Right to the Streets - Trafford

In 2022, Greater Manchester Moving were awarded £490,448 through the Home Office Safer Streets Fund to make the streets safer for women and girls through tackling gender-based violence and harassment. The fund allowed us to work at a dedicated pace from September 2022-2023.

Working alongside local people, partners, and system leaders, Right to the Streets aims to not only raise awareness of issues such as Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and street harassment, but to take action by trailing interventions that enable women and girls, and boys and men, to be active citizens in their communities, equipped with the tools, information, networks and agency to stop VAWG, and reclaim their right to the streets. 

Right to the Streets is a movement for movement to make streets, parks, and public spaces safe, joyful, and welcoming places where everyone is invited to be active and move about freely, and you're invited to be part of it.

All our learnings and assets are available to download on the GM Moving Resource Hub. Access the hub by creating a free account here.

Watch the below video to find out more about Right to the Streets:

Emma Moseley, Policy Officer at Trafford Council gives a fantastic overview of the work in her article published on the LGiU website. Read the article here.

Read the final report for more information on the different elements and the impact on the community.

The GM Moving Podcast

In the new series of the GM Moving Podcast, we speak to people and partners about how the Right to the Streets movement has grown and developed across the borough, the big difference it's making locally, and everything that we have learned along the way.

We'll be hearing the experiences and gathering ideas and solutions for improvement from council leaders, charities, community groups and others as they shift the dial from fear to freedom.

Catch up now.

Online sharing sessions

As part of Right to the Streets, Open Data Manchester hosted six online sessions with partners spotlighting different elements of the work, including the design of public space, movement and physical activity, bystander intervention, and the RttS podcast series.

All the sessions were recorded for anyone to watch back and hear more about the process, learnings, and impact. 

Find them all the recorded sessions here

Watch the first one below -

Free activities in the community

We offered community grants to 21 successful projects who are passionate about making public places fun, joyful, and welcoming for all. Their activities included football sessions, bushcraft workshops, audio trails, walking groups, cycling sessions, yoga in the park, forest bathing, and many more.

These were in addition to the creative workshops and projects hosted by seven local arts organisations, which consisted of parades, photography, poetry, mural painting, discos and family fun days. 

The #NoPlaceForIt campaign in Trafford

The campaign shows there's no place for sexual harassment or violence against women and girls in Trafford. It's currently harder for women and girls to lead active lives because of fear of unwanted attention and harassment in public spaces.

We want to change that so that women and girls have the freedom to move around safely and lead the lives they want.

We're doing this by showing people of all genders simple, practical steps we can all take to stop harassment when we see it and make our communities safer and more welcoming for everyone. 

Follow our instagram page @righttothestreets_ for more tips and advice.

Use the #NoPlaceForIt campaign toolkit to help get the word out.

Check out what else we've been up to - 

• Bystander intervention and allyship training to empower people to make informed decisions when witnessing gender-based violence, hate crime, or street harassment, emphasising that anyone and everyone can be allies in tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). We're delighted to have worked in partnership with Freedom Personal Safety to deliver these sessions in the local community
• Workshops delivered in the local community to help inform the project campaign, organised walks, arts installations, and project evaluation
• Organised walks led by Open Data Manchester with local residents to identify and understand common routes and locations based on lived experience and perceptions of safety. Here's one we did as part of the GM Walking Festival this year
• Creative art installations around the local area co-designed by arts organisations and people in the community to make the streets more welcoming. The chosen streets will be informed by the organised walks and other learnings
• Walking, wheeling and cycling initiatives to encourage more engagement and participation in active travel, including co-designing and producing new walking, wheeling, and cycling maps with local people and Love Old Trafford
• A podcast series to amplify local voices and hear from system partners about the work currently taking place in and around Greater Manchester to tackle violence against women and girls. Listen to the first series here

Look at the range of interventions here:

Scroll through our gallery to see what this looks like...

Project Partners

GM Moving is coordinating and supporting the team of project partners to deliver the planned interventions, as well as building and maintaining partnerships locally and systematically.

Open Data Manchester are running workshops and walkabouts to map the area with a focus on feelings and experiences, and exploring how other data – such as policing and crime statistics – compares to the lived experiences of those in the community whilst exploring what is needed to make streets more inclusive and welcoming. Read more about their activities here.

Diva Creative is leading on the Marketing and Communications campaign element, which includes delivering creative workshops with local organisations and establishing the key messaging for the project

MIC Media is producing a podcast series focusing on raising awareness of local case stories, lived experience, and learnings

Publica is an urban design and public realm practice, bringing research and expertise on how the physical environment informs perceptions of safety and belonging

Trafford Council is maximising impact to local residents through helping connect the project with local activity and partners, as well as informing wider policy and planning

in collaboration with...

Future involvement opportunities  

We’re seeking expressions of interest from people and organisations who are interested in hearing about general involvement opportunities on work focusing on the GM Moving ambition of tackling inequalities.

If you’d like to be considered for future involvement opportunities that match your area of expertise please complete the short online form found here.