Bristol Reclaim the Night is part of the national movement of the same name, that stands in opposition to gender-based violence, and for gender equality.

Bristol SU are consistently working to improve the safety of students within the city. You can get involved by filling out the interactive map below to show us where you feel safe in the city, and where needs improvement.

On this page you can find information about our previous marches from 2015 and from 2014 as well as a toolkit to start your own march.

Why Reclaim the Night?

Reclaim the Night is an international movement against sexual violence, which started in the 1970s, with the first UK march taking place in 1977 as a response to the “Yorkshire Ripper” murders of women sex workers. Marches take place at night to protest against the victim blaming attitudes that tell women to stay off the streets if they want to avoid sexual violence or harassment.

• Ministry of Justice figures tell us that 1 in 5 women (aged 16 - 59) in the UK has experienced some form of sexual violence.
• The NUS Hidden Marks Report (2010) found that more than one third of women students reported feeling unsafe when visiting their university or college building in the evening. 
• The report also found that 1 in 7 women had experienced a serious physical or sexual assault during their time at university.
• A 2014 survey that asked about women’s’ experiences on Clifton Triangle found that only half felt safe getting home at night.
• More found that 73% of women fear rape, and almost half avoid going out at night due to fears over their safety.

These stats show that decades after the original Reclaim the Night marches, sexual violence is still a massive issue facing women today. This is why it is so important that we organise Reclaim the Night marches on our campuses.

Reclaim the Night 2016

Reclaim the Night 2016 was led by Women's Officer, Darcy Ramsden, and Equality Liberation & Access Officer, Hannah Dualeh, with support of the Women's Network.

The event featured: 

• Poetry from local Bristol Women
• Speeches from Bristol Zero Tolerance, NUS Women's Campaign, and Sister's Uncut
• Music from Seun Matiluko and Pitchfight

To continue the important work of the campaign, we have launched an interactive map for students to tell us about their experiences in Bristol. We hope to be able to share this information with key stakeholders, such as the Council, Security Services and the Police, in order to make the city safer. 

Please add your own drop pins to the map:

• Use green to show us where you feel safe or comfortable
• Use orange to show us where you feel unsafe or uncomfortable
• Use red to report locations where you are aware of an incident taking place
• In the description boxes please feel free to add comments. These might relate to what could be done to make the street safer, or reports of incidents that have taken place.
• Check out the full instructions below.