A collaboration between Zonta Club of Brisbane, Queensland Walks and University of Queensland
Words by Sandra McLean
Zonta Club of Brisbane (ZCB) is part of Zonta International (ZI) which is has a key objective to build a better world for women and girls. We are a human rights organization and as part of this a mission is to reduce gender-based violence against women and girls.
As part of our advocacy work for the club we wanted to build an initiative that raised awareness around the lack of safety for women outside the home – a lack of safety in public spaces can affect women’s access to employment, education, recreation and cause them to alter their travel routes through a city. It might impact their choice of transportation. It could also limit a woman’s access to critical city services such as housing, sanitation, legal and support services.
Women fleeing domestic violence also need to be safe in their passage away from home to a safe place. It is a basic human right to be able to walk, run, or stroll wherever you want whenever you want as a woman without having to think twice and stay indoors because they may feel unsafe meaning that opportunities to learn, earn and enjoy life are limited.
Our paths crossed with Queensland Walks in 2023 at a Zonta conference where Anna Campbell from Queensland Walks and Dr Laurel Johnson from the University of Queensland joined me on a panel to discuss safe cities for women and girls.
This lead to the development of the Safe Cities | Safe Streets project which has gone from strength to strength, now having done three walkshops at in Brisbane at South Bank, Zillmere and Paddington around Suncorp Stadium.
These walkshops provide an invaluable opportunity to not just walk and talk but to also give voice to how women feel about where they have to walk and what makes them feel in danger and what could make them feel safer.
It has also lead to the development of a toolkit that can be accessed by anyone anywhere for others to use to do a walkshop and to understand better how to make public spaces safe for women and girls.
Working with Queensland Walks has been instrumental in taking this project forward with the team hosting our tool kit on the website and also working with us as a truly collaborative partner to develop collateral such as postcards.
Being able to walk freely and safely around your city, your suburb and your workplace is a basic human right and having Queensland Walks as a partner in the Safe Cities Safe Streets initiative has seen this initiative grow in all the right ways including now taking it to regional centres around Queensland. The fact that we have been able to work in partnership and with similar values has been intrinsic to the success of the project.
Sandra McClean
Sandra McLean is a Zonta Australia committee member and former President of Zonta Club of Brisbane. She is also a senior executive and leader in Queensland Government, delivering strategic communications and engagement, corporate governance and communications roles across arts, small business, tourism, disaster recovery and resilience, and innovation.
