UKSPF hyper-local and safety of women and girls’ programmes across West Yorkshire

Hyper-local activity is targeted UKSPF support at a local level in all five West Yorkshire local authority geographies.

Delivered by the relevant local authorities, Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, Wakefield, this support is tailored to local need and takes a bespoke approach for delivery, based on community needs.

*hyper-local refers to local authority programmes in West Yorkshire

The hyper-local UKSPF project in Bradford focuses on three key strategic themes:

1. Circular economy

This includes:

• mentoring support for businesses to adopt green practice,
• entrepreneurial support that requires a local focus including support to new market traders.

2. Community infrastructure

This includes:

• strengthening the districts emerging community anchor network through mentoring support and grant funding to build community pride and resilience,
• supporting vulnerable young adults,
• empowering communities, ensuring they are part of the decision making,
• supporting communities to innovate.

3. Culture is our plan

This includes:

• strengthening the visitor economy to prepare for Bradford City of Culture 2025 (COC) by supporting events and creating a food culture offer,
• supporting growth in the culture and business sectors to maximise the opportunity and to create an economic legacy,
• involving communities through local events and a volunteering programme to support City of Culture 2025 (COC).

The hyper-local UKSPF project in Calderdale is targeted towards:

1. Community

This includes support to:

• communities in North and Central Halifax with the highest deprivation,
• communities that were hit the most by the pandemic,
• communities that can benefit the most to positively impact local people.

2.‘Keep it local’ commitment

UKSPF in Calderdale aims to:

• empower communities,
• impact on health and economic inequalities,
• build community wealth and legacy through a community-led and coproduced approach.

To support these aims Calderdale Council has funded capacity in two community anchors, Halifax Opportunities Trust, and North Halifax Partnership.

Halifax Opportunities Trust works to strengthen communities and place, by improving the places people live in and visit, as well as their overall wellbeing. Focusing on street conditions and improving infrastructure; youth engagement to reduce anti-social activity, support with cost of living and money management.

North Halifax Partnership’s Reimagining Communities project works to support a number of priorities to aid towards: affordable living, mental health, social connections, accessible services and opportunities for young people.

The hyper-local UKSPF project in Kirklees focuses on the following priorities:

1. Community

This includes support to:

• strengthen community capacity and infrastructure, building on successful joint working during the pandemic,
• extend cost of living support for the most vulnerable residents,
• add value to delivery of major regeneration programmes in Huddersfield, Dewsbury and emerging Local Centres initiatives,
• support Community Anchor organisations to develop their role in local communities,
• support the Community Champions initiative which builds the capacity/capability of community-based advocates and community grant programmes.

2. Culture and Place

This includes:

• supporting the legacy of Kirklees Year of Music 2023,
• promoting place-based working,
• improving local green spaces,
• creating safer town centres,
• developing career pathways in the arts and creative economy and opportunities for volunteering.

The hyper-local UKSPF project in Leeds focuses on four key priorities:

1. Cost of living

Measures to support residents, including:

• advice, signposting, and financial support to minimise the number of residents in poverty,
• increasing digital inclusion,
• increasing energy efficiency,
• enabling the development of local food strategies,
• and exploring concepts such as community supermarkets.

Examples of activity include delivering digital inclusion activity to support residents with the cost of living and the provision of debt advice for residents experiencing financial challenges.

2.Community Infrastructure

Programmes to support pride of place and developing the social fabric of communities, including small capital investment and support for resident-led activity through increased engagement.

Examples of this include:

• Capable Guardian Programme,
• community safety and antisocial behaviour initiatives,
• the delivery of social action projects in communities,
• volunteering support,
• high street and district centre improvements.

3. Culture, Heritage, and Engagement

Expanding the inclusive cultural and creative offer across the city to engage a wider and more diverse audience focusing on equality and diversity, social cohesion, celebrating difference and culture for health and wellbeing.

• Leeds Museums and Galleries’ programme of work builds on the service’s award-winning learning and community work, offering volunteering opportunities, events and participatory programmes, working closely with community partners. The service aims to give a warm welcome to more visitors and make improvements to at least two of its venues, This will be creating a range of engagement opportunities for young people with SEND (special educational need and disabilities).

4. Supporting Innovation, Businesses and Productivity

Measures to support businesses and innovation include:

• support for local businesses to adopt and develop innovative practices,
• support to maximise the value of the Innovation Arc, leading to increased productivity and business growth,
• support new and existing SMEs to support growth and viability,
• the development of angel investor networks to increase investment.

