This Notts second year has created a group chat for girls to walk home safely through Lenton

A second year student at the University of Nottingham has created a group chat to try and ensure girls' safety walking through Lenton.

Flo Fowler, a French and Hispanic studies student, created a Facebook group chat called “WomenWalkingHome”, which provides girls someone to ring if their friends or housemates are unavailable late at night, helping to discourage any perpetrators who would intend to cause them harm.

The group is made up with a range of female students (including trans women and non-binary people) from across campus, to try and make the walks home for many female students safer.

The group chat is called "WomenWalkingHome"

Speaking to The Nottingham Tab, Flo says she hopes there is now a “virtual community of support and security, to provide us with a little safety net from the dangers we face every day as women."

After chatting to a friend who works night shifts and walks home after midnight most nights a week, Flo realised that many girls find themselves in a similar situation

"She often found that her friends were asleep by the time she had to walk home," Flo says, "so she didn’t have anyone to call on the phone as she walked. This hit me hard."

When looking at the statistics concerning crime across Nottingham, rape crimes have had the highest percentage increase between 2017 and 2018, going up by 51.2 percent. These statistics make you realise why Flo had the idea, and why it's been so well received.

"Sexual assault is disgustingly common and while I can’t stop this from happening, I figured I could do something that might help," she told The Nottingham Tab.

"If Women Walking Home helps even just one woman, then my idea will have satisfied its cause. "

With Flo's idea, sexual assaults in Lenton, the walk home back from a club or attacks anywhere in Nottingham might be prevented from the ability to call or message someone in the group when no one else is available. It could be a life-changing outcome for several female students in Nottingham.

If you also feel threatened in the streets of Nottingham, don't hesitate to contact Flo Fowler on Facebook to be added to the group chat, or even create a similar one of your own.