Safer Cities Program

The Safer Cities Program is investing $30 million over two years to help improve perceptions of safety in our cities and towns, particularly for women, girls and gender diverse people.

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.

The program is engaging with women, girls and gender diverse people to understand their perspectives and co-design place-based approaches to improve perceptions of safety when walking to, through and within public spaces including our streets.

Transport for NSW is working collaboratively with delivery partners within the NSW Government and with 10 local Councils across NSW to trial interventions that will deliver the objectives of the program.

Transport for NSW is also developing a public education campaign. The campaign will focus on safety and reducing street harassment to complement infrastructure improvements delivered through the Safer Cities program. 

Resources for the Great Places Toolkit are being developed for use by anyone including local government, state agencies, industry and the community. These will support planning, managing and creating vibrant and safer public spaces.

The Safer Cities program is part of a state-wide investment to improve women’s opportunities and child development.
 

Have your say: New draft resources for the Great Places Toolkit 

As part of the Safer Cities program, Transport for NSW has developed draft tools and resources to support anyone who is involved and interested in planning, managing and creating safe and welcoming places for all, regardless of their gender.

The free resources and tools are part of the Great Places Toolkit.

There are 5 draft tools and resources on exhibition from 6 March 2024 until 3 April 2024. You can access a copy of the draft resources and provide feedback at the NSW Government Have Your Say website.    

Have Your Say on the new resources here

New ways forward: Creating safer journeys for women, girls and gender diverse people

Transport for NSW hosted a webinar on 6 March to launch the draft tools and resources for public exhibition.  The webinar featured Juma Assiago – Global Coordinator Safer Cities Programme at the UN-HABITAT and Dr. Hannah Tonkin – inaugural NSW Women’s Safety Commissioner as well as program partners.

View a recording of the webinar

What we heard: perceptions of safety in public spaces and transport hubs

As part of planning and research to support the Safer Cities program, Transport for NSW developed the Safer Cities Survey which was open to the community between 13 December 2022 and 8 February 2023.

The purpose of the Safer Cities Survey (PDF, 8.42 MB) was to gather data and evidence around perceptions of safety for people across NSW when going about their day-to-day travel in public spaces.

Findings from the Safer Cities Survey can be used to help create better public spaces, such as through approaches to infrastructure, amenities, and activations that aim to help improve the community’s perception of safety in our cities and towns.

Read the full Safer Cities Survey Report here

Read a one-page summary of the Report here

Safer Cities: Her Way
A partnership with 10 pilot councils to co-design and trial ways to improve women, girls, and gender diverse people’s perception of safety in local public spaces.

Safer Cities State Partnerships
The program will co-design with women, girls and gender diverse people to deliver trials to help improve perceptions of safety on state government-owned land across NSW.

Smart City Innovation Challenge – Safer Public Spaces for Women and Girls
The Smart City Innovation Challenge is developing leading edge technology solutions to help make public spaces feel safer and more comfortable for women, girls and gender diverse people.

Contact us

For more information, please contact: SaferCities@dpie.nsw.gov.au

Please note that since the 1 April 2022 the Public Spaces branch from the Department of Planning and Environment was transitioned to TfNSW and renamed Cities Revitalisation and Place. The ‘Contact us’ mailboxes PublicSpace@planning.nsw.gov.au and SaferCities@dpie.nsw.gov.au are managed by the Cities Revitalisation and Place team.