Social safety is a reliable sense of social belongingness, recognition, and protection. Social safety at a community level is imperative for the well-being of all individuals. Without social safety, the human mind and body have an inability to thrive. Each of us gives social safety cues many times a day without even realizing it: smiling at or opening a door for a stranger; showing interest in other people’s families and lives; making room for someone to sit down on a bus. Most of us take these cues of inclusion and safety for granted.

However, once stigmatized individuals (e.g., people of color, 2SLGBTQ+ individuals) realize that some people consider them abnormal or worthy of rejection, for self-preservation, it becomes imperative to consider all people unsafe. This creates a state of threat-vigilance that over time wears on the body and creates negative health effects. As a community, we have the power to protect against some of these effects by giving visible cues of social safety, such as the 600 for Safety sign. Such cues act by removing uncertainty about the type of environment one is entering and assures one that this is a safe place to be, and consequently, threat-vigilance dials down. Research suggests that visual cues of social safety may protect the health of individuals who are members of  stigmatized populations. This reduces the community-wide burden of disease and needless suffering.

Society-wide public health initiatives have benefits for everyone!