A trio of city hall goals to make London safer for women and girls, adopted as part of the political roadmap for this council term, are now facing two-year delays.
Content article
A trio of city hall goals to make London safer for women and girls, adopted as part of the political roadmap for this council term, are now facing two-year delays.
Content article
Pushing back a series of goals – to create, share, and implement a three-pronged effort to tackle violence against women – shifts the deadline into the next council term, in 2023.
The original deadline to update city hall’s “gender equity framework” – a tool that’s intended to be used by staff to consider women’s needs and experiences in London – was the end of September 2021. Now, city staff say it will be done by June 2022 . The end of 2023 is the new deadline to present to council and implement that tool at city hall.
“It continues to be a priority for our organization and clearly for our community,” said Rosanna Wilcox, director of strategy and innovation at city hall.
Community leaders at the helm of the London Coordinating Committee to End Women Abuse, which is working with city hall, could not be reached Friday to comment on the delay.
The delay isn’t due to the pandemic, but the desire to create the gender equity tool alongside a related project, a new anti-racism and anti-oppression framework to guide policy and programs at city hall, Wilcox said.
The larger effort to make London safer for women and girls is one of six overarching goals in city council’s strategic plan. It’s intended to address sexual assault, sex trafficking, workplace harassment and abuse and assault within intimate relationships.
It remains to be seen whether a future city council will be as supportive of the goal.
The delay on the gender equity project at city hall represents a small portion of the overall work to combat sexual violence and make London safer for women and girls, Wilcox said.
Content article
Other goals have been completed, like the UN Safe Cities program, which saw community experts survey Londoners about the safety of public spaces, and create a plan to tackle issues. That produced results such as training to help equip bar and nightlife staff to respond to problems they see on the job.
London’s emergency shelter system was tapped to help women fleeing violence, with 20 beds and 10 resting spaces – also known as crash beds – earmarked specifically for women.
At city hall, bystander intervention training is about to roll out for downtown ambassadors and other city staff who are frequently out in the community, where they’re likely to be able to put those skills to use.
EDITOR’S NOTE: After this story was published, city hall provided an update on the status of the gender equity framework, noting the 2023 deadline was incorrectly stated in a city staff report. It is expected to be complete by June 2022. The deadline for implementation and training is the end of 2023.