Countywide Initiatives - W.I.S.E.

Women Influencing Safer Environments (WISE) members represent a wide range of organisations including the Probation and Social Services, Police, Health, Lancashire County Council, Victim Support, CVS and private business. The group was established in 1997 and has organised a number of initiatives including publishing safety advice leaflets and organising a National Conference on Women's Safety chaired by HRH Princess Anne.

The group's aim is to influence safer environments for the communities of Lancashire, bringing the woman's perspective to raising awareness of and promoting an understanding of personal issues for all. This will be achieved by:

promoting and encouraging a safer environment for the family and in the work place
adopting a responsibility for promoting positive action on community safety at all available opportunities
supporting the multi-agency approach to ensure that the promotion of the women's perspective on community safety is at the forefront of the public, private and voluntary sectors' agendas
encouraging inter-agency working and the pooling of resources and experience to improve community safety
encouraging agencies, particularly housing associations and local authority planners, to assist in the development of community safety
examining ways of promoting safety on public transport and in public car parks.

In accordance with the WISE Group's aims and objectives their latest project has involved county wide consultation with women across Lancashire to feed their views into each of the 14 Community Safety Audits, to assist in the development of the 2002-05 Community Safety Strategies.

During the summer of 2001 the WISE Group conducted a series of focus groups and workshops across the Lancashire area. The views of local women on issues of community safety relevant to the areas they live and work were gathered. These meetings also provided the opportunity to circulate the questionnaires used in this consultation project. In total 2,400 questionnaires were completed and returned and the data combined with the qualitative information to enable the production of a separate report for each of the 14 Community Safety Partnerships. Copies of all 14 reports are available on the WISE Website.

In February 2003 WISE plan to hold a conference to explore the key themes which emerged from the consultation project. The group will work with Lancashire Partnership Against Crime, Government Office North West and the Community Safety Partnerships to deliver a conference designed to provide information and shared experiences of successful initiatives that promote community safety. Further details of the conference are available on the WISE Website.