In 2023, the City of Canterbury Bankstown was selected as one of ten councils in NSW to participate in Transport for NSW’s Safer Cities: Her Way program. This program seeks to improve the feeling of safety and create more inclusive public spaces for women and girls in our community.

Receiving funding of $1 million for the project, Council has partnered with Transport for NSW to deliver a number of temporary activations across the Lakemba Town Centre as part of the project, which is dedicated to improving public spaces.

The program is targeted specifically towards the experiences faced by women and girls and has three aims:

• Increasing women and girls' safety and access to public spaces;
• Enabling women and girls to move freely and alone in their community; and
• Increasing women and girls' engagement with how spaces in their community are designed and managed.

Activations have now been completed in three areas in Lakemba: at the Women’s Rest Centre, the train station precinct and Gillies Reserve.

Council have engaged an independent company to undertake engagement for the Safer Cities: Her Way project, as part of this engagement they will be undertaking a number of activities.