Speak Out Campaign 2023 – Own Our Zone
Our Speak Out champions are proud to launch their Own Our Zone campaign as they seek to make public spaces safer for girls and young women across Scotland.
What is Own Our Zone?
We envision a Scotland where girls and young women feel safe and are welcome outside and in public spaces during the day and night. Where they are not at threat from violence and where they can fully participate in outdoor activities as equal members of society. We want transformative community planning, understanding that public spaces must be co-designed by and for girls and young women. We want girls and young women to be able to own their zone.
Through the Own Our Zone campaign we are seeking to create tangible change, help empower girls to reach their full potential and find their voice outside.
Why is this important?
Our Girls Attitudes Survey 2022 found that:
- 43% of girls and young women don’t feel safe outside alone in Scotland.
- A third of girls say gender inequality has become worse in the past year.
- Across the UK 79% of LGBTQ+ girls and young women saw or experienced sexism in public places, compared to 65% of those who don’t identify this way.
What are we calling for?
We want to see the creation of safer public spaces that encourage girls and young women to participate in public life, to be active outdoors, and to improve their mental and physical health.
We want the systemic barriers that prevent girls and young women from feeling safe in public spaces to be tackled.
We want awareness and education around violence against women to be promoted, including improved communication between women, men, and political institutions.
This campaign has been created by our Speak Out champions
Speak Out is Girlguiding Scotland’s youth voice, formed in 2018. It is girl-led and provides a platform for girls and young women across Scotland to develop their voice and speak out about the issues that matter to them.
Take part in the challenge pack
In partnership with Make Space For Girls, we have developed a challenge pack to encourage young members from Rainbow to Ranger to get outside and think critically about their surroundings. Through completing the challenge activities, we hope that all girls will use their new-found knowledge to call on decision-makers to create public spaces with girls and young women in mind.
We cannot wait to see everything you get up to through our challenge pack and are excited to hear the ideas of your young members in how to make their local communities safer and more accessible for all girls. Make sure to share everything your girls have to say by tagging us on social media and using the #OwnOurZone hashtag or emailing in your pictures and thoughts to speakout@girlguiding-scot.org.uk.
Download the challenge pack
Check out the challenge pack for more information on how to get involved. You can download the plain text version here.
Get the Badge
Buy your badge from our online shop!
Join in on our Week of Action
From 25 September – 01 October 2023, we will be launching our Week of Action for you to take part by showing your MSP or other decision makers what needs to change in the local area. Take part in our #PictureProtest by finding public spaces in your local area that need to be made safer and share a photo on social media using the #PictureProtest and #OwnOurZone hashtags and even tag your MSP too!
All the pictures you submit of girls completing the activities and for #PictureProtest will be used to demonstrate the reach, impact and importance of our Speak Out campaign. This is a great way to share with decision makers what matters to girls and young women across Scotland.
See all the ways you can get involved and spread the word here.
