Right to the Streets: callout for walkabout participants

As part of the Right to the Streets project (previously known as Safer Streets Trafford), Open Data Manchester will be running workshops and organised walks to map the Gorse Hill, Firswood and Old Trafford area from the perspective of women, girls, and those identify as trans or non-binary who live or work in the area – and we are looking for participants to take part.

Using the Home Office Safer Streets funding, Right to the Streets sets out to explore ways to make streets and public spaces safer and more welcoming for women, girls, and those identify as trans or non-binary so they feel a sense of belonging in their community and are able to live active lives, as concerns of safety on the streets has been identified as a key barrier to women, girls, trans or non-binary people accessing or engaging with physical activity, active travel, and general sporting or cultural events in the area.

The project is being led by a team working alongside Open Data Manchester including GreaterSport, Trafford Council. We will be connecting with local community organisations to not only raise awareness of these issues but to tackle inequalities and explore interventions to enable women, girls, and those identify as trans or non-binary to feel safer in their communities and lead the lives they want. Some of the activities that will take place will include organised walks, awareness campaigns, bystander training and the production of a podcasting series. Open Data Manchester will be running workshops and organised walks – or ‘walkabouts’ – throughout the Gorse Hill, Firswood and Old Trafford area. We want to understand what the common routes are, why some are favoured more than others, and why these differ from others.

Drawing up our participatory and experience mapping methods developed for Joy Diversion, Mapping Mobility Stockport and the Lexicon of Experience, we will be inviting participants who live in the area to attend workshops where they will use maps of the area to identify locations and preferred routes. We will then step out onto the streets to walk those routes, exploring any observation, feelings and experiences that arise. We will use the information and data gathered from these sessions to explore how other data – such as policing and crime statistics – compares to the lived experiences of those in the community itself and explore what is needed to make streets more inclusive and welcoming.

We we will be conducting a series of sessions throughout early 2023, but our first round will take place out of Gorse Hill Studios on the following dates:

• Saturday 10 December 2022, 10am-1pm
• Tuesday 13 December 2022, 10am-1pm.

If you identify as a woman, trans or non-binary, you live or work the area and would like take part in the workshops, please fill out this very short survey and we’ll be in touch. There will also be more chances to take part throughout early 2023.

If you don’t live in the area but would like to contribute, we will be running specific sessions later on so there will still be an opportunity to take part. Feel free drop us an email to find out more.