Vienna’s Westgürtel Launches “Neighbourhoods for All”: A Community-Led Pilot to Make Nighttime in Vienna Safer for Everyone

Press Kit Neighbourhoods for All (DE & EN)

The Nighttime Foundation, together with the Vienna Club Commission (VCC), and SafeNow, has officially launched Neighbourhoods for All in Vienna’s Westgürtel area. It is the first city-level pilot of its kind, designed to turn global research on inclusive, safer nighttime spaces into locally driven action. The project is managed and executed by nightlife research consultancy VibeLab.

The aim is to build a replicable, evidence-based model for community-led nighttime safety that other neighbourhoods and cities can adapt to their own contexts. The project organisations expect that potential upcoming conflicts, and the need for enforcement in the area, can gradually be reduced by strengthening community awareness, shared responsibility, and peer-to-peer support structures. 

The pilot project builds directly on the peer-learning initiative led by UN-Habitat, which concluded at the World Urban Forum in Cairo in 2024. The Westgürtel – an area home to various clubs, grassroots music venues and bars  – is now the first neighbourhood in the world to put those findings into practice.

A Community-First Approach to Nighttime Safety

Neighbourhoods for All focuses on the streets, public spaces, and nightlife venues of the Westgürtel, specifically assessing the area between Alserstraße (U6) and Thaliastrasse (U6). Instead of leaning on enforcement alone, this project puts the experiences of visitors, venue staff, event promoters, and safety workers at the centre — diagnosing real challenges on the ground and co-creating solutions.

From June to November 2026, the pilot will combine data-driven technology with community engagements across three workstreams:

• 1. A safety perception survey open to all nightlife visitors, people working and living in and around the Westgürtel will establish a baseline of how safe people feel in venues and public spaces, and why. The results will directly shape where and how improvements can be made. This will be complemented by an on-site audit conducted by urban safety experts.
  
• 2. SafeNow Zones will be set up from June in participating venues and the surrounding streets. With the SafeNow app, guests and employees can quickly and discreetly alert local security staff or awareness teams at the touch of a button. Within these defined SafeNow zones, the app enables location tracking down to the meter - even indoors - and thus ensures rapid assistance in the event of assaults, discrimination or medical emergencies. The app's group function also offers help from family, friends or colleagues outside these zones - for example on the way home, when jogging in the park or when travelling. The SafeNow app is free of charge for the public and is already being used successfully in stadiums, clubs, and at major events – such as the Allianz Stadion in Vienna (home of SK Rapid), the Münchner Oktoberfest, and venues like the Stonewall Inn in New York, as well as many other clubs worldwide. Developed in Germany, the app handles personal data in line with GDPR standards.
  
• 3. Onboarding and safety training for venue staff will run from May through July, covering de-escalation, harm reduction, and legal responsibilities. The curriculum draws on the Safer Feiern workshop series initiated by the Vienna Club Commission and funded by the Women’s Department and the Education and Youth Department of the City of Vienna.

How you can contribute to the project

Background: From Global Research to a Vienna Pilot

In 2024, UN-Habitat, UCLG, Habitat Norway, and VibeLab published the Neighbourhoods for All study, a peer-learning initiative exploring how cities can plan more inclusive, accessible, and safer communities. Across five webinars, city leaders, civil society representatives, and frontline practitioners exchanged practical approaches to urban safety, women’s safety, youth engagement, and nighttime governance. The project, anchored in SDG 11 and the UN Guidelines on Safer Cities, made a clear case that safer neighbourhoods are built through co-production, knowledge exchange, and local leadership rather than top-down enforcement. It culminated at the World Urban Forum in Cairo in 2024. Now, for the first time, those global insights are being translated into a city-level pilot — starting in Vienna.

The Nighttime Foundation hosts the Vienna pilot as the lead organisation translating global insights into local action. The Vienna Club Commission (VCC) brings deep relationships with venues, event promoters, and awareness workers around the Westgürtel. SafeNow provides the technological infrastructure to instantly connect people in need with available helpers at the touch of a button. VibeLab leads research and project management, drawing on years of experience advising cities worldwide on nightlife policy.