Power to the People!
Two members of Mercian Housing Association’s Resident Forum have volunteered their services as ‘Community Crime Fighters’, part of an initiative announced by the Home Office in conjunction with the Policing Pledge, which hopes to train over 3,600 volunteers from the general public to act as a link between the public and the police.
Andy Pountney and Sheila Clare, both from Birmingham and already actively involved in Mercian’s communities, jumped at the opportunity to get more involved. Andy said, “When I first heard about the Community Crime Fighter initiative, I thought it was a really good idea. Both Sheila and I have crime issues in our community and it often felt like we were passing on information with no effect.”
Community Crime Fighter volunteers across the UK are receiving training during 2009 so that they can advise members of their community on issues such as: the Policing Pledge, how to get the best services from the criminal justice system, how crime victims and witnesses can get help and how best to fight anti-social behaviour (ASB) in their area.
Andy and Sheila attended initial training, held locally and were then selected to take part in a two day course in Chester. The aim was to enable the volunteers to share local experiences, knowledge and solutions of tackling crime and ASB, to improve skills and knowledge in working more effectively with the police and other services and to explore how to motivate and engage others in the local community to focus on action planning for local change.
Andy said of the course, “We learnt that each area in the country has different methods of setting up neighbourhood watches, and involving the community with the police, but the end result was the same - a route map to safer communities for us all.
“Each neighbourhood has different crime issues. If you are not satisfied with the policing in your area there maybe a neighbourhood watch coordinator who you can contact to pass your opinions onto the police – Sheila and I are now equipped to advise other residents on what the best options are.”
Volunteers were also introduced to the Policing Pledge. Sheila said, “We were shown an example of a Policing Pledge, which is a promise which every force in the country makes for its communities. It states the level of service a community can expect from the police, together with contact details and updates from meetings, locations of mobile police cabins and dates of walkabouts.”
Andy added, “I’ve found becoming a Community Crime Fighter to be a great experience - the training has been interesting and very informative. We are now more prepared, know we have a network of other course members to ask for advice and are ready to go out and help fellow members of the community.”
Mercian is committed to developing communities people take pride in. Through helping to deal with the wider issues that are important to the areas we serve, our communities will be even better places to live.
-ENDS-
Press Enquiries please contact Vicky Jones on 0121 322 7391 or email vjones@mercian.org.uk.