Leeds City College

In a world where safety is a growing concern, especially for women and girls in public spaces, initiatives like Ask for Angela (AFA) play a crucial role in providing discreet support when it’s needed most.

Developed by Leeds City Council and Women Friendly Leeds, Ask for Angela is a scheme used in the hospitality industry where you can ask for ‘Angela’ to discreetly signal to staff that you feel unsafe or threatened and would like assistance.

As part of this fantastic initiative, Leeds City College’s Creative Arts students along with a student from Leeds Conservatoire, collaborated with Women’s Lives Leeds to produce a training video promoting women’s safety to staff across 600 venues throughout the region.

Through their excellent teamwork, filming and acting skills, the students have not only produced an informative video but hopefully have empowered others to be able to act if someone needs support.

We sat down with two of the students who worked on the video to hear about their experience.

Gaining new skills and experiences

Student, Lucas Nettleton, enjoyed the opportunity to work as part of a team. Lucas said, “I got to work with different people and make something I was really passionate about. My highlight would probably be everyone working together to make sure that everything ran smoothly.”

The project allowed Lucas to expand their skillset – not just in video editing, but also through their organisational skills. “One of the biggest skills I learned during the project was accountability. I was the person who was editing the video as well as assisting with the production and filming, so I had quite a few deadlines to meet to keep the project rolling.”

The experience was eye-opening for the students, pushing them to balance creativity with practicality. Kaitlyn Pang, a student working on the project, said: “We all had different ideas and ambitions during the project, it was difficult to really solidify a final idea.

“I often drifted into the artistic direction during pre-production rather than staying focused on the subject. It was a project where we had less creative input and more crucial matters to focus on.”

Not everything went as planned, with technical issues causing delays to the project timeline. However, overcoming the challenges causing these delays provided the students valuable experience working alongside a crew in a real-life filming environment.

Kaitlyn said, “We had to re-record half of the scenes as our microphone stopped working halfway through the day. In the future, we will definitely be checking the equipment often to avoid this problem again. It meant we spent more time recording and had to call back our volunteer actress instead of moving on to editing.”

“It was a great project and taught me a lot about working on a real set with our own crew members! I’m glad to have hopefully helped the community around us.”

Making a difference

Ultimately, the AFA project was more than just a creative challenge – it was an opportunity to make a tangible difference to women’s safety.

Lucas said, “It’s great knowing our work could help protect someone or guide a staff member in a tough situation. That’s a rewarding feeling.”

“This project wasn’t just about creating something artistic—it was about focusing on a real issue and contributing to a safer community. We’re proud to have been part of it.”

The project was led by Social Action Coordinator, Florence Smith-Drayson, who said. “This was such a fantastic project to get involved in and I am so pleased we had the opportunity.

“We, at Leeds City College, have developed a great relationship with Women Friendly Leeds and have been working with them for a few years now and they have always been keen to stay connected with the students.

“I was approached by Sara, the Ask for Angela Project worker, who asked me to get involved in the project – I had no idea what the outcome was going to look like.

“We recruited the students and they were eager to be involved, take on leadership skills and put to use the knowledge they had learned in their course. The outcome was fantastic and has resulted in an excellent awareness resource for Women Friendly Leeds and Leeds City Council.

“The work I do looks at the impact on the community and it has been fantastic that we have been able to impact so many visitors to the 600 venues in Leeds that are signed up to Ask for Angela.”