SafeRun BCN

"SafeRun BCN" is a youth-led solidarity initiative responding to the urgent need for safer public spaces in Barcelona. While the city promotes outdoor activities, a significant gender gap remains in perceived safety, restricting young women's freedom of movement. Our project directly addresses EU Youth Goal #9 (Space and Participation for All) and the Digital Transformation priority. Our primary objective is to empower women to reclaim their city through Citizen Science. By combining community building with a PWA digital tool for crowdsourcing safety data, we aim to:

Combat gender inequality (SDG 5) by transforming subjective fears into visible, actionable data.
Foster Active Citizenship by training youth to monitor and report urban infrastructure issues.
Bridge the gap between youth and policymakers, providing the Barcelona City Council with evidence-based proposals for inclusive urban planning.

Our 12-month project is structured into three phases to maximize impact and community involvement:

1. Phase 1: Co-Creation & Tech (Months 1-3): We will develop the "SafeRun BCN" PWA using a participatory design approach. This includes technical development and initial focus groups with local women to define the safety criteria (lighting, exits, visibility) for the map.
2. Phase 2: Field Action & Data Collection (Months 4-10): We will host a diverse series of monthly offline events to populate the map:
   • "Social Runs": collaborative jogging sessions to test routes and log real-time safety ratings.
   • "Exploratory Walks" (Jane’s Walks): slower-paced walking audits of "problematic zones" to document infrastructure gaps (broken lights, blind spots) in detail.
   • Educational Workshops: interactive sessions on digital safety and urban activism to equip participants with skills to advocate for their rights.
3. Phase 3: Advocacy & Dissemination (Months 11-12): The focus shifts to analyzing the collected data. We will compile a "State of Safety Report" and present it at a final "City Dialogue Event", inviting stakeholders (Barcelona City Council, local police, running communities) to discuss concrete improvements based on our findings.

The project will result in a sustainable, open-access PWA serving as a live safety monitor for Barcelona, targeting over 300 active users involved in data collection. Beyond the digital tool, the core team will acquire essential transversal skills in project management and civic tech, which will be formally recognized through Youthpass certificates. On a systemic level, we will translate raw crowdsourced data into evidence-based policy recommendations for the Barcelona City Council and local police to target specific infrastructure upgrades. To ensure long-term value, the project model and code will be documented as an open-source toolkit, making the initiative easily replicable by youth groups in other European cities facing similar safety challenges.