Unravelling the Measures of Safety: A Dialogue with PROCESS

The Bentway site has been a place where many communities and stories collide and engage with one another. It has been a gathering place for Indigenous Peoples, both pre-contact and present day, as the military site of Fort York, as a junction for railways and a beacon of the industrial era, and now, as a space for formalized and informal housing settlements, and as an evolving public space. Safety here has meant different things at different times, and continues to hold different significance for the many communities that frequent The Bentway site. So when we speak about safety, how do we approach it, and for whom? What perspectives are too-often excluded, and how can we amplify them?

To inform a new shared social contract for the Bentway site, our team approached PROCESS, a public engagement, research, art and planning studio. Together, we’re navigating a 360-degree approach to understanding safety and its implications for public space. This approach will allow us to connect and learn from different sectors and perspectives around safety. Our plan is three-tiered. First (currently), we are conducting interviews with local residents, advocates of safety, designers, the unhoused support network and public space programmers. We provided honoraria for participants, recognizing that asking them for their time and insight is work. Next, we will perform cross-sectoral focus groups to understand of divergent perspectives and create an opportunity for people to hear from each other. Finally, we hope to use these learnings to spark informed broader public engagement.

The information gained through this engagement will inform a broader discussion with Bentway users and the general public about safety in public space. It is part of a larger initiative to develop a safe space toolkit and inform The Bentway’s own practices.

We spoke with key team members at PROCESS about what it means to create inclusive and equitable community engagement to ensure all voices are heard as we navigated this project. Here’s what they had to say.

• Nadia Galati (they/them/she/her):NG (Co-Principal of PROCESS)

• Trina Moyan (she/her): TM (Indigenous Relations Consultant)

• Daniel Rostzain (he/him): DR (Urban Geographer, Artist, Writer)

• Sara Udow (she/her): SU (Co-Principal of PROCESS)

Bentway (BW): The PROCESS team has led many community engagement programs over the years. Though your approach to each has been different, it has always maintained some element of fun. Tell us about PROCESS. What sets your system apart?

SU: To us, fun processes result in better data from people because they actually want to participate and share their ideas and thoughts. This is important because we want to get different people engaged. The engagement process [as it’s traditionally implemented] is a bit broken. It’s often the loudest voices that are heard, the people who have the time, money, and ability to come to different public meetings and engage. In the end, it’s their ideas that are reflected in our plans, policies and how we see our cities today. We prioritize developing engagement processes that bring together a diversity of perspectives. It is important for processes to be equitable, community-driven, creative and, as you mentioned, fun!  

NG: Our approach is people/human-centred. The best outcomes are produced by connecting with the people who actually represent the community(ies) we are working with. We aim to do all of this while still checking our own biases.

SU: A huge part [of engagement] is education, too, bringing awareness and creating mutual understanding. We don’t just want to collect feedback; these engagement practices should be a two-way conversation.

BW: Why do stories play a central role in getting to the root of the definition of safety?

TM: I am nehiyaw iskwew (Plains Cree) from the Frog Lake First Nation, Treaty 6 medicine chest territory in northern Alberta. We are a people of story. When you go back to the stars, whoever’s stories are told has lived a rich life. That’s what makes me feel safe. The idea that our story is history, the truth is told, and I don’t feel invisible. Then I’ll feel safer walking down the street. That’s why cultural competency training is so vital to creating safe engagement. If our story is not told, we will never feel safe. For me, it’s about making sure we are not invisible, and the history is uncovered, and it’s presented honestly, and people listen.

NG: Space is a place. Every space that is occupied is a place for somebody. It carries meaning and produces stories. It’s the stories that turn it into a place. So, we want to know whose stories are told within it, whose are not, and whose are missing?

BW: At The Bentway, we’re sometimes at the crossroads of many contested ideas of safety that exist in the city, and we have this unique and amazing opportunity to design, test, share, and bring awareness to new practices. But sometimes, these ideas (and ideals) come into conflict. 

NG: It is so important to see those intersections of experience and layer them on top of one another so that we can see the gaps and overlaps. This information shows us opportunities and missed opportunities. They tell us who is being listened to and whose experiences are being implemented into design, and who isn’t being listened to.

DR: Often, communities talk about safety with respect to how people feel about unhoused people living under the space, but what’s also important is knowing how they feel. What is their measure of safety? If anything, they probably feel even less safe. The conversation needs to produce that level of empathy and somehow broaden what safety means beyond everyone’s personal experience.

BW: How do you ensure conversations about safety, conversations that bring together multiple lived experiences, are themselves conducted safely and with empathy? 

TM: Having respect for the Indigenous communities we work with, for instance, is making sure that they feel safe. We take steps to make sure the people we’re inviting the Indigenous community to sit down with have at least a limited knowledge base of the local history and Canadian history. Once we know we’re sitting down with people who have that safe knowledge, that’s when we feel safe.

SU: Planners and architects have expertise in certain aspects of public space, but they aren’t necessarily safety experts or have the lived experiences to understand all the people they are planning and designing for. As we broaden our understanding of the definition of safety, we have a responsibility to recognize and continuously acknowledge that safety also has a lot to do with an individual’s ability to feel a sense of belonging in a space.  Having that as a foundation is an important starting point.

DR: When it often comes to urbanists’ conceptions of safe space, they’re often thinking about a Kensington Market or Queen West neighbourhood (their own backyards). Jay Pitter wrote an article on "forgotten densities," asking what safe space looks like in social housing developments when there are limited elevators; what does it look like in the suburbs? 

One of the first questions to answer in a project about safety is, how would somebody else’s experience be different? How would they express the same issue differently? Start by collaborating.

BW: So, as we work with PROCESS together, how do we make sure we speak with everyone in The Bentway’s local community?

NG: Taking a human-centred approach. Earlier, Trina mentioned the importance of stories. Stories are how we get to the root of those experiences and begin to learn truths.

SU: A huge part of this work is understanding who we want to learn from and listen to and developing approaches to reach them. Right now, a lot of the ways we engage have to be digital, but we also know that there are many unhoused people living close to The Bentway who may not want to take the time or don’t have access to online surveys. Having your team that’s already connected with the unhoused community nearby and having more targeted conversations and providing an honorarium is essential. Also, partnering with the Encampment Support Network or Fred Victor [note: who operates a respite centre nearby], all of the places that have been going above and beyond to provide support to the unhoused.

BW: The goal of Safe in Public Space is to listen, learn and engage with a wide variety of peoples’ lived experiences to teach us more about what it means to feel “safe” in public space. Any final parting words of advice?

TM: If the intention is to create a place where all Torontonians feel safe, [my advice] is to make sure you include Indigenous people, the original peoples, on your team.

DR: You’re in this place where you can model the best way forward because the challenges have intersected really acutely at The Bentway. It’s a great opportunity. Just make sure you’re reflecting on different lenses and perspectives.

NG: This is an opportunity to share stories and layers of what is missing and be vulnerable around the “so what?” How do you actually implement a toolkit? How do you create an opportunity for people to learn relative to intersectional lived experiences in public space on the site? You guys are a great team to work with; we so appreciate being part of this process. Thank you for making space for us to contribute, share, and help!

BW: We feel the same way.

Are you curious about how you can get involved? This timely exploration of feeling safe in public space crosses a multitude of experiences. So we want to hear yours. Keep a look out on safeinpublicspace.com to learn about more opportunities to participate.