25 Mar Women’s Safety Forum (March 2024)
Hammersmith BID were delighted to host this quarter’s Women’s Safety Forum at Turtle Bay, coinciding with Women’s History Month and during the week of International Women’s Day. Together we celebrated the theme of ‘Inspire Inclusion’ with an evening of discussion on period dignity and workplace policies for women. After hearing from our speakers, all were welcome to take part in a ‘period pouch’-making activity, accompanied by food and drinks courtesy of Hammersmith BID.
The evening began with our hosts Turtle Bay talking about inclusion in the hospitality sector. To set the scene, Csenge Maro (Marketing Executive for Turtle Bay) spoke about some of the challenges faced in that industry. These include late night shifts for staff, many of whom are younger women. After a manager from one of the chain’s restaurants suggested a free kit for staff travelling to and from work, this initiative was championed across the company and their ‘Surfin’ on the Safe Side’ kits were born. The kits consist of a bum-bag, portable phone charger, mini torch and personal alarm. All staff are entitled to apply for a free kit, ensuring that safety is less of a barrier to staff (especially women) working nights at the restaurant/bar. Hammersmith BID are happy to report that, after attending the Forum, another hospitality business was inspired to roll out its own safety kits as a new policy.
Next, attendees heard from Shami Hogarth and Noemi d’Aniello from Accor Invest. The speakers presented on the company’s progressive policies created for all staff, many of which have women in mind. These include a Fertility Policy, a Menopause Policy and a Pregnancy Loss Policy. Accor Invest also rolled out a Parental Bereavement Leave Policy and a Mental Health Policy, amongst others. Their team kindly provided policy templates to attendees interested in taking their own workplace policy reviews forward. They also spoke about the importance of education as best practice and as a complement to the policies – to this end, Accor Invest provide Mental Health First Aid training to staff and put on Mental Health Awareness Weeks with activities such as yoga. Year-round, the company champions resource-sharing and makes an effort to produce topical, office-wide posters.
Yvonne Okiyo from Hammersmith & Fulham Council spoke to attendees about how policies are important for embedding equity and inclusion within the workplace. She shared how successful policies can support staff health and wellbeing, allowing employees to show up as their ‘best self’ to work. She also talked about practical steps organisations can take to shape change, for example by recording absences due to women’s health conditions separately from general sickness (something the Council has already rolled out). Yvonne shared other practical interventions that attendees might consider adopting within their own organisations to ‘Inspire Inclusion’, such as: changing shift patterns; flexible working hours; opportunities to work from home; additional breaks; adapting uniforms; a quiet room in the office; topical awareness sessions for all staff; and informal staff groups (for example, the Council has a Menopause Group).
Finally, Alvina Appleton and Charmaine Birkett from local not-for-profit Flow Happy spoke about the importance of period dignity and stamping out period poverty. Flow Happy are tackling these issues head-on by providing cabinets around Hammersmith & Fulham containing free period products, for the public to use as needed. To view Flow Happy’s Hammersmith footprint, you can download the WalkSafe app and search for community spaces on the app’s Hammersmith map.
Alvina and Charmaine ended the evening with a period quiz, followed by an arts and crafts session where Forum attendees could customise their own ‘period pouches’. Turtle Bay provided food and drinks, courtesy of Hammersmith BID, for the networking session that followed.
Hammersmith BID wishes to thank all speakers and attendees for an evening that was informative and fun in equal measure.
If you would like to find out more about the topics covered during March 2024’s Women’s Safety Forum, please email Hammersmith BID.
