Businesses lining up to help women and girls feel safe in Medway

Twelve more businesses have pledged to join an initiative set up to help women and girls feel safer when visiting Medway.

The businesses, which are all based in Rainham, agreed to join the scheme during an event in the town on Thursday 4 August 2022.

Officers from the Medway Task Force joined the multi-agency community event, where they provided personal safety advice and gave crime prevention tips.

Residents and visitors were also given personal safety equipment including alarms, purse chains and anti-drink spiking devices. High visibility safety items were also given to children and young people.

Medway Safe Space

As part of the event, which was organised by Medway Council, officers also visited businesses in the town to talk to them about the Medway Safe Spaces scheme, with 12 businesses agreeing to join the scheme and several more expressing an interest.

The Medway Safe Space initiative ensures shops offer people a place of safety if they are feeling unwell, lost, confused or have been a victim of crime.

Businesses taking part in the scheme display window stickers so that people know that the business is part of the scheme, and that they can go into the shop to ask for help if they need it when in the town. The staff can then alert the emergency services if required.

The scheme was launched by the Medway Community Safety Partnership and the Medway Task Force after more than £190,000 of funding was secured in October 2021 for this and other initiatives.

The event also echoed Kent Police’s ongoing work to help tackle violence against women and girls.