Local Women’s Charity and PCSO Team up to Tackle Exploitation

The first meeting held at YWCA Yorkshire’s Peile House recently, brought together partners working in womens’ health, mental health, housing, drug and alcohol and probation services. Professionals from Sheffield agencies met to share knowledge, data and learning relating to the sexual exploitation and grooming of women and girls in North Sheffield. The group’s remit is to strengthen partnership working by building a localised directory of services and supports ready to share information and respond to real time risks.

Claire Harding, Project Manager at YWCA Yorkshire’s Peile House, Sheffield, said: “We provide safe accommodation and one-to-one support for young women who are homeless and may be vulnerable to exploitation. As the nights get lighter at this time of year, it is common for us to see a notable increase in worrying behaviours. Criminals prey on young women, seeking to exploit and extort them by first offering favours and friendship and then demanding something quite different. We’ve always worked closely with our Police Safer Neighbourhood Team and partners locally and we were keen to champion a proactive approach to exploitation. This is time-sensitive because we know the risks will be ramping up over the next few months as we lead into the summer.”

South Yorkshire Police, PCSO, Sarah Needham, said: “As part of the North East Safer Neighbourhood Team a big part of my remit is to work within the community to prevent crime and harm locally. This initiative is just one of the ways we are working with partners to share knowledge, build relationships and identify risk at the earliest opportunity to keep people safe. It’s great to be working with Claire and colleagues in this way.”

The new partnership group will meet in person every two months. By building relationships and improving communication and understanding amongst the network, the group aims to identify trends and risks early on to prevent harm.

If you are an organisation, charity or service working with women and girls in North Sheffield and you would like to learn more, please get in touch with:

[email protected] or [email protected].