Parks Bystander Training
Photo: Dr Anna Barker and Alison Lowe OBE, Deputy Mayor for Policing & Crime launching the pilot training in West Yorkshire
Training park staff and volunteers to increase women’s safety in the UK’s parks and green spaces
In collaboration with the Suzy Lamplugh Trust (UK’s pioneering personal safety charity) and Keep Britain Tidy (who manage the Green Flag Award programme), this initiative trains park staff and volunteers across the UK to safely intervene in harassment situations in parks, positively influencing outcomes.
The training will also develop understanding of gender-sensitive park design and management through engagement with ‘Safer Parks: Improving Access for Women and Girls’, which is supplementary guidance to the Green Flag Award programme.
The project will host training workshops with park managers, park volunteers and wider organisations between January and October 2025 in Scotland, Wales, the North-East, the North-West, the Midlands, and London.
It follows successful ‘pilot’ training with mixed gender groups of over 100 park staff and volunteers in West Yorkshire covered by the BBC news, BBC Look North and the University of Leeds.
Why is this training needed, and why parks?
We all know that harassment is a big problem in public spaces, and parks are no exception. University of Leeds research into what makes a park feel safe and unsafe found that women do not feel able to rely on others to intervene in harassment or threatening behaviour in a park, and felt that it is safer to ignore than challenge harassment when experienced.
Whilst the UK’s 27,000 parks provide essential green spaces for exercise, socialising, relaxation, and active travel routes away from busy roads, some 1 in 6 women feel unsafe in parks during daylight hours, a ratio three times higher than men (Office for National Statistics, 2022). Women who have experienced harassment are more likely to be fearful (ONS, 2022).
Research shows that women's heightened fear is particularly pronounced in parks compared to other public spaces like streets, town centres or public transport (ONS, 2022). Consequently, women often limit park visits, avoid certain times or going alone, and adapt their behaviour for safety, thus missing out on the well-documented health and well being benefits of parks.
What research underpins this?
In 2021-2023, Dr. Barker led a Q-methodology study funded by the Mayor of West Yorkshire as part of a Home Office Safer Streets Fund project, gathering insights from 117 women and girls on park safety.
These insights informed the co-creation of new supplementary guidance for the Green Flag Award called 'Safer Parks: Improving Access for Women and Girls’ (ESRC ES/X002861/1) with West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Keep Britain Tidy, and Make Space for Girls. Under the ‘Eyes on the Park’ theme, active bystander training is recommended for park staff and volunteers to safely intervene in harassment situations in parks. The scenarios used in the training will be informed by the experiences of women and girls from this research.