It's Not A Compliment Launches Interactive Map as part of Your Stories Matter, a Two Year Partnership with the City of Melbourne
Grassroots anti-street harassment organisation It’s Not A Compliment is launching an interactive map and survey as part of the Your Stories Matter project.
The map invites community members to anonymously pin locations across the City of Melbourne where they have felt safe or unsafe, or where they have experienced street harassment.
Users will be directed to a short online survey where they can log data about their harassment experience, rank how safe they felt in a particular location, and provide ideas about what can be done to improve the safety of the location.
“Community members will be able to view spots where people have reported that street harassment took place. The data collected will help the City of Melbourne in creating safer, more inclusive public spaces for all.
“The mapping process records key data on race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, citizenship status, and religion so that the City of Melbourne will be able to track how intersectional identity experiences can shape how people navigate public space and their experiences of safety in spaces.
“Street harassment is not only gender-based as highlighted by the Black-Lives-Matter movement. The rate of indigenous incarceration in Australia and COVID-inspired racism faced by Asian communities. Regardless of gender, sexuality or racial identity – anyone that could be coded as ‘other’ has a story to share about a time a stranger made them feel unsafe in a public space,” said It’s Not A Compliment CEO Aakanksha Manjunathaswamy.
“An intersectional representation is crucial in making visible the realities of street harassment.”
“We believe in centering affected communities to develop research-backed solutions that take into consideration the wide variety of experiences of street harassment that exist in our society.
“We want to hear directly from respondents on what they believe influences their experiences of safety in public spaces and what they believe needs to be changed to improve safety in the City of Melbourne.
"Community-driven research has become more important than ever when talking about public safety because it prioritises the voices of people most affected by it which helps in creating policies that actually benefit everyone,” said Prateeksha Karat, It’s Not a Compliment Research Lead.
The map, developed in collaboration with Social Pinpoint will not only help paint an accurate picture of the true extent of street harassment but also develop community understanding of the problem. Social Pinpoint’s Chief Operating Officer, Oliver Bates explains that “our interactive mapping technology provides the community a secure space for anyone with an internet-connected device to privately plot their stories. This process of perspective seeking and sharing through technology can be powerful because it creates a shared understanding between people about how their community can change for the better.”
‘Your Stories Matter’ is funded through the City of Melbourne’s Social Partnerships Program, which supports opportunities for people from diverse backgrounds to participate in social, cultural, economic, and civic life.
The partnership follows INAC’s previous research and advocacy, including the 2021 report, ‘A Snapshot of Street Harassment Experiences in Victoria’, which has seen the organisation establish itself as a leading voice for street justice in Australia.
About It’s Not A Compliment:
It’s Not A Compliment is a Melbourne-based grassroots organisation fighting for the rights of all individuals to enjoy public spaces free of the fear of harassment. Our work includes awareness-raising campaigns, developing educational resources, workshops, research, multifaceted projects and storytelling as means to challenge the normalisation of street harassment.
About Social Pinpoint
Social Pinpoint is a flexible and agile suite of online community engagement tools that bring decision-makers and the public together by sparking collaborative conversations. We believe that the diversity of voices in our communities can solve today’s biggest challenges and our mission is to give people a say in the decisions that will impact their lives.
Available for interview/Media contact:
Aakanksha Manjunathaswamy, CEO and Co-Founder
Prateeksha Karat, Research Lead
itsnotacomplimentmelbourne@gmail.com
Oliver Bates, Chief Operating Officer, Social Pinpoint (for technology related questions)