Following on from our We Believe You campaign on rape myths, we have approached some candidates in the upcoming Police and Crime Commissioner elections to hold campaign events concentrating on sexual violence, and looking at the police's role in combating rape myths and encouraging victims to come forwards.
Police and Crime Commissioners are going to have wide-ranging powers to help set the crime and policing agenda within police forces, so we think it's important that they should hear directly from members of the public about what their priorities in office should be.
We're very pleased to announce that Pru Jupe, the LibDem candidate for PCC in Cumbria, is going to be holding the first of these events this Saturday (October 27) between 2 and 4.30pm, at St Andrew's Church in Penrith.
Pru has invited the PCC candidates from other major parties to attend, as well as local stakeholders.
What she needs now is interested members of the public to come along, ask questions, feed back on your perception of how the Cumbria police force deals with sexual violence, and generally contribute to the conversation, with the hope of informing the aims and agenda of whichever candidate is ultimately successful.
If you're in the area, or know people who are, please do spread the word about this event - it would be great to have a good turnout and demonstrate to the candidates that this is something the electorate in Cumbria feels strongly about. And as ever, if you're on Twitter or Facebook, please share the details (Twitter hashtag is #webelieveyou, and Pru's account is @PruJupe). Encouraging local press and broadcast representatives to go along would also be great.
And if you do go along, please post here to let us know how it goes!