A PROJECT aimed at tackling sexual harassment and violence against women and girls is calling on the public to step up and call out misogynistic behaviour.
A series of workshops created by the Raise Your Voice project includes a session on Bystander Intervention which will demonstrate five possible actions that witnesses can consider to safely help women targeted by harassment.
The tools taught in the workshop include how to distract, delay, delegate, direct and document.
These different tools allow an individual to choose a method of intervention that best suits them and takes into account personal safety.
Another workshop on Allyship specifically looks at ways that men and boys can support women to call out negative attitudes and behaviours.
The free online training workshops are due to run this month and next.
Sarah Stack, Training and Development Coordinator from the Women’s Resource and Development Agency (WRDA), who will be delivering some of the workshops, said: "Taking action in a safe way can change lives and change our community.
"We want to create a culture where people will not tolerate this behaviour and send a message that it has to stop," she said.
"Most people are unsure how to help. They may be afraid of being attacked themselves, either physically or verbally.
"No one should ever take action if they feel at risk but the tactics we teach show ways to diffuse the situation or assist a victim. These actions can be life changing".
Helen Crickard from project partner Reclaim the Agenda added: "To eradicate this behaviour, we need everyone to step up and call out misogynistic behaviours.
"By offering these workshops, we want to show people how they can support someone who is being harassed and emphasise that sexual harassment and sexual violence is not okay and that we can demonstrate to others that we have the power to make the community safer".
Further information about the workshops is available at www.eventbrite.co.uk/cc/anti-sexual-harassment-1618689
