Help make our public spaces safer for everyone to enjoy

A new interactive map will make it easier for people to share their experiences of using City of Whittlesea parks, playgrounds, trails and open spaces.

The YourGround map allows users to drop a pin to tell a story or share an experience of how safe they felt when out and about for leisure, sport, exercise or play.

Council will collate this data and use it to help our city be safe and inclusive – a place for all.

YourGround is a joint project with Monash University’s gender, design and space specialists XYX Lab and CrowdSpot. The City of Whittlesea is one of 21 Councils participating in the project.

Administrator Peita Duncan said Council was committed to ensuring our community facilities and public spaces are safe and accessible for all.

“While many people feel safe walking at night and enjoying our local community, statistics show us that sometimes women or people who are gender diverse fear violence and harassment,” Ms Duncan said.

“We want to know where they experience these feelings so that we can look at what improvements we can make to the space to ensure they are confident to enjoy these places.”

Ms Duncan encouraged residents to tell their stories via the YourGround mapping tool which will be open for the next three months.

“We don’t want to make assumptions; we want real data to understand how our community feels and then use this to inform our future planning and design,” Ms Duncan said.

You can find the mapping tool at yourground.org