Toulouse. False start for traders and the “Ask Angela” device
The town hall of Toulouse is still looking for candidates to launch its “Ask Angela” system, which allows people feeling insecure, or harassed, to take refuge in shops.
On the windows of shops in the Pink City, stickers or information plates relating to the “Ask for Angela” device are still non-existent. This operation, allowing people feeling insecure or harassed to take refuge in shops and other public establishments by asking for “Angela”, is experiencing a slight delay in launching in Toulouse… Because, for the time being, establishments wishing to join forces to the device are not numerous. “To date, we have around twenty applications,” says Julie Escudier, municipal councilor in charge of gender equality. In September, the town hall of Toulouse had invited, by mail, the traders to participate in the project, and created a specific mail, to feed the applications.
Today, the municipality claims to be still at the stage of “phone calls” and mobilization with traders and mayors of Toulouse neighborhoods. “An awareness session is planned for November” specifies the elected official. It is therefore once this “awareness phase” has been completed that the operation should really be carried out, with in particular the setting up of elements that allow victims to identify the establishments in which they can find refuge (stickers , information plates on “Ask Angela”, provided to traders). “The objective is to build a network of reliable support, of safe places, on the scale of a given territory. Everyone can be an actor”, recalls Julie Escudier.
To participate in the project, merchants must follow a two-hour awareness training and sign a charter of commitment. They must therefore “bring assistance and support to all people taking refuge in their establishment and asking” “Angela”.