A PROJECT aimed at stamping out male violence against women and children will be launched locally at St Helens Town Hall on Tuesday, July 13.

The Merseyside Zero Tolerance Initiative is affiliated to the Zero Tolerance Charitable Trust in Edinburgh, a national strategy, which, since its launch seven years ago, has been taken up by more than 50 local authorities throughout the UK.

Main funding for the multi-agency project comes from the Merseyside Health Action Zone and the Safer Merseyside Partnership with additional support from other agencies including the St Helens and Wirral Local Authorities and Health Authorities, Merseyside Police, Domestic Violence Forums, voluntary sector agencies and local businesses.

Zero Tolerance recognises that violence against women and children is widespread in society and that men perpetrate the majority of violence against women and children. The violence includes child sexual abuse, domestic violence, rape and sexual harassment.

Of 1,446 women questioned on Merseyside 698 had experienced violence at the hands of men they had been out with; 665 had experienced unwanted sex; 284 had experienced rape and 375 had experienced child sexual abuse. On Merseyside as a whole, police recorded 20,839 domestic incidents in 1998.

Main objectives of the Zero Tolerance campaign are to:

Raise the profile of violence against women and children among the general public.

Challenge attitudes and behaviour surrounding violence towards women and children.

Increase public awareness of the extent and nature of the violence committed.

To destroy some of the myths about violence and exploring why violence happens.

Promote a clear message that male abuse of power is a crime and won't be tolerated thereby encouraging men to take responsibility for their actions.

Develop ways of tackling violence.

Empower women and children experiencing violence to seek support.

Broaden and strengthen multi-agency working relationships across Merseyside to address the problem of male violence towards women and children.

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