The Bristol Branch of UNISON has today, Friday, announced a £2,000 donation to the Bristol Zero Tolerance Summer Appeal.
Bristol Zero Tolerance, launched in 2015, is an initiative managed by Bristol Women’s Voice and aims to have gender-based harassment recognised as a serious issue and treated as a hate crime. The overall objective is to ensure Bristol is a safe place for women to live and work.
The summer appeal aims to raise £5,000 which will enable the group to continue their work supporting women who have encountered abuse, developing action plans with employers to combat abuse in the workplace, and provide high level training to businesses in and around Bristol.
UNISON Bristol branch secretary Jane Carter said:
“When we heard that The Bristol Zero Tolerance initiative had their funding cut we knew we had to do something. UNISON has supported the campaign for a long time and we were really concerned that the good work they had done wouldn’t be able to continue.
“UNISON membership is 70% women who work across thousands of different employers so this has to be high up on our list of priorities.
“We are keen to ensure that the summer appeal reaches and even goes beyond its target and would encourage others to donate.
“It’s a crying shame that local government finances have been cut to the bone in recent years and that this has an impact on such important initiatives. UNISON will continue work work both locally and nationally to reverse the austerity that the government has imposed on local councils.”