Journalism students have appeared on Look North after their ambitious campaigning against drink spiking on a major city street.
The students launched Claim Back West Street last week and already have the backing of South Yorkshire Police, bars and pubs across the city as well as The University of Sheffield Student Union.
The campaign comes after five students were spiked in one weekend and in reaction to a high number of spiking cases, that is on the rise. The increasing number of students feeling vulnerable had prompted third year students, Hannah Youds, Charlotte Langford, Andreea Popa, Konrad Ostrowski and Wiktoria Wryzyszcz to set up the #claimbackweststreet campaign.
The work they are doing is part of their final year news project module, in which students elect to devise and orchestrate a real world campaign. The point of it is to demonstrate the power journalism can have to evoke positive societal change.
This team, who are running a news organisation they have called the Steel City Courier, as part of the project were excited to get their teeth into a campaign from week one, and pitched this idea even before the horrific cases that have happened over the past two weeks. As well as being taught by myself they are also being mentored by the editor of the Wakefield Express, Gavin Murray, who backed and encouraged their efforts.
Lisa Bradley
Deputy Head of School
The campaign aims to encourage all nightspots on West Street to hand out anti-drink spike devices, to ask pubs and club to create “safe spaces” and to bring the charity Street Angels to the city.
This is something we all feel so passionate about and considering what’s happened in the city just over the past two weeks, it’s come at a time when it is really needed. Drinking spiking doesn’t just happen to women either, everyone needs to feel safe. And this is why we want everyone to get behind us.
Hannah Youds
Third year student and campaign lead
One of the supporters of the claim is Bloo 88 on West Street.
It is often too easy for bars and clubs to be reticent about supporting these kinds of campaigns through fear it would make them look bad, or like this is a problem. But in fact, it’s a reality and we all have to come together and do our bit.
It’s inspiring to see what started out as a university project gain such traction and have such impact on the streets of the city.
Craig Holmes
Events Manager
Read more about their campaign here.
