Come and plan Oxfordshire Reclaim the Night 2010

Thursday 19 August, 7.30pm, St Aldates Room Oxford Town Hall

2010 Reclaim the Night first planning meeting - bring your ideas, your friends and your creativity!

1 in 4 women in the UK experience domestic violence in their lifetime.

The UK's rape conviction rate is one of the lowest in Europe, hovering around 5%.

Yet violence against women is still all too often considered the individual woman's responsibility - because she dressed provocatively, or got drunk, or nagged. And men who are violent towards women are admired - Raoul Moat, Mike Tyson, Roman Polanski - and their violent behaviour towards women forgiven in light of their other achievements or problems.

And we still have too few women's services - the Conservative Party manifesto promised funding for 15 new rape crisis centres, but the only funding news since the election has been a cut to London's only independent women's specialist rape and sexual abuse centre in Croydon.

So Reclaim the Night is needed as much now as it ever has been:

* To empower and support women who have experienced domestic abuse and gender-based violence
* To change attitudes in the community
* To campaign for sustainable funding for support services