PROJECT AIM

To deliver a prototype of a cross-platform mobile application designed to capture women’s and girls’ experiences of safety while running. This pilot will focus on building and testing a minimum viable prototype to determine which forms of data capture collect appropriate data to better understand runners' experiences of unsafety, while ensuring secure data transfer and accessibility and ease of use.

WHY IT MATTERS

Over two thirds of women report feeling unsafe whilst running and where women do encounter instances of abuse of harassment, they very rarely report to police. However, sharing these experiences allows for increased awareness and can potentially inform policing responses. This pilot project provides the foundations to create a space for women to share their experiences..

APPROACH

Developed in collaboration with the University of Manchester’s Research Software Engineering team, the application will allow users to log the time, location, and circumstances in which they feel unsafe during a run.

IMPACT

For policy and practice, the project will demonstrate the feasibility of scalable, user-centred technology to generate evidence that can inform safer urban design and targeted interventions to reduce violence against women and girls. The pilot will provide proof of concept that such data can be systematically gathered, thereby creating the foundation for subsequent research and policy applications.