'We have a right to be here - we are not frightened'

Foxstrut will see people will dress up as foxes to call for safer streets for women and LGBTQ+ people

"We don't have to stay at home in the dark and be frightened... we have a right to be here."

That is the message Dorset photographer and activist Jayne Jackson wants to send with her Foxstrut event.

Taking place in Bournemouth on Friday evening, it will see people dress up as foxes and call for safer streets for women, girls and the LGBTQ+ community.

Ms Jackson said it was about "getting out and just being seen [and] talking about it in a positive way".

She held the event for the first time last year, with people dressing up as foxes to represent the creatures' resilience and the ease with which it reclaims urban spaces.

And this year's event, she said, would be "bigger, brighter [and] bolder".

The event is designed to be "empowering" for women and people from the LGBTQ+ community

She said a campaign like that was not going to solve the problem of violence on the streets, but "we can control our reaction".

"We can get out there, we can occupy space," she said.

"It's very empowering."

She said it was also about highlighting it as a community issue, and not just a women's issue.

"Yes, it disproportionately affects women and the LGBTQIA+ community, because there is an enhanced level of threat towards us," she said.

"But actually good men also really want to support us, and that's the point."

'We stand with you'

Local American football coach Matt Clarkson, who will be taking part in the event, said it was about raising awareness of the issue as well as telling those affected that he was "standing with them".

"We're all sons or partners or husbands or we have mothers and sisters," he said.

"I think the importance of standing by women for men of all ages is critical."

The Foxstrut event will take place at 18:00 GMT on Friday at Horseshoe Common in Bournemouth.