'I don't feel safe': Edmonton SafeWalk program hopes to expand to other parts of the city
A northeast Edmonton program helping women feel more secure while walking hopes to expand to other neighbourhoods in the city.
Edmonton SafeWalk is a pilot program launched this summer in response to the rising number of Muslim women being attacked.
“A lot of people might think that we don’t hear of Muslim women being attacked and that the issue is gone, but it’s not,” said Wati Rahmat, the founder of Sisters Dialogue.
“Muslim women, especially our Black Muslim women, are still being harassed and attacked and facing discrimination and hate,” she added.
Incidents that have left many women feeling anxious or afraid to go out alone for something as simple as a walk through the neighbourhood alone.
The Safewalk program allows women to go online to request a walk with a trained volunteer.
“They go through anti-oppression and some cultural sensitivity training and then a criminal record check,” said Leslee Mackey, Program Coordinator with the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues.
“We’ve had 43 total reach out, some of them just to say if this program ever comes to my neighbourhood, let me know. So far, 18 have completed the volunteer training and police checks,” Mackey added.
But since starting the pilot, only seven walks have been done through the program, many of them group walks through the river valley.
“In terms of women who want to walk right in the northeast where the pilot is, is where we’re seeing less than we had originally hoped,” Mackey said.
“Really, we’re reaching out to the most vulnerable of women who are isolated and afraid to go out, so there was a bit of learning in terms of building trust,” Rahmat said.
In order to build that trust, Safewalk volunteers started hosting a weekly playground program.
“Bringing out families, women and their kids, in a culturally sensitive programming like this where we bring Halal food so women feel comfortable to come and food that they’re familiar with,” said Rahmat.
There are also games and activities for the kids. Officials said it’s an environment they hope women not only feel safe but can connect.
“It’s more than just about the safety of Muslim women, it’s about the ripple effect in the community in creating conversations, in creating connections,” Rahmat said.
“There’s a layer of connection and relationship building that might need to happen prior to women feeling comfortable signing up to go on a safewalk,” Mackey added.
Alia Hanena brings her daughter to the playground program. A place both of them have made new friends.
“Even the kids, now they know me,” she said. “As soon as they see us coming they just run, ‘Hi, do you know me?’ she laughed. “It was nice.”
She drives to northeast Edmonton from downtown just to take part.
“To be honest, I don’t feel safe and I hope that the program will be expand to there. I never get chance to go walk by myself,” Hanena said.
The EFCL said it’s heard loud and clear from residents who want the Safewalk program to expand to other parts of the city.
“So if it happens that there’s a volunteer from the same neighbourhood that someone’s reaching out from we’re just now at the capacity to try and be able to set that up,” Mackey said.
She said several community leagues have also expressed interest in the program.
“They’d like to explore getting their own funding and piloting a model in their neighbourhood,” Mackey said.
“It creates the network where eventually that’s our hope where we can create networks where neighbours can keep each other safe,” Rahmat said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
For the first time in report's history, Canada's air quality worse than U.S.
Air quality in Canada is now worse than in the U.S., according to the 6th Annual World Air Quality Report. Of the 15 most polluted cities in the two countries, 14 were in Canada.
A newspaper says video of Prince William and Kate should halt royal rumour mill. That's a tall order
Prince William and his wife Catherine have been filmed at a farm shop near their Windsor home, The Sun newspaper reported -- the first footage of Kate since she had abdominal surgery for an unspecified condition two months ago.
WATCH LIVE As former prime minister Mulroney lies in state, public tributes in Ottawa begin
Members of the public who wish to pay tribute to Brian Mulroney can visit his casket in Ottawa starting this afternoon.
BREAKING Roy McMurtry, former Ontario attorney general, dies at 91
CTV News has confirmed that former Ontario attorney general Roy McMurtry has died.
Hertz CEO out following electric car 'horror show'
The company, which announced in January it was selling 20,000 of the electric vehicles in its fleet, or about a third of the EVs it owned, is now replacing the CEO who helped build up that fleet, giving it the company’s fifth boss in just four years.
'You ask for your money, they disappear': Ontario man loses $17K to AI crypto scam
A Toronto man is spreading the word of a cryptocurrency scam that lures victims using AI-generated news sites after he lost $17,000 in investments.
DEVELOPING Canada's annual inflation rate ticked down to 2.8 per cent in February, defying expectations
Statistics Canada says the annual inflation rate edged down to 2.8 per cent in February.
High thoughts: The habits of Canadian cannabis users are revealed in a new StatCan report
Statistics Canada has conducted a series of surveys to measure the impacts of legalized cannabis since the Cannabis Act took effect in 2018. The latest one, the 2023 National Cannabis Survey, sheds light on users' preferences and habits last year.
Demand soars for solar eclipse glasses in Canada. Are they worth buying?
The demand for total solar eclipse glasses used to safely view the rare celestial event has been ramping up as sellers, along with astronomy and eye-care experts in Canada, warn that viewing the eclipse with the naked eye is dangerous.