Street Angels at the European Social Marketing Conference 2026
Gary Wootten and Matilda Wootten at the European Social Marketing Conference 2026.
Earlier this month, Gary Wootten, Project Lead for Street Angels Birkenhead and Chester, headed to Montpellier, France, for the European Social Marketing Conference 2026. The conference gathers leading practitioners, researchers, and behaviour change experts from across Europe to explore how social marketing can tackle pressing social and public health issues. Representing Hitched Communities, Gary delivered a presentation titled “Mobilising Community Capital for Night-Time Safety: A Case Study of Street Angels in Chester and Birkenhead”.
Bringing Street-Level Impact to the Stage
During the session, Gary shared practical insights and evaluation metrics from our volunteer-led, first-responder initiatives in the night-time economy. With violence against women and girls (VAWG) remaining a critical national issue in the UK, and roughly 90% of women reporting feeling unsafe in dark or crowded urban areas at night, the Street Angels model offers a proven, compassionate alternative to traditional enforcement.
By deploying trained volunteers into high-risk night-time hotspots, Street Angels provide immediate welfare support, defuse potential conflicts, remove hazards (like discarded glass), and assist vulnerable individuals before crises occur.
Practical Social Marketing in Action
The presentation highlighted how theoretical social marketing frameworks translate directly into real-world, street-level care:
Adapting Models to Local Realities: While Street Angels operates under a broad national banner, success relies on local co-design. Chester’s focus on weekend revellers and race-day crowds differs from Birkenhead’s focus on supporting recovery and homeless populations.
Multilateral Partnerships: Real resilience comes from cross-sector collaboration. By linking volunteers, local authorities, emergency services, venue door staff, and technology like the WalkSafe app, we created a robust safety ecosystem that helped Chester maintain its prestigious Purple Flag status.
Environmental Social Marketing & Messenger Theory: Using non-authoritarian, compassionate volunteers shifts the "choice architecture" of the street. Simple, caring touchpoints such as handing out water, flip-flops, or lollipops helps to shift cultural norms from potential aggression to community care.
Gary Wootten speaking during his workshop
Grounded in Evidence, Looking to the Future
The presentation wasn't just about what we do on the streets, but how we prove it works. Gary shared insights from an independent evaluation by Dr. Simone Benhafsi at the University of Chester, which highlighted that Street Angels Chester delivered over 2,265 volunteer hours and managed 92 direct CCTV call-outs across an 18-month period.
Building on what we shared and learned in Montpellier, our next steps focus on strengthening this evidence base even further. We are exploring predictive data analytics to heat-map hotspots and looking into longitudinal health studies to track potential reductions in local A&E admissions.
Our participation in Montpellier reflects the collaborative model that drives everything we do. Supported by partners including Cheshire Police, Wirral Council, Cheshire West & Chester Council, Hitch Marketing, and the National Lottery, these projects demonstrate how strategic social marketing and community mobilisation can work hand-in-hand to deliver safer, more resilient towns and cities.
A huge thank you to the ESMC organisers and attendees for a fantastic conference. We look forward to embedding these European social marketing insights into our ongoing work across Chester, Birkenhead, and beyond!
