After hearing repeated concerns of poor safety in the CBD from Plan International Australia’s youth ambassadors, I facilitated design sessions resulting in the creation of Free To Be, an online tool allowing young women within Melbourne to identify and share public spaces that make them feel uneasy, scared or happy.
Launched as a pilot in Melbourne 2016, the six week pilot generated over 1,300 map placements with over 15,000 unique online views, including features on Mashable, Channel 9 News, ABC Radio National, ABC News, Herald Sun, 3AW, Triple J Hack, Broadsheet and the 7:30 Report. Since the conclusion of the pilot, Free To Be has been rolled out to five cities – Sydney, Delhi, Kampala, Lima and Madrid. It has empowered young women in these cities to call out unsafe experiences and geographically identify spaces where change needs to occur.
Free To Be online tool
Unsafe in the City – Report on women’s safety which data from Free To Be helped to inform
