Venues across Hackney are set to begin training to help them deal with sexual harassment in bars and nightclubs.

The training will be held by the independent Good Night Out initiative, which is dedicated to raising awareness of the issue of harassment on nights out, helping clubs, bars and pubs to tackle and prevent it and deal with it more effectively by training staff, security and management on how best to handle and prevent harassment.

The Good Night Out team say: “We believe nights out should be about fun and freedom, not fear. We began in 2014 as a grassroots response to sexual violence in nightlife communities.”

Residents, visitors and late-night businesses in Hackney are also being encouraged to “Reframe the Night” as part of a collaborative poster and social media campaign to prevent harassment on nights out. The aim is to challenge people to reframe the common perceptions often used when talking about sexual harassment, such as ‘If you go out dressed like that, what do you expect?’

The campaign is led by the City of London Corporation, Hackney Council and Good Night Out.

Samantha Mathys, Hackney Council’s Licensing Team Leader, said:“We’re thrilled to be working with the City of London Corporation and Good Night Out to launch our first campaign under Hackney Council’s new night time safety charter, Hackney Nights.

“Campaigns that promote positive behaviour change, like ‘Reframe the Night’ will go hand-in-hand with training, resources and additional police presence to help protect local residents, visitors and businesses from crime and anti-social behaviour. 

The training will be delivered to all venues who sign-up to the Council’s new night time safety charter Hackney Nights.  Venues are asked to pledge to take all complaints of sexual harassment seriously and to ensure that appropriate action is taken to address issues that occur on their premises.

Local venues who have signed-up to the Charter will also receive a toolkit to accompany the training, which will take place on Tuesday 18 February.

The toolkit will include guidance on how to spot potentially harmful situations and how to prevent them, as well as including campaign posters, pledge certificates and Hackney Nights’ window transfers for display on venues’ premises.