Empower Her Ride

An initiative called Empower Her Ride has enhanced cycling access for multicultural women in Maribyrnong City Council, providing essential bike-handling skills and safe riding practices while fostering a sense of community and self-confidence for women from diverse cultural backgrounds.

A collaboration between Council, the Community Bike Hub and the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, a pilot was held in 2023 with ten participants. On the back of its success, as well as additional funding secured through the Change Our Game Community Activation Grants Program, 14 women took part last year.

“The Community Bike Hub has a long history of working with, and providing bikes for, migrant groups and we are passionate about removing barriers to cycling,” said Amy McArthur, Operations Manager at Local Impact whose programs include the Community Bike Hub.

Hosted at a dedicated traffic school, Empower Her Ride was run in a controlled environment that minimised distractions and safety concerns. The goal at the conclusion of the six-week initiative was to empower the women to utilise cycling as a viable mode of transport in addition to being an option for exercise and leisure. Participants also learned about local bike trails and upon completing the program, were gifted a bike and helmet which helped remove barriers for ongoing participation.

“The program was designed to provide a learning experience that addressed all barriers,” said Amy.

“Along with teaching participants how to ride, we offered instructions on how to care for and maintain their bikes which included skills like tube replacement and repair. It was also important that the participants felt culturally safe to express their needs and to help this, we assigned an all-female facilitator team incorporating coaches and mechanics.”

Maribyrnong City Council Mayor, Cr Cuc Lam, said the initiative is part of a broader effort in the region to encourage more women and girls to participate in sports and recreational activities.

“By addressing the specific needs and challenges faced by multicultural women, the program seeks to break down cultural barriers and support greater social cohesion and equality within the community.”

Empower Her Ride was intentionally restricted to a small group to assist with fostering a close-knit atmosphere and feedback afterwards showed 100% of participants were positively engaged, 90% reported increased confidence in riding while bonding time with relatives also grew as participants have since found themselves riding together as families.

“The feedback we received was very humbling,” said Amy. “The women spoke of increased independence and meeting lifelong goals but the friendships formed between participants was an unexpected outcome. By the completion of the six weeks, they were socialising regularly outside of the scheduled lesson times which was so lovely to hear.

“Now that we have the format perfected and with such positive feedback from participants, the Community Bike Hub will definitely be running programs like Empower Her Ride into the future.”