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Community Development
Safety Audits
Safer Futures has extensive experience in conducting safety audits in a wide range of environments including: buildings, parks, urban and rural areas.
What is a Safety Audit?
The Women's Safety Audit Tool, first developed by METRAC (Metro Toronto Action Committee on Public Violence Against Women and Children) in the 1980s is a simple, yet effective mechanism. It allows women and local decision makers to explore issues around women's safety, examine community environments for obstacles and identify solutions to improve them.
In the past 20 years, the safety audit tool has been used in many different ways in communities all across Canada and around the world.
There are many excellent guides and resources for conducting safety audits. Please refer to our Women and Community Safety resource book and our Safety Audit Guide in the publications section for more information.
While the starting point of the tool is usually the built environment, the Safety Audit process inevitably leads to an exploration of other obstacles to safety related much more to the social environment. In addition, it can be used to examine the policies and processes that define a community.
Built Environment
Elements of the build environment that affect personal safety include poor lighting, shadows, hiding spots, entrapment areas, movement predictors, sightlines and signage.
Recommendations for change usually involve actions such as better lighting, trimming or removal of vegetation that impacts on sightlines and modifications to building design (or retrofits) to eliminate alcoves or recessed areas.
Social Environment
Elements of the social environment that affect personal safety include: lack of safe and accessible transportation, inaccessible programs, and lack of emergency services for women and children, as well as prevailing attitudes, beliefs and conditions that allow violence to happen.
Recommendations for change often include supportive programming, education and awareness, and planning over the long term, through incorporating women's safety into community planning, and other policies.
Policies and Processes
Official Community Plans and Zoning Bylaws lay out parameters for land use and development, and policy papers outline plan for the provision of public facilities and services. These documents are important elements in addressing the built and social environment issues described above.
How to Do a Safety Audit
The Safety Audit Process:
Safety audits usually involve:
- community consultation to understand safety concerns and identify particular areas in the community where safety is a concern
- a walkabout to assess the physical, social and institutional factors that affect women's safety and sense of safety
- an exploration of solutions both during and after the audit
- presentation of the results, through reports or events and working with those responsible for implementation
The basic questions of the safety audit are:
- How does this place feel? (In the day, at night, through different seasons)
- Is this place accessible?
- Is this place known for safety issues?
- Does the layout make sense? Can people find their way around easily?
- Where is the nearest opportunity to access help in an emergency? (person, telephone, etc.)
- Are there things about this place that present opportunities for violence or harassment? - poor lighting, shadows, hiding spots, entrapment areas, movement predictors.
- What things could be changed to make this place be and feel safer?
Safety Audits should not be thought of merely a tool to assess physical sites.
- They are a great way to examine a variety of community environments from a wide range of perspectives - age, gender, sexuality, abilities, race/ethnicity, culture and language - and thus from the perspective of people who are the most vulnerable to violence
- They can be an easy way to get people involved in their communities and thus build stronger communities
- They help local government to understand how community environments can affect things like where people can live, work and shop, and know what to plan for; and work to validate views of women and other vulnerable groups.
Download a copy of the Cowichan Valley Safety Audit Guide (1999) and the Women and Community Safety Manual.
Community Safety Audits in the Cowichan Region
Between 1996 and 2000, Safer Futures conducted numerous community-wide and site-specific audits throughout the Cowichan Valley Regional District.
Check our publications page for Safety Audit Reports, or contact us for more information.
These audits focused primarily on women; they involved hundreds of people in consultations and in the work to improve existing community environments to make them safer.
The audits resulted in over 500 recommendations to address immediate physical improvements to enhance accessibility, community programming improvements, and long term strategies for community planning to integrate personal safety into policies and processes that guide development in the region.
In partnership with the C.V.R.D. and member municipalities a process was developed for implementing audit recommendations, and to make personal safety a regular consideration in all local government processes. We have mobilized the community at all levels about the issues and ways in which communities can work together to foster changes.
Hundreds of recommendations have been implemented in communities of the district to address women's basic needs for safety and accessibility, ranging from physical, to social and community planning changes:
- Development and incorporation of community safety principles and policies into long term planning and development processes, to ensure ongoing attention and sustainability.
- Improvements to physical environments to reduce obstacles and opportunities for violence and enhance accessibility for women and other marginalized groups.
- Development of new, and enhancement of existing, community services and programming to address community and social development.
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