Today in our “Your Guide to Campus” series, we’ll be introducing you to Safewalk! This totally free, volunteer run service is provided by your University of Alberta Students' Union during Fall and Winter terms.

Safewalk will send two volunteers (fellow students) to accompany you on your commute at night -- great for students studying late, taking night classes, or both! Whether you’d like some peace of mind when boarding the bus or LRT, walking to your car, or getting back to your residence, Safewalk will walk there with you! (With some exceptions, see Safewalk’s Boundaries below.)

When you request a walk with Safewalk, you will be accompanied by at least two Safewalk volunteers. They will have a radio walkie-talkie to communicate with the Safewalk office to keep track of where the volunteers are headed with you. At the end of your walk, they may ask you to submit feedback online! This helps us improve the service and keep it running smoothly. To use Safewalk’s services, you have three options:

1. Keep an eye out for Safewalkers on patrol. Patrollers help to keep campus safe by walking around campus, and even sometimes put up posters (for a fee) while out on their walks. Feel free to approach a pair of Safewalk Patrollers in their bright yellow jackets to request that they walk you to your destination. If they are already walking with a client, they can contact dispatch to send out more volunteers to meet you!
2. Call the Safewalk office at 780-4 WALKME (780-492-5563) to request a walk. You can do this in the moment when you feel the need to have accompaniment, or you can book ahead of time if you are planning a late night on campus instead.
3. Book a walk in advance online. For the night owls and evening-class takers among us, this is a great option! Booking a walk in advance is advised if you need Safewalk volunteers to meet you at Campus Saint-Jean or South Campus. You can also book a recurring walk so that Safewalk patrollers can meet you at the same time and place week over week.

Keep in mind that Safewalk volunteers may not have access to restricted areas like labs in CCIS or practice rooms in the Fine Arts Building. Plan to meet your Safewalkers in an open area, like outside of a classroom or other publicly accessible landmark.

When you request a Safewalk, you also have the option to request an Incognito Walk. This means the volunteers accompanying you will not wear their bright yellow jackets -- but they will still have their dispatch radio with them! Some people prefer not to have their Safewalk advertised while it’s happening, and that’s totally ok! Our priority is to get you to where you’re going safely and comfortably.

Safewalk’s Service Boundaries

As a volunteer-run service, we do have some limitations. Specifically, Safewalk will halt service when the temperature drops below -30*C with windchill, to keep our volunteers safe. And while our radios work at quite a distance, they don’t quite reach the whole city, so we have some areas we can’t take you all the way to -- but volunteers will typically accompany you as far as they can!

• Where you can request a Safewalk pickup: Anywhere on North Campus, South Campus, and Campus Saint-Jean. This includes residences like Résidence Saint-Jean, Lister Hall, East Campus Village, etc. Note: Anywhere that you would like to be picked up can also be a place where Safewalk will drop you off! This service is not just for walks that end off campus.
• Where you can request Safewalk drop-off: Safewalk Volunteers will walk you within 10 city blocks of the following Edmonton LRT stations:
  • Southgate
  • South Campus/Ft Edmonton Park
  • McKernan/Belgravia
  • Health Sciences/Jubilee
  • University
  • Government Centre
  • Corona
  • Bay/Enterprise Square
  • Central
  • Churchill
• Volunteers will walk clients to the station parking lot for walks that need to use:
  • Century Park station
  • Stops north of Churchill station (Stadium, Coliseum, Belvedere, Clareview)
  • All stops on the Valley Line

We are happy to have our patrollers wait with you for your connecting bus at the transit centre, or a ride home (such as a carpool or rideshare) instead. This ensures the volunteer patrollers stay within range to keep in touch with the dispatch office, for their safety. When you book your walk, either online or over the phone, you will be able to let us know whether you would like this additional service.

For all the rest of the details about Safewalk, or to book your next accompanied walk, visit Safewalk online!