For someone looking for food, support or a place to go, it is not enough that the information exists somewhere. It needs to be easy to find, up to date and trustworthy. This was one of the insights behind Trygga platser Stockholm, roughly “Safe Places Stockholm” in English, a mobile-friendly map developed by Stockholm City Mission, a civil society organization supporting people in vulnerable life situations.
The map brings together information about places in Stockholm where people can find food, advice, social support, community and basic services. Behind the map is a larger story about digitalization in practice. Not as a strategy or a vision, but as something that matters when someone in a vulnerable situation is standing with a phone in their hand, trying to find the right place.
Läs på svenska: När data blir en trygg plats
“Today, almost everyone has moved into the digital world. We also need to meet our participants digitally,” says Maria Nordmark, Innovation Lead at Stockholm City Mission.
In the past, information about opening hours, support and meeting places could be shared on paper, on a sign outside a local service or through personal contact. Today, people search for information digitally. This also applies to people in vulnerable life situations.
Better with less data, if the data can be trusted
Trygga platser grew out of concrete needs in Stockholm City Mission’s own services. Participants wanted an easier way to find places, opening hours and support in several languages. Important input also came from Voxeeed Women Advisory Board, an expert group of women with lived experience of homelessness. Similar insights have been highlighted in the Australian service Ask Izzy, where control, safety and freedom from shame have also been important starting points.
These perspectives made the needs more precise. For the person using the service, details can be crucial: what the food costs, whether there is a toilet, a shower, the possibility to change clothes or access to advice. At the same time, not everything can be included.
Read also: Open data strengthens Sweden’s food preparedness
“It makes a big difference to collect and make data available. But it is not enough that the information is gathered in one place. The quality has to be good,” says Maria.
At first, the possibility of automatically retrieving information from Google Business was explored, but the data was not reliable enough.
“Many civil society organizations may have entered information at some point, but then it has not been updated,” says Maria.
Opening hours could be outdated, responsibilities unclear and details difficult to verify. The conclusion was that it is better to provide less information that people can trust, than large amounts of information that quickly becomes outdated.
Stockholm City Mission therefore chose to limit the amount of information in the map. This makes the service more accurate and easier to maintain over time. In practice, data quality is not only about technology. It is also about responsibility, ways of working and trust.
A map that has to work in everyday life
The technical development of Trygga platser was carried out by Souk Agency, which according to Stockholm City Mission was responsible for requirements analysis, service design, UX design and technical development.
“It would not have happened without Souk Agency. They deserve a lot of credit, not least for the voluntary hours they have put in,” says Maria.
The work was about more than building a map. The service needed to work on mobile phones, be understandable even in stressful situations and be possible to administer with limited resources. This required practical decisions: which categories to include, what information should be shown directly and where to draw the line for which services should be included.
Read more: Putting Open Data on the Map – Literally
For a service like Trygga platser, usability is not only about functions. The information needs to be clear and reliable, but also give the user a sense of control, safety and dignity. For people in vulnerable life situations, it can be crucial to be able to search for support without feeling shame and without having to rely on someone else to guide them.
At the same time, civil society services are rarely easy to describe in a uniform way. A community meeting place may offer food at certain times, advice on other days and activities for different target groups at different times. A place is therefore not just a point on a map. It has properties such as opening hours, target group, accessibility, type of support, language, cost and contact details. When these properties are clear, the information becomes easier to use.
When the map points to a larger question
In the work with Trygga platser, public toilets became a concrete example of how open data can gain new value in another context. The information was not created for Stockholm City Mission’s target group, but could still be used in a service where access to toilets may be important.
“There is so much more data we would like to retrieve and include from open data sources. It saves so much work. But then the data has to be correct and the quality has to be good,” says Maria.
When municipalities and public authorities publish information in a structured and reliable way, it can be used by more people than it was originally intended for. A dataset about public toilets can, for example, become part of a support tool for people in vulnerable situations. At the same time, the example also shows where the limits are: if some toilets are privately operated and therefore not included in the open data, new questions arise about what is visible, who is responsible for the information and how it is kept up to date.
The need is also visible in the use of the service. In May, Trygga platser had around 70–100 visits per day, according to Stockholm City Mission, and usage was steadily increasing. This shows that the service does not only respond to an assumed need, but is being used in practice.
More inspiration: Less Administration, More Impact
Trygga platser also points to a larger societal issue. Civil society meeting places often reach people that public authorities may find difficult to reach. When information about these places becomes easier to find, it can contribute to safety and trust in everyday life, but also strengthen society’s ability to reach people with support in times of crisis.
Maria would like to see this type of information gathered more broadly.
“To be frank, it would have been much better if the City of Stockholm had this map and included both its own services and civil society,” she says.
Swedish public authorities are also working with area-based statistics to better understand social exclusion. Statistics can show where needs are high. But the person looking for support also needs to know where to go, when the place is open and what help is actually available.
On one side, there is data for analysis, planning and follow-up. On the other, there is a person with a mobile phone in their hand.
The difficult part starts after launch
Many digital initiatives begin with a clear need and strong commitment. The difficult question often comes later: how do you keep the information up to date over time? For Maria, the answer is clear. Long-term value depends on quality-assured data and clear responsibility for how information is updated and maintained.
MetaSolutions has contributed to the work with Trygga platser through support from Mattias Axell, Customer Success Manager at MetaSolutions. He has guided the project in questions related to open data, information structure and how data can be shared and reused more sustainably.
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The lesson is important for the public sector as well. When data about public services, places and support is published in a structured way, more actors can build on it. Each new service does not have to start by collecting the same information all over again. This is closely connected to MetaSolutions’ work with EntryScape: helping organisations describe, publish and manage data so that it can be found, understood and reused.
Trygga platser Stockholm therefore shows something larger than the value of a map. It shows what is needed for digital public value to work in practice: real needs, clear boundaries, thoughtful design and information that can be managed over time.
