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Safety mapping

This resource is from the Scale-Up toolkit and should be used in conjunction with the other resources. You can access the Scale-Up toolkit here.

This safety mapping exercise supports practitioners to work with young people to identify safe and unsafe areas in their local area and develop safety plans with young people, families and networks. It can help practitioners to:

  • assess risk in local areas, either broadly, or individual young people, to inform assessments
  • understand why young people choose certain routes (e.g. avoiding unsafe areas, even if it makes them late to school)
  • reflect with young people on where they feel safe/unsafe and how to respond to risks
  • support relational practice and trust-building with young people
  • inform decisions about placements, services, and support based on safe/unsafe locations
  • when used with multiple young people, it gives a wider picture of community safety, how risks change over time, and can help identify community guardians
Safety mapping tools