Make Space for Girls
Redesigning parks and public spaces so girls, and all young women, feel welcome, active, and safe.
Make Space for Girls is a UK-based campaign and advocacy organization focused on transforming parks, play equipment, and public spaces, which are often designed with boys in mind, to be inclusive and appealing for girls and young women. By involving teenage girls in the design process and highlighting the lack of facilities for them, Make Space for Girls is working to ensure that outdoor environments support girls’ physical activity and safety so they can enjoy public spaces freely.
What you should know:
Girls and young women are often excluded from public spaces, which limits their opportunities for safe, enjoyable physical activity like running. By pushing for parks and facilities that are designed with girls’ needs and safety in mind, Make Space for Girls addresses the intersection of physical activity and safe spaces, empowering the next generation of females to be active, visible, and confident in their communities.
Make Space for Girls organised a Parkwatch citizen science project which engaged communities to count and analyze how many girls use local park facilities, exposing gender disparities in public space usage.
Their campaigns and advocacy included collaborative projects with councils to reimagine parks, skateparks, and other facilities with direct input from girls, and visual campaigns and resources to spark conversations about what inclusive, girl-friendly public spaces could look like.
While Make Space for Girls focuses on parks and girls’ use of public space, their approach offers valuable insights for our work at Run Her Way: highlighting how participation and safety are shaped by the design, management, and use of public space, and by centering the experiences and wishes of the girls it campaigns for. In the same way, we work to make running safer, more enjoyable, and more accessible for women and girls by using data, local engagement, and advocacy to improve running environments so women and girls can run with confidence and without fear.
Learn more about Make Space for Girls