This includes:

Taking business information and other enterprise activity out to communities via the libraries network.

• The Be Your Own Boss project will support prospective entrepreneurs explore self-employment as a viable employment option.
• Innovation@Leeds will be delivered through commissioned activity which builds on the insight and knowledge gained in year one, gaps in the ecosystem and opportunities to align and enhance other innovation initiatives and funding for instance if Leeds were to be successful in securing funding for an Investment Zone.

The hyper-local UKSPF project in Wakefield focuses on the following key strategic themes:

1. Thriving and regenerated district centres

The Wakefield’s Pride in Thriving Centres project aims to support ongoing capital regeneration work in the district’s centres by focusing on:

• a community presence to promote environmental regulation,
• community safety,
• deterring anti-social behaviour and nuisances that affect visitor experience.

In addition, shop security grants are being made available to qualifying businesses for security measure improvements.

2. Innovation

The Wakefield Retail Centres “Pop up” Programme is designed to make innovative use of space in the district’s centres:

• providing pop-up spaces linked to markets to support small and micro retail businesses to test ideas,
• creating jobs and growing sustainably,
• providing dedicated business support for independent retailers.

3. Communities and Culture

The following programmes aim to support Wakefield’s culture and creative sectors:

• Toward Wakefield 2024 and Beyond is a programme of district-wide festivals and events to engage and inspire communities, providing a unique opportunity for mass participation in culture and creativity, and building toward and beyond Wakefield’s Year of Culture 2024. The programme utilises local creative talent and connects with the district's unique heritage, to bring culture and creativity into our communities, re-connect people with their place, and attract visitors into the District.
• Growing Wakefield’s Visitor Economy is a project to develop a destination management plan to deliver activity to establish Wakefield as a visitor destination, including collaborative marketing and PR, coordinated tourism collateral and connection with tradeshows.
• Wakefield’s Healthy Eating on a Budget project aims to deliver 8 volunteer led community pantries across the District, including activities such as allotment projects and family cookery classes, linked with wrap-around employment, skills, health, and wellbeing provision to support people to move away from food bank dependency and reliance on crisis services.
• WX is a development programme to support growth of cultural and creative industries in Wakefield, including delivery of the Creative Wakefield Network to showcase opportunities for local artists utilising the new Wakefield Exchange site and other cultural venues, aiming to drive growth and opportunity in the sector for local communities.

4. Business support

The following programmes aim to support Wakefield’s businesses:

• Wakefield’s UKSPF Local Grant Scheme has been designed to administer grants of up to £15,000 to provide financial support and seed funding for community projects and initiatives.
• Supporting Wakefield’s VCS Capacity to Deliver for Residents is a project centred around building the capacity and capability of the voluntary, community or social enterprise sector for residents. The project aims to strengthen the sector in terms of skills, knowledge, partnerships and private sector investment and collaboration, and to help community groups to become more sustainable and less grant reliant.
• The Wakefield Business Support Gateway project is a central gateway for business support, delivered flexibly to support entrepreneurs and start-ups through the stages of business development and growth, by offering a combination of services, advice and resources and encouraging collaboration across different sectors.
• The Creative Sector Support project works with creative sector businesses to facilitate bringing together creative knowledge and skills, within the District, with more traditional industry sectors, creating space and resources for creative talent to grow and thrive. The project includes a grant element to enable SMEs to access research and development (R&D) support to develop their business.

West Yorkshire Mayor, Tracy Brabin, launched the regional Safety of Women and Girls (SOWG) strategy in November 2022.

West Yorkshire is home to over 1.2 million women and girls, and every one of them should feel safe. Safe at home, at work, on a night out, walking in a park, anywhere.

The West Yorkshire UK Shared Prosperity Fund will include a funding allocation of £992,760 over the next three financial years (inclusive of financial year 2022-2023), to support the delivery of the co-designed priorities and actions, as set out in the Safety of Women and Girls Strategy.

Each Local Authority in West Yorkshire is providing a bespoke service through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to contribute to this objective.

The safety of women and girls UKSPF project in Bradford will support the development of Bradford’s Safety of Women & Girls Action Plan.

The action plan aims to support the West Yorkshire Mayor’s Strategy, in delivering priorities of:

• education and prevention,
• supporting the safety of women and girls,
• providing safe spaces,
• and behaviour change.

