‘Where are the Safe Places? Safety Mapping with Town Campers in Alice Springs' is a report prepared by Chay Brown, CAEPR PhD Scholar, for Tangentyere Council Aboriginal Corporation as part of the 'Good Practice in Indigenous-led interventions to prevent violence against women' research project. This research project works with partner-programs in the Northern Territory to identify what works to prevent violence against women.

The safety mapping was conducted on seven Town Camps in Alice Springs and with one Town Camp representative group. Safety mapping asks participants in focus groups to use maps to identify the safe places in their communities. The Safety mapping exercise was developed in response to a report which attempted to map crime ‘hot spots’ in Alice Springs by measuring how many times emergency buttons were hit in certain locations. Safety mapping flips this concept to a strengths-based approach by asking participants to identify the safe places in their communities and gather their views about what they consider ‘safe’. The purpose of the safety mapping was to ascertain whether domestic and family violence was identified as a safety concern by Town Camp women; secondly to gauge the reach and impact of the partner-program; and finally, to identify safe people and safe relationships that could be drawn upon if Town Campers ever felt unsafe. It is the hope of this exercise that if the ‘ingredients’ of safety can be identified, then they can be replicated to increase Town Campers feelings of safety on their Town Camps and within the wider Alice Springs community.

This report collates the views of the participants to present the main safety issues according to participating Town Campers, and what needs to be done to improve safety in Town Camps and within Alice Springs. Tangentyere Council Aboriginal Corporation intends to use this report to advocate for improved infrastructure and facilities, as well as to inform their own planned building works. Extracts of the report will also be used to support research and funding submissions; and to advocate to government and hopefully, inform policy and create positive change which benefits Town Campers.