Do your family and friends know how you are getting home? Hereford night time businesses and police have joined forces to raise awareness to the community to make sure that your friends and family know how you are getting home!
A community initiative in Hereford, are coming together to support young people in unlocking their summer safely. Local bars, pubs and eateries have previously come together to form Herefordshire Against Night-time Disorder (HAND) and most recently they have brought together local residents to ensure that their friends and family know how they are getting home.
Asked to speak at the session, hosted at Saxty’s bar in Hereford, was Nick Gazzard who spoke to a group of young people and delegates from the community to emphasise the importance of people knowing where you are and that you get home safely. Nick is the father to Hollie Gazzard, who was tragically murdered in 2014 and with his family set up a charitable trust.
The Hollie Gazzard Trust charity helps reduce domestic violence through creating and delivering programmes on domestic abuse and promoting healthy relationships to schools and colleges and through the creation of the Hollie Guard app that can be downloaded to a smart phone. Once you have downloaded the app by shaking your phone it activates Hollie Guard, immediately notifying your chosen contacts, pinpointing your location and sending audio and video evidence directly to their mobile phones.
You can also set start and end destinations before you go out and it will notify your emergency contacts should you not get to your destination in the time perimeters you set. HAND is a scheme that links local licensed premises owners and staff together with the local police team using a messaging service. This will allow them to pass along information and intelligence relating to those that have drunk too much, have been barred, and /or are causing nuisance or committing crime during the evening.
PC Christopher Lea who has supported the scheme said: “Our licensing team offer support to HAND and want to help all the members of our community to enjoy their nights out from start to finish.
“Nuisance behaviour during the evening may seem a low priority to some people, however it is can heighten and serious and dangerous crime such as assault.
“The benefits to the outlets and the community to provide a communication link directly to each other enable them to know who to look out for and challenge.
“The community in Herefordshire deserve to live, work and socialise safely and this scheme really cares for the community and wants to ensure that people are safe.”
About the Hollie Gazzard Trust:
The Hollie Gazzard Trust was created following the murder of 20-year-old Hollie Gazzard in 2014 by an ex-partner. Set up by parents Nick and Mandy, along with sister Chloe, the charity helps reduce domestic violence through creating and delivering programmes on domestic abuse and promoting healthy relationships to schools and colleges.
In addition, it funds hairdressing training for young people who may not otherwise have the funds to study – something Hollie was talented at and passionate about.
The ultimate aim of the Trust is to positively change the lives of young people through partnerships in communities, as well as working alongside other charities and professional agencies.
Hollie was a determined and successful individual, a true inspiration for others, loved, by her family and friends and highly regarded by colleagues and clients alike. Hollie was vibrant, fun, vivacious, talented and beautiful. She is sadly missed by all who knew her.
Hollie loved sports and took part in football, athletics, gymnastics, Jujitsu and horse riding and went on to represent Tewkesbury Borough at tag rugby at Millfield School. Like her dad, Nick, she was an avid Manchester United fan and visited Old Trafford to watch them play. While fashion, style and beauty were of great interest Hollie’s true passion was for hairdressing. During her time at Chosen Hill School, she undertook work experience at Stuart Holmes Hairdressing in Cheltenham.
Hollie worked as a general assistant at Camping de Courte Vallee, a holiday site in Airvault, France, before launching her career as a hairdresser. She decided that she wanted practical experience, so gained an apprenticeship at House of Clive, Reflections, in January 2010. It was while here that Hollie attended Reflections Training Academy in Bristol taking NVQ Levels 2 and 3 and winning the first year learner silver award.
In November 2012, Hollie gained a place at Steiner Training Academy in London. Before she started her new position in March 2013, she accepted a job at Zest Bar, where her outgoing character and bubbly personality were well suited to the role. In the spring of the following year, Hollie joined Steiner and spent five weeks training before being allocated a position on Carnival Line in the Bahamas. Despite a love of travel, working on board a ship wasn’t for Hollie and she returned to London where she joined The Edge Hair & Beauty in Edgware.
Working and living in London became expensive and Hollie made the decision to return to Gloucester in August 2013. She found a position at Fringe Benefits & Le Belle Hair and Beauty in the city where her flair and creativity made her popular with her colleagues and clients. In addition, she joined her sister, Chloe, at the King Teddy in Longlevens, Gloucester where she worked part time behind the bar.
How to download Hollie Guard
To download Hollie Guard on to your or a loved one’s phone simply:
- Go to your App store and download the Hollie Guard app.
- Enter your registration details.
- Sign in
- IMPORTANT: Enter your emergency contact or multiple contacts – please use someone you know who can react to your alert in an emergency. They will receive an SMS notification to highlight that you are in danger.
- You are now ready to set up your personal alerts.
- Please see the user guide to activate each type of alert.
- We take a proactive approach to your safety, and we therefore encourage you to turn on Hollie Guard BEFORE you are in a potentially dangerous situation – for example BEFORE walking home after a night out.
- Visit www.hollieguard.com for more information.
In the event of having to use the app, simply shake your phone. If you choose, an alarm will begin sounding which can include flashing lights to ward off a perpetrator. This will also send an alert to an emergency contact with exact location of where the alert has been placed. In addition, audio and video of the incident begins immediately recording which is stored in a cloud location, so even if the phone is stolen or disarmed, evidence is being collected.
More details – Hollieguard – Hollie Gazzard Trust