Through the development and implementation of the action plan, we will:

• recruit young ambassadors,
• consult across the district,
• increase volunteering opportunities,
• develop programmes and projects that will address the Safety of Women and Girls agenda,
• encourage a successful local economy and community.

Additionally, the project will support Staying Put, a key local delivery partner, as they increase their offer of supported accommodation for victims of domestic abuse and their children. The project is looking to improve the standard of accommodation provided to create supportive and therapeutic environments.

The safety of women and girls UKSPF project in Calderdale aims to provide support to the third sector to address gaps in provision through grant funded voluntary and community sector (VCS) interventions and the provision of capital expenditure on safe spaces for women and girls.

This will help support to the council’s inclusive approach to help build capacity and resilience amongst third sector organisations, to deliver better outcomes.

Key objectives are to support projects that have the following impacts:

• improved engagement and support for victims,
• reduce in violence against women and girls’ incidents,
• more men and boys engaged with to encourage healthy attitudes towards women and girls,
• more safe spaces for women and girls.

The scheme will support the Councils Safer Streets and the Violence Reduction Partnership. The scheme will be aligned with the district’s Community Safety Partnership (CSP) Strategic Assessment and will complement the council Domestic Abuse Strategy.

The safety of women and girls UKSPF project in Kirklees, is the work of the Council and key partners, including the third sector, to identify the key investment priorities, such as:

• work with men and boys,
• behaviour change and prevention,
• providing safe spaces for women and girls.

This project focuses on delivering the following objectives:

• improving engagement and support for victims, particularly those in hard-to-reach communities,
• reducing violence against women and girls (VAWG) incidents,
• engaging with men and boys to encourage healthy attitudes to women and girls,
• creating more safe spaces for women and girls,
• collect qualitative evidence of impact to feed into a district wide evidence base of what works for VAWG Services,
• more businesses and community centres accessing bystander training.

The safety of women and girls UKSPF project in Leeds has four main strands:

• Building on the West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin Mayor’s Safer Parks Guidance (2023), Leeds City Council together with the Women and Girls Alliance Leeds, aims to engage with local women and girls to co-design and deliver safe and welcoming public spaces.
• Research to explore how a women’s centre in Leeds could provide a safe, gender-informed and inclusive environment for women and girls to access a range of services. Following the research, and consultation with a range of stakeholders including local women and girls, the Leeds Women’s Centre concept will be piloted and evaluated.
• Developed by the Women and Girls Alliance Leeds and Men’s Health Unlocked, “Switch onto Women’s Safety” is an insightful and thought-provoking workshop to empower men and boys to help women and girls feel safe and respected. Training providers will apply to gain accreditation for this workshop and train a further 100 men to deliver the workshop to men and boys across organisations and communities in Leeds.
• Working with women, girls, communities and policy makers, the Women and Girls Alliance Leeds will accelerate the Women Friendly Leeds movement, seeking to create the UK’s first Women Friendly City where women and girls are safe and supported to participate in all areas of urban life on an equal basis to men. A city that is better for women; better for everyone.

To find out more about how you or your organisation can get involved with any of the projects, get in touch via the Women Friendly Leeds website.

The safety of women and girls UKSPF project in Wakefield has been developed with long-term sustainability in mind and includes the delivery of an innovative education and prevention secondary school-based programme and volunteer peer ambassador scheme.

This project aims to support behaviour change for at risk children and young people, providing:

Education and prevention programme

• group work sessions in 6 secondary schools – a programme of up to 6 sessions per cohort (universal for all, responding to the Behaviour Change theme by educating on harmful behaviours towards women and girls as well as additional separate groups and one-to-one sessions for at risk children and young people),
• 1:1 support sessions in secondary schools - a programme of up to 6 sessions per young person referred,
• group work sessions in the community for those young people who feel unable to access support in school,
• 1:1 sessions in the community for those young people who feel unable to access support in school,
• the option for art therapy for all participants.

Volunteer peer ambassador scheme

• an educational online course to train 200 ambassadors and to be used by young people during reflections/insolation at school,
• volunteer peer ambassador training sessions to empower young people to raise awareness and support others in the school and their local community. The project expects to recruit 100 Volunteer Peer Ambassadors each year.
• online chat-box support outside of group work and educating/raising awareness sessions for children and young people who have been affected by these issues.

So far, this project has trained 111 ambassadors and engaged with 5724 young people.