Suzanne Lee and Anita Grant set up Islington 4 Women in 2017 

Guided walks for women are to take place to try and help improve safety after conversations that followed the killing of Sarah Everard.

The walks will take place with police and crime safety officers to explore how to make the borough feel safer. The first walk will take place on Wednesday in the Finsbury Park area.

Anita Grant came up with the idea after thinking about ways to improve community safety following Ms Everard’s death. She had gone missing in Clapham after walking home from a night out and was later found dead.

Ms Grant said: “The idea is there can be just informal conversations and discussions. Depending on who comes and what the conversations are like, we will find things out about how women feel about their local area and if there are practical things that we think will make a difference.

“We will have the crime safety officers with us who can hear those messages maybe about in parks, maybe about lighting or maybe about certain things that happen in spaces that women avoid when walking.”

Ms Grant, who co-founded Islington 4 Women in 2017, said: “The communication between women and the police, especially women from certain communities, is pretty minimal.

“Ideally, we would like women to feel the police are there for them and can help. Part of what we are hoping is to facilitate some of those relationships, where people can meet each other and maybe build some trust.”

The guided walks will take place the third Wednesday of every month and will also point out Safe Havens – a council programme where shops and businesses sign up to offer their space for women to find help if in trouble.

Ms Grant said: “If as we walk we find out there are certain areas that women feel uncomfortable in, whether that is because of lighting, or certain shops they don’t like walking past, then that can be logged with the police.

“It could lead to maybe officers walking around at certain times a day or visiting certain areas. My idea was to bring everyone together and to see what comes out of it.”

The walks also aim to provide information about women in the borough – for example, football players for Arsenal women’s team or a mosaic in Finsbury Park station by artists who are women.

“That is what Islington 4 Women is about,” said Ms Grant, “it’s about how amazing so many women in Islington are and the things they have done.”

The first Women’s Walk is taking place at 5.30pm on Wednesday meeting at the Arsenal FC ticket office in Drayton Park.

For details see Twitter or Instagram @islington4women or email i4w@allchangearts.org