that we as a panel were all of a certain generation and perhaps our views did perhaps not match the reality for those who are of a younger generation. This has led to further developments to this campaign and we intend to create a Youth GoggleBox styled approach to our main panel events.

We will ask students from across Glasgow if they would like to have a panel of students/young people to come together once a month after we have done our panel event and watch it as a group. We will record your reactions, discussions, and thoughts around the panels. We will then turn these into blogs also and add them to the final report. We are very aware that we as an older generation are those we are seeking to make changes for and would love to have the voices of younger generations address the same subjects.

This will make for a far more rounded approach to the campaign.

We would love to kick this off with a live youth panel event on Friday 25th March at 11am hosted by a student and the newly formed panel of higher education students. This event would be an introduction to the purpose of the youth panel and a discussion around their thoughts on safety, the panel event subjects coming up and who you all are - also covering Campus Safety.

We will also be hosting a live, in person fundraising event for the International Women's Day event on Tuesday 8th March.

Tuesday 8th March | 7pm-9pm | Princes Square

Guest speakers:

- Madeleine Black - International Motivational Speaker & Author

- Petra Wetzel - WEST Brewery

Guests will enjoy drinks from WEST, Slange Var & Ellis Gin, Chocolate tasting with Bella Chocolates and a showcase of some female-led businesses in Glasgow.

All Funds raised will be used to fund the So What?..... But What If!......A gender-based approach to safety - creating a safer future for younger generations.

A collaborative campaign with One4Growth, Glasglow Girls Club & Thriving Survivors.

Our amazing sponsors:

Princes Square

Slange Var

Ellis Gin

Make Believe Events

WEST Brewery

Bella Chocolates.

We will have inspirational speakers, chocolate tasting, gin fizz cocktails and mocktails as well as tasting tables etc.

We are looking for your support and donations to continue with the very important campaign.