Partnership with the Hollie Gazzard Trust marks a landmark step in workplace safety and victim support across Birmingham’s cultural, commercial and civic heart.
Birmingham Colmore is proud to announce that it has become the first Business Improvement District (BID) in the United Kingdom to licence the Hollie Gazzard Trust‘s Stalking Awareness Toolkit — a comprehensive digital training resource designed to help organisations identify, record, and respond to stalking behaviours in the workplace.
The toolkit, developed by the Hollie Gazzard Trust — a charity established in memory of Hollie Gazzard, who was tragically murdered in 2014 — provides BID levy-paying businesses and their employees with a structured, expert-led framework for tackling one of the UK’s most complex and often misunderstood crimes.
Stalking affects an estimated 1.5 million people in England and Wales each year, and its impact frequently extends into the workplace. Despite this, many employers remain ill-equipped to recognise warning signs or support affected staff. Birmingham Colmore’s decision to invest in the toolkit signals a clear commitment to changing that — and to raising the bar for what responsible, people-first business districts look like in 2026.
“Colmore is home to thousands of workers, and we have a genuine duty of care that goes beyond the physical environment of the district. Stalking is a crime that doesn’t stop at the office door — it follows people in, and we wanted our member businesses and their teams to have the knowledge and tools to respond with confidence. Being the first BID in the UK to do this isn’t something we take lightly. We hope it encourages other districts and employers across the country to follow suit.” said Paul Street, Project Manager for Safer Colmore.
The toolkit is personalised to Birmingham Colmore and accessible via a unique private access code — ensuring secure, organisation-wide use. The content covers the FOUR mnemonic (Fixated, Obsessive, Unwanted, Repeated) used by police professionals to distinguish stalking from harassment, practical incident logging templates, safety planning checklists, and clear guidance on signposting victims to specialist services including the National Stalking Helpline and Paladin.
The toolkit also directly supports compliance with key legislation, including the Worker Protection Act 2023, the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, and the Health and Safety Management Regulations 1999 — equipping employers to meet their proactive duty to protect staff and demonstrating that meaningful action is being taken.
Rich Gray, Partnerships Lead, Hollie Gazzard Trust said: “Birmingham Colmore is exactly the kind of forward-thinking organisation that we hoped would champion this toolkit. To have a BID — a body that represents hundreds of businesses and thousands of workers — be the very first in the UK to take this step is incredibly meaningful. Hollie’s story reminds us that stalking can happen to anyone, anywhere. By embedding awareness into the fabric of a business district like Colmore, we are ensuring that more people will recognise the signs, take disclosures seriously, and know where to turn. That saves lives.”
The Stalking Awareness Toolkit is available to other organisations under an annual licence. Should you wish to recieve a copy, please email Paul.Street@birminghamcolmore.co.uk.
Birmingham Colmore encourages its levy paying businesses to engage with the resource as part of their own employee wellbeing and compliance frameworks.
