Tackling violence against women and girls 'remains a top priority' in Teesside
Our very own stats showed nine in 10 women feel scared to walk home alone at night
The Police and Crime Commissioner for Cleveland says tackling violence against women and girls remains a top priority in Teesside.
Our very own stats that we revealed earlier this week shows nine in 10 women feel scared to walk home alone especially on a night time.
PCC Matt Storey said: "It's one of the key parts of my Police and Crime Plan to improve safety for women and girls across Cleveland. No women in Cleveland should have to live in fear of violence, being attacked by their partners or loved ones, and we have to do whatever we can to tackle it. It's one of my absolute top priorities.
"One big piece of work that we've done this year is develop our 10-year perpetration strategy by bringing in agencies from across Cleveland, so we can disrupt and change the behaviours of abusers and keep victims and children safe from harm. It's really important that we stay on track with it and making sure that we tackle abuse wherever we see it and making sure people receive justice.
"We've got the protect and support fund which is a £180,000 being delivered across Cleveland. Some of the projects we're funding are things like EVA Women's Aid in Redcar who provides supports to victims of domestic abuse and sexually violence. Age UK are doing some really interesting work with female victims of domestic abuse who are over 50 years-old.
"ARCH Teesside are getting a new navigator role to provide more trauma informed support to survivors of sexual violence and My Sister's Place, a Middlesbrough domestic abuse charity, are opening a multi-lingual online chat service to give victims of domestic abuse a fast, safe, and discreet access to support.
"I think the Government's ambition for halving violence against women and girls in the next 10 years is a really, really good ambition. It's a really aspirational thing which I'm all for. What I'd like to see more from the Government is funding. I'd like to see them deliver more money to services locally.
"I'm concerned that in the police reform work that we may see nationally commissioned services. I don't want that. I want our local services to be commissioned; local services for local people because they understand our communities and they understand the women of Cleveland much better than any national service can. We need to make sure that we have those services locally because they know the people in our areas the best."