Griffith Community Urged To Have Their Say To Improve Safety

Monday, 20 Feb 2023

Griffith City Council is inviting feedback from the community to better understand the concerns and experiences that affect the sense of safety in and around public spaces.
Community input will help Council deliver better infrastructure, activations and design and improve amenities that increase the community’s sense of safety in public spaces, particularly for women, girls, and gender diverse people.
The Her Way 2680 survey opens on Monday, 20 February 2023 and will run through the month of March.
Safer Cities: Her Way is a collaborative trial partnership program between the NSW Government and several Council’s, including Griffith City Council, to create and test positive long-term change in public space through demonstration projects. Through this program, councils develop temporary demonstration projects that reflect local place identity, character and needs, and use short-term, scalable, lower-cost methods to test concepts for future permanent change.
Council’s Director Economic & Organisational Development, Shireen Donaldson is encouraging all members of the community to complete the survey.
“The aim is to deliver a project that improves the perception of the safety for women, girls and gender diverse people when walking or moving to, through and within public spaces and transport hubs in Griffith. If it’s safe for young girls, it’s safe for everyone and that is the goal,” Ms Donaldson said.
“We are really excited to be part of this pilot program to see how we can deliver Griffith specific public space improvements. The survey is like the one released by Transport for NSW, but we have made sure ours is relevant to Griffith.
“For us to get the best results from this project we need as many people as possible to fill out our survey so we have the data to back up what is needed.”
The release of the survey is the first step in an extensive engagement process, with community consultation and co-design sessions to be scheduled.
Workshops and sessions will be advertised in the coming weeks, with groups, organisations and the general community invited to participate.
The Program has three aims, which are aligned with the United Nations Safer Cities for Girls program:
• Increasing women and girls’ safety and access to public spaces
• Enabling women and girls to move freely and alone in their community
• Increasing women and girls’ engagement with how the spaces around them are designed and managed.
Some of the Program’s initiatives may include lighting and smart technology to improve safety and visibility, creating a sense of welcoming to encourage women, girls, and gender diverse people to use public spaces.
Take the survey www.griffith.nsw.gov.au/herway2680

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