Consent is incredibly important, but it’s a topic that’s often overlooked or shied away from. Not in Nottingham, though - the Consent Coalition is making sure it’s at the forefront of our minds. Here’s everything you need to know about this crucial campaign, and how it’s helping to make our city a safer place…
The Consent Coalition is a group of organisations within Nottingham who stand together to say that Nottingham does not tolerate any form of sexual violence. Both the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University support the coalition, and were important in the creation of it.
This movement was established because “we recognise how important it is to educate each other on consent and challenge sexual violence myths and behaviours. By raising the awareness of consent, we can start to create a culture where consent is at the centre of all relationships,” Louise Graham, Sexual Violence Lead for the Nottinghamshire Crime and Drugs Partnership at Nottingham City Council, explains.
The Coalition runs a number of campaigns, including the A-Z of Consent project, which aims to encourage bold conversations about consent, and make sexual violence easier to identify and less socially-accepted. The campaign provides key facts for each letter of the alphabet to address a multitude of consent themes.
“The demographic for this campaign is students and young people aged sixteen to thirty,” Graham explains. This led to the campaign being launched on a NET tram and an NCT bus in March 2022. Posters are displayed at the High School, Lace Market, Old Market Square, and Nottingham Station tram stops.
We set it up at the beginning because it’s important to make sure that if anyone is affected by the issues raised they are able to access specialist support
Alongside this, the Coalition developed the Safe Space Pledge to help improve the safety of women and girls in the night-time economy. The pledge is made up of eight actions and commitments that venues can take, and if they sign up to the pledge, they will display a poster and will be listed on the Nottingham BID website.
“If students can’t see that venues have signed up to the pledge, they can tag the venue on social media and say, ‘Why don’t you join this?’ or possibly say to the venue themselves, ‘You haven’t got a poster up, why aren’t you part of this?’ I think if people are asking, venues are more likely to take part,” explains Karen Jardine, Campaigns and Communications Officer for Nottinghamshire Sexual Violence Support Services.
A Support and Reporting booklet titled Your Journey has also been made available on their website, providing vital information in a handy format. “We set it up at the beginning because it’s important to make sure that if anyone is affected by the issues raised they are able to access specialist support,” Jardine explains. “We are really proud that Nottingham has taken a zero tolerance stance towards sexual violence, by sharing such bold messages on consent in public spaces. By having open conversations about consent, we can start to change outdated attitudes and beliefs and influence positive change,” Graham concludes.
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