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Why various Nottingham landmarks were lit in bright orange on Monday

By Callum Wright

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Landmark buildings in Nottingham including the Council House in Old Market Square lit up in bright orange as part of a campaign to tackle domestic violence in the city.

The global 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign started on Monday, November 25, and aims to bring attention to issues around violence against women and girls across the world.

It coincides with an event organised for the second year running by Nottingham-based charity Juno Women’s Aid, the largest domestic abuse organisation in the city and one of the biggest in the country.

Juno organised its ‘Turn Nottingham Orange’ day, which led to locations – and businesses – using the bright colour to raise money for projects tackling domestic violence, and supporting survivors.

The charity encouraged people to wear orange across the campaign and share it across social media, which fundraising and communications manager Tasarla Larner hopes will get people talking.

“Orange is to represent a brighter future where we eliminate violence against women and girls,” she said.

“We are sharing the campaign across our social media campaigns, the staff are all wearing orange today and we also have an orange-themed fuddle.

“Already we’ve seen this morning that there’s been several people posting on social media getting involved and raising awareness.”

Katherine, head of finance and business support at Juno, added the event will help in addressing a global problem.

“It’s important [the campaign] because violence against women and girls is a global problem, it’s a United Nations-backed campaign,” she said.

“Juno’s whole purpose in life is to end domestic abuse for women and children across Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire, so we and our sister organisations need to promote this.”

Various businesses across Nottingham have given their support to the campaign, including mixed-used development area the Island Quarter.

The Cleaver and Wake restaurant was lit up in orange with the Juno logo, and Liam Morgan, the Island Quarter’s business and development manager, said the organisation provides a vital service.

He said: “We’ve chosen to support Juno by turning the building orange because of the high amount of traffic that goes past, we’ve support Juno since day one and are looking forward to supporting them in the future.

“Juno has a very special reach and has a really important goal to raise awareness for violence against women, and that’s why we chose to support them.

“It’s been a big talking piece recently, making sure everyone feels safe in and around Nottingham and our community, we have a lot of students and women who work for us and making them feel safe, especially leaving work late at night, is really important to us.”

Marketing agency Cartwright Communications have also supported the campaign, and Director Tom Snee says their support has extended beyond just wearing orange.

“It’s the second year we’ve supported the campaign, it’s something that we and the entire team really get behind,” he said.

“One of the ways we’ve been able to help is that we’ve been able to use our reach with businesses to help support the campaign, it’s incredibly important to support it and we put the weight of our skills and knowledge behind them to help make Nottingham a safer place.”

Any woman who is experiencing domestic abuse and/or violence is encouraged to call Juno’s 24-hour helpline at 0808 800 0340.