How Snap Send Solve is helping track LGBTQ+ vilification in Ballarat
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How Snap Send Solve is helping track LGBTQ+ vilification in Ballarat
The community in Ballarat have come the perfect way to capture data on where LGBTQ+ discrimination, harassment or vilification.
A state government grant to empower communities to self-determine ways of addressing discrimination and safety has led to a brainwave in regional Victoria.
Not in my Ballarat is using existing resources to capture the shape, size and frequency of discrimination that targets their communities.
“We had had two years of violent assaults happening in the area,” Ange from Not in my Ballarat told us.
“Having conversations with police, we realised it was hard to tell what was happening because no one was reporting anything.
“Some of our community is still not confident to be able to do that, so we had to work our way through it.
“Finding a way that works for a range of minority communities that could be easy to fix.”
Where were the red flags?
“We stepped back and thought about how we understand red flags that were leading to that kind of violence,” Ange said,
“There’s always the underlying attitudes, beliefs and behaviours.
“And you can start seeing that tracking through different behaviours in public.
“We thought if we could start tracking it, then maybe we could start addressing it where it is.
“Then target community safety messages and make sure authorities and leaders were paying attention to what was going on.
Working with Sean Mulcahy they’ve been working with community groups and people with lived experience to refine the field and reporting process.
“We know that, sadly, experiences of discrimination, harassment, and vilification are not always reported,” Sean Mulcahy told us.
“So Snap Send Solve enables free reporting through hand-held devices by both bystanders or people experiencing these behaviours.
“This also underscores the need for stronger vilification laws to protect our community from hate.
“It’s time for all politicians to back the measures in the Anti-Vilification and Social Cohesion Bill currently before the Victorian Parliament.”
What they’ve done is ridiculously simple, when you think about it.
Using the Snap Send Solve app, which councils already use.
They report issues they see around town, from posters to graffiti or more.
The idea came from Asha Buckmaster who thought of it during the group discussion.
“We were trying to figure out how you improve safety if you don’t identify where is unsafe,” Asha told us,
“To be honest, I used Snap Send Solve that week to report someone parking across a footpath, which irritates me no end.
“So it was front of mind so I asked why we couldn’t use that and the idea snowballed.”
The app is also being used to target harassment towards the local Indian community and to track racism towards our First Nations communities which Asha reported on 26th January.
Image: supplied.
Tracking harmful vilification
The use of the Snap Send Solve app was put into practice last month.
When a man was putting up neo-Nazi flyers while the community gathered for a ‘Protect Trans Youth’ rally.
“Using the app was one of the ways we triangulated that the guy was in town,” Ange told us.
“It meant we could see he’d been down a whole bunch of different streets.
“Creating a map of where he walked which potentially could be handy for police tracking these types of things.
“While we aren’t releasing that level of data, it certainly illustrates the point.
“These posters are a good example of what different types of vilification look like and who’s doing it.”
Finding a way to highlight and speak to the continued violence and vilification that is targeting our communities is so important.
Creating a paper trail matters but doing it yourself can take a toll.
Creating a pathway that works with existing local systems is ingenious.
While it’s a test project, the conversations it is creating are breaking down barriers as well.
Currently managed by Tiny Pride, the hope is that this project will create a broader conversation with councils and the community.
Conversations about what they need and where they can turn.
Find out more about how Not in My Ballarat is using Snap Send Solve to protect its communities here.
Image: Facebook.
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