GOAL

Blacktown City 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.

The purpose of the project is to engage with a cross section of Blacktown City’s women, girls and gender diverse people to understand the issues and opportunities in the public spaces along the identified routes – from Blacktown Station to Blacktown Hospital and Mount Druitt station to Mount Druitt Hospital.. The insights gained will inform trial place-based interventions to improve women’s safety when walking through and within public spaces and streets near the chosen transport hub.

SOLUTION

Council commissioned JOC Consulting to design and deliver the communications and engagement strategy and co-design process. Key services included:

• Deep dive background research including safety audits, insights from local security and police, previous consultation and key public domain and land use strategies and documents.
• Development of communications materials to promote the program and recruit participants including web copy, social media posts, posters and stakeholders emails.
• Stakeholder mapping including local women’s organisations, CALD groups, schools, youth organisations, local businesses, council assets and advisory groups and media.
• Designing a community survey to gather perceptions of safety during the day and after dark.
• Developing an Interactive map to capture place-based insights into where people feel safe and unsafe in each city centre
• 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.
• Delivering 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.
• Designing and facilitating an internal co-design workshop with Council stakeholders to present engagement findings and further develop key ideas and identify key stakeholders before moving into delivery phase.

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: www.blacktown.nsw.gov.au/Have-Your-Say/Safer-Cities-Her-Way-Program