We introduced the Safe Place Project to Leeds Conservatoire Students' Union (LCSU), where we trained students, staff and others who simply wanted to attend on how to contribute to a safer, more inclusive student and night-out environment.

We’ve already had the pleasure of working with LCSU for the past two years, where we have supported them during one of their annual freshers’ events, and acted as a safeguarding presence for those attending and working the evening gig held at Belgrave Music Hall & Canteen. We’re so happy to see our partnership with LCSU continue to grow.  

This workshop equipped attendees with the skills and knowledge needed to prevent and respond to harm, and create safer social spaces for students and staff. With a focus on developing participants’ understanding of spiking, sexual violence, and hate crimes within nightlife settings, we provided practical tools used to identify risks and vulnerabilities in the night-time economy. The group were empowered to use intervention techniques to proactively reduce risks of harm, and promote a culture of safeguarding and inclusivity.  

Using victim-led interactive examples and activities allowed us to ensure that the group understood and digested each outcome, including identifying different methods of spiking and the most common types and symptoms to look out for, as well as each form of sexual violence and how to distinguish between them. Likewise, we covered who may be vulnerable to these risks of harm, and what kind of suspicious patterns of behaviour they should be keeping an eye and ear out for from potential perpetrators of harmful and inappropriate behaviours. These outcomes ensure that individuals leave the session with a deeper level of knowledge of these critical risks, and consequentially a better understanding of how to prevent them from happening and intervene safely should they occur.