GOAL

Bayside Council is one of 10 NSW councils partnering with Transport for NSW on the Safer Cities: Her Way Program which aims to make public spaces around transport hubs feel safer for everyone, especially for women, girls and gender diverse people.

As a large and diverse LGA, council identified three areas around busy transport hubs to investigate – Mascot, Rockdale and Arncliffe.

The purpose of the project is to understand the challenges and aspirations of women in the Bayside LGA across the three identified locations, set the baseline of data and inform the location selection and design of the interventions / activations.

SOLUTION

Council commissioned JOC Consulting to design and deliver the communications and engagement strategy, co-design process and support the delivery of the resulting activation / intervention strategy. Key services included:

• Deep dive background research into each town centre including safety audits, insights from local security and police, previous  consultation with women and girls and key public domain and development documents.
• Interviews with local police to understand current challenges relating to women and girls safety in the catchment area around each station
• Developing a suite of communications materials to promote the program and recruit participants including web copy, social media posts, posters, flyers, and emails to stakeholders.
• Development of short video to promote the program via digital channels and social media.
• Stakeholder mapping including local women’s organisations, CALD groups, schools, youth organisations, local businesses, council assets and advisory groups and media
• Designing a general public survey to gather perceptions of safety during the day and after dark.
• Designing and facilitating 2 x walkshops with women, girls and gender diverse people at each location (day and night) to dive deeper into the challenges and opportunities of the key sites identified in each city centre.
• Facilitating an interval workshop with council stakeholders
• Deliver an engagement outcomes report providing a SWOT analysis of each identified site supported by quantitative and qualitative data, key quotes and key intervention ideas unearthed through the co-design process.

OUTCOME
The project is currently underway with interventions set to be completed by June 2024. Once the interventions have been in place for a few months, JOC will conduct further engagement including surveys, place audits and walkshops with women, girls and gender diverse people to measure how perceptions of safety in the spaces have changed.

To read about the project visit: https://haveyoursay.bayside.nsw.gov.au/safer-cities-her-way-program