Fantastic Walk and Talk initiative with Havering Sixth Form girls and local police officers as part of Staying Safe Week.
Students from Havering Sixth Form on Wingletye Lane in Hornchurch, yesterday Tuesday 24 January joined Police officers for a Walk and Talk initiative where they had the opportunity to share their thoughts on safety in the community and point out areas such as bus stops where lighting needs to be improved to make women feel safer.
The students are part of an amazing group entitled ‘Here Come the Girls’, that actively promote safety for women and many other important topics.
On the walk students pointed out a number of issues, such as poor lighting along certain roads, dark bus stops where they often have to wait a long time because full buses drive past, a lack of any staff at stations which adds to a feeling of isolation, and very poorly lit platforms. Police officers listened to their concerns and will now report them to the council and TfL with suggestions of how women’s safety could be improved.
Safeguarding Lead at the college, Emma Wood, told the Havering Daily: “It is important to find out from our students where they do not feel safe outside, particularly when it is dark, and what we can do in the community to help improve women’s safety. This is a great initiative by our local police and we are making sure our students know we are listening to them and that there is support available for them.”
The Walk & Talk initiative is part of Staying Safe Week which has been organised by the college to make students aware of how they can keep themselves safe while they are out and about in the community and what to do if they need help.
The week includes information stalls on the risks of drugs and alcohol with Wizeup (Havering’s Drug and Alcohol Support Service) attending, as well as workshops run by the organisation Consent, which will inform students about facts and figures in relation to sexual assault and the importance of consent. Tutorials are being held on the use of vapes, cigarettes, cannabis and other drugs, the legal risks, and how they affect people’s health.
The week also includes a visit from The Ricky Hayden Foundation’s Sue Hedges, who continues to work to safeguard people within the local community. Sue is donating a bleed kit and talks about how the kits can save lives in a range of scenarios.
Havering Sixth Form is a very positive college with many proactive staff and students who actively engage with the local community each week. The college has an excellent relationship with the local police and this was another great initiative hosted by them
Students on the Walk and Talk initiative with Schools Officers.
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Good to see the college taking a lead on this really important work with teenagers. And thumbs up to the police for doing this with our youngsters. Love their smiling faces too.
Me being a student giving a very critical view on an adult’s work is less than reasonable, but if you are to look past my age and instead read my ideas with an open mind, I would hope that you can take it onboard and consider what I am saying.
The first critical flaw I can immediately see with this is that you are asking students, people more cared about fashion, illegally vaping and drinking, and social media. The environment is likely very low on student’s lists, making the entire interview quite unreliable. Whilst this is probably a wide agreed point, I would like to offer some evidence for y’all, to help you to clearly (hehe, see why in a minute) see my point.
My first concern is about lighting. As students, I can also imagine that they don’t come up with valid arguments and supporting evidence for their points, but instead see something they may not like and feel pressured by college, police and reporters to report problems that may seem valid. I can also say this because this is exactly what goes through my mind anyone asks me “Are you ok? Do yo see any problems?”. Except, being oh so polite and British, I naturally say I am fine and there are no problems.
I may be incorrect, but so is the point about poor lighting. I say this as I don’t believe that many students are aware of light pollution, or the negative affects that it has on mental health (as per a YT video).
My next flaw is of busses skipping stops when full. I completely disagree with this being a problem, since I used to also get frustrated with busses skipping me. However, this may not be evident for the bus stop right outside that has the 193 route, but the bus stop a minute away or so most people, me included will only use to avoid walking 10 minutes to Hornchurch to get access to (often) multiple busses that can get them home, or where they need to be, and are also (to my knowledge, going to those busses for 1 and a half years) always quite empty. This point I therefore believe to be completely invalid as it is petty teenagers who don’t want to have to walk 10 minutes (believe me, I have heard some of my classmates complaining over 10 MINUTES!) and so want a change.
And as well, in classic fashion, they don’t think about potential problems, such as there being a people limit on busses FOR A REASON, created by adults with a lot of experience. My best guess for this would be a good compromise between picking up passengers and not spreading diseases, especially in a time of monkey pox and corona. But, don’t take the words of people who have evidence and reason for their decisions, get the best decision of a group of lazy students. True great ideas, at it’s finest.
As well, if you aren’t a student here and reading about all the awareness, you may believe it is good, and that is works. Bull. I have seen it, and I can strongly tell you, from a student with nothing to lose so no need to lie, that they aren’t that effective as people continue to vape and likely take drugs. And if you don’t believe me, check on stats after a while to see if they drop.
With this point in mind though, it is quite hard to blame them since the stress they are going through with all the economic, social and likely home life issues they are facing, vaping for students is like a nice ice cold beer after a stressful day of work for an adult. Yes, I do believe that help is needed, as if you don’t smoke or drink like me, you spend probably up to an hour by the time I will finish this writing an essay like review on a small website people will likely take one look at, and not read on account of being too long.
At the end of the report, (? not sure what to call it, brain failing on me and forgetting the word) my favourite bit has to be a few photos, clearly showing that at approximately 5 o’clock when the last students would likely be leaving, the skies may be gloomy, but you can still see everything very clearly, spoken by a guy with glasses too. “It’s so dark, oh no. Don’t worry about light pollution, we just need an artificial version of the whole day sun thing that I think happens in Norway.” Hahaha, really laughed at this completely invalidating the main point, classic!
Anyway, if you have made it this far, well done firstly, but as well a huge thanks for actually reading, it means a lot. If you have any feedback too, I swear if you think you can invalidate my argument with a grammar mistake like : instead of ;, I swear, I won’t do bad things because at the end of the day, I am still British and sometimes when not focusing say excuse me or sorry to doors, but I sure will be cussing angrily, believe that.
But, thx for reading and enjoy ya day! Cya!