|
Sunday, October 27, 2024
Louisville selected for innovative design project
to make cities safer for women
Office for Women collaborates with London research and urban design practice Publica and the City Hub and Network for Gender Equity (CHANGE) for series of workshops and site visits to make cities safer, more usable and more welcoming.
Louisville has been chosen as the first of three cities in the City Hub and Network for Gender Equity (CHANGE) to explore how design in the built environment can make cities safer, more usable and welcoming to women, girls, gender diverse people, and caregivers. From October 28 - November 1, the London-based urban design practice Publica and representatives from CHANGE will visit Louisville to conduct a series of workshops, training and tours of Louisville to build capacity of city officials and community members on gender equity in design.
“We are excited that Louisville has been chosen for this innovative project,” said Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg. "It supports our mission to ensure we build a Louisville that is safer, stronger and healthier for all and directly supports my priorities of public safety, downtown revitalization and economic development."
In November 2023, Mayor Greenberg accepted an invitation to join the City Hub and Network for Gender Equity (CHANGE), a network of local governments from around the globe working to make cities more equitable and inclusive for all. As a member of CHANGE, Louisville joins 11 other cities that have championed the rights of women, girls, and gender-diverse residents, including Barcelona, Los Angeles, Mexico City, London, Stockholm, Melbourne, Freetown, Bogota, Buenos Aires, Nairobi and Tokyo.
CHANGE harnesses the collective power of cities internationally to transform government services and systems in the pursuit of gender equity with a specific focus on safety specific to gender, supporting caregivers and collecting gender data on measures that gauge women’s experiences in public areas.
“We chose Louisville for this project because of the strong work of the Mayor’s Office for Women and the commitment of the city to raise the status of women and gender diverse individuals,” said CHANGE Co-Executive Director Holly Milburn-Smith. “We are eager to learn from Louisville’s participation in this project about how city design can enhance safety of women and the entire community.”
The site visit by Publica is part of a joint project with CHANGE - “Gender Based Violence in Public Space: Developing an Evidence-Base and Action Plan with Three Cities,” focusing on Louisville, USA, Bogota, Colombia and Stockholm, Sweden. The project explores ways that cities can enhance the design of public spaces to improve safety and well-being of women and girls. Publica will conduct a continuing education training session for built environment professionals, including planners, engineers, developers, architects, policy makers, public artists and others as well as conduct safety walks in two neighborhoods and host a workshop for teen girls to explore their role in shaping public spaces.
The Louisville workshops and training build on a body of work Publica has been developing over the past three years with the Mayor’s Office of London, England, which produced a handbook for built environment professionals across the design and build lifecycle. This has been recently tested on ten live projects across the city of London, England.
Dr. Ellie Cosgrave, Director of Publica’s Public Interest Company and Research explains: “Our joint project with CHANGE is vitally important to understanding, and supporting the needs of women, girls and gender diverse people. We are looking forward to bringing global insights and expertise and connecting with a diverse group of residents in Louisville to enact positive change."
The Mayor’s Office for Women will collaborate on this project along with the Office for Women Ambassadors, a cohort of women and gender diverse individuals who represent neighborhoods across the city and who have been trained in city services and issues impacting women. These ambassadors will participate in the workshops hosted by Publica and will assist in community engagement in current and future design projects.
Following the site visit, Publica will provide recommendations for ways that Metro Government can incorporate gender equity in planning to increase safety and well-being for women.
For more information on the Mayor’s Office for Women visit https://louisvilleky.gov/government/office-women.
To learn more about CHANGE visit https://citieschange.org/.
To learn more about Publica, visit: https://publica.co.uk/
We want to hear from you
Have an upcoming event or initiative focused on women or gender equity or an issue that you would like the Office for Women to focus on? Submit your suggestion to https://louisvilleky.wufoo.com/forms/contact-gretchen-hunt.
|
