We are a not-for-profit community of volunteers helping Western Australian venues create safer and inclusive spaces.
Safer Venues WA started as a backyard roundtable conversation in response to some concerning events involving bedsheets in Northbridge, way back in late 2016.
Members of the music, hospitality and events community gathered around a hills hoist (with some anzac biscuits) to have a good chat about what we want our gigs to be like.
The resulting volunteer action group has championed efforts for the last 5 years through advocacy and awareness, from a community survey in 2017 to a bespoke training partnership with Evolve Training in 2022.
Off the back of our grassroots research in 2017, with 550 respondents across all areas of the music and hospitality sectors (from gig-goers, musicians, photographers, bartenders and promoters) we found that 67% of our community had experienced harassment in a Perth venue.
It’s rife.
We discovered that in over half of those surveyed, the harassment resulted in them leaving the venue or event early.
The affected communities were disproportionate with nearly 80% of harassment incidents affecting women and LGBTQI community members.
In 2022, Safer Venues undertook a pilot program commissioned by the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries in an effort to better understand, support and make sector recommendations for progress in inclusive and safer venues.
This pilot program aimed to evaluate what strategies and tools can help local venue management teams to empower themselves in preventing, mitigating and responding to instances of harassment, intimidation and assault in venues.
These strategies are led by the community, for the community, and are being collated on this web toolkit to share our efforts across the sector. Whilst the pilot concluded at the end of 2022, we will continue efforts in future years to support ongoing initiatives to improve our venue landscape.
We created this online resource toolkit to empower venues in making positive change to our nightlife culture.
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Safer Venues WA advocates and celebrates on the unceded lands of the Whadjuk Noognar people. We pay our respects to Elders past and present. We pay deep respect to the rich knowledge, culture, music and songlines in the continuation of their culture for the past 45,000+ years in South Western Australia.
Safer Venues WA Online Toolkit is proudly supported by the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, with thanks to photographer Jim Hall.
© Safer Venues WA 2023
Created by Bateman Digital