Making safe spaces easier to find: free mapping for councils and community schemes
imabi works with councils, Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and community organisations to make local safe spaces easier to find through its imabi map layer, available through the free Travel Guardian app.
This includes Safe Places, Safe Havens, regular pop-up Safe Spaces, Safe Space vans and other locally coordinated schemes with trained staff in place to provide assistance. Mapping is provided free of charge, alongside opportunities to support awareness through news, social media and partner communications.
For organisations running these schemes, it provides an additional way to reach residents and visitors, building on the information and support already available locally.
Connecting local schemes with the people who need them
Establishing a safe space scheme involves recruiting venues, training staff and providing ongoing support. Once those arrangements are in place, organisers also need to make sure people know the scheme exists and how to use it.
Many councils already have a dedicated Safe Haven or similar webpage, with a directory of participating venues and an online map. Safe Places schemes also have established routes through the national Safe Places website and app.
The imabi map layer complements these resources, making participating locations available to people who may not already know about the local scheme or where to look for it.
This matters for residents as well as visitors. Someone may be familiar with their local high street without knowing which venues offer assistance, or what kind of help they can ask for.
Mapping safe spaces through imabi
The imabi map layer brings participating safe spaces together, helping people find locations in their community or in an area they plan to visit.
People can access the map through Travel Guardian, alongside safety information, support signposting and personal-safety tools, including journey sharing. Travel Guardian is completely free to download and use.
We work with scheme organisers to map venues with trained staff in place and clear arrangements for offering support. Information about each location should reflect the assistance available, opening hours and any relevant access details, helping people understand what to expect.
Helping partners raise awareness
Mapping also creates opportunities to talk about the scheme and the organisations supporting it.
imabi can work with partners on news articles, social content and materials that explain where safe spaces are available and how people can find them. This can support a new launch or bring renewed attention to an established scheme.
The content can also recognise participating venues and help local organisations share consistent information through their own channels.
For councils, BIDs and community partners, this provides something practical to include in resident updates, visitor information and wider community safety communications, directing people to the scheme and its participating locations.
Let’s put your safe spaces on the map
Launching a new scheme, welcoming more venues or looking to give an established network fresh visibility? We’d love to help more people discover the support available in your community.
imabi offers free mapping for Safe Places, Safe Havens, regular pop-up Safe Spaces, Safe Space vans and other organised safe space schemes with trained staff at participating venues. We can work with you ahead of a launch or add your existing locations to the imabi map layer, available through Travel Guardian.
Alongside mapping, we can explore opportunities to celebrate your scheme, recognise the venues involved and support your local communications.
