The City of Ballarat has been recognised for its Right to the Night Project at the Australian Local Government Association Awards.
The Right to the Night Project was selected as the Innovation to Create More Liveable and Collaborative Communities category winner, an award that recognises local governments which have introduced customer-focused, innovative initiatives to actively collaborate with members of the community and improve the design and implementation of public services.
As part of the project, the City of Ballarat and project partners have used new consultation methodology of online mapping to gather information from the community about their perspectives of safety across the CBD.
This information will be used to advocate for and undertake public space design that encourages safety and inclusiveness based on community feedback.
As a category winner of the Australian Local Government Association Awards, the Right to the Night Project is now in the running for the 2018 National Award for Excellence in Local Government which will be announced on 19 June.
Community members can still contribute to the Right to the Night project by visiting righttothenight.com.au and commenting on the locations that make them feel safe and unsafe across the CBD until the end of May.
So far there have been more than 250 comments made on the public map which can be viewed on the project webpage.
Project partners have included Centre for Multicultural Youth, Federation University, Ballarat Community Health, Women’s Health Grampians, Victoria Police and Australian Catholic University.
Quotes attributable to City of Ballarat Mayor Samantha McIntosh:
“We know our community are choosing to interact with us more and more through digital and smarter technology, so it’s important we provide opportunities for them to better communicate and engage with us through new and innovative avenues.
This award tells us we’re on the right track in regards to actively improving our collaboration with the community, and we look forward to pursing this into the future.”