Not in My Neighbourhood Week
13 – 17 October 2008
This dedicated week of action follows on from last year’s highly successful week which saw over 500 local agencies, including Neighbourhood Watch Schemes and police forces working with local residents to make their community a safer place to live. The week is developed to provide a national platform of focus and momentum through which local partners can showcase the work that is done on a daily basis to make our communities safer. Last year Neighbourhood Watch celebrated its 25th Anniversary during Not in My Neighbourhood week. I believe that some schemes ran their own activities or worked with local crime reduction partnerships during the week to publicise what they are doing to make their communities safer.
Due to the success of last year’s Not in My Neighbourhood week the Crime and Drugs Strategy Directorate will be running the week again this year from 13 – 17 October.
More information will be available shortly about how partners and Neighbourhood Watch Schemes can take part in the week. All information will be on www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk. In the meantime here is some initial information on the details of the week.
Aims of Not in My Neighbourhood week
The key objective of the week is to inform local people of the action that is being taken in their area to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour and make their communities safer with the aim of:
- Increasing public confidence in their local crime reduction partnership and police.
- Encourage the public to play their part.
- Provide reassurance to residents.
The week provides an excellent opportunity for local partners, including CDRPs, local police, Neighbourhood Watch Schemes and residents associations to demonstrate the work that is being done to reduce crime, anti-social behaviour and substance misuse use in their area. The week is being designed to be as flexible as possible as we know that many partnerships already organise weeks of action and activity. We would like to encourage local partnerships to take part in Not in My Neighbourhood week by running any activities they already have planned during the week.
Support and guidance
To support local areas the Home Office will be organising a number of national activities such as regional stakeholder and residents events and ministerial visits. Further information on these will be provided in the run up to the week.
We will also produce a Not in My Neighbourhood Week 2008 handbook which will provide regions with suggested key messages to tailor for local use, practical advice on how to work with the media and guidance on how to organise weeks of action. The handbook will be available in early September.
In addition regions will be supported by COI News and PR who will work with local areas to provide media relations advice and support. Contact details for COI News and PR will be provided in the Not in My Neighbourhood week 2008 handbook.
There will also be an opportunity for local partnerships to order Not in My Neighbourhood Week merchandise from a central point for them to use in their activities.
Full details will be posted on the Home Office Crime Reduction website.
COMMUNITY PAYBACK - YOUR CHANCE TO CHOOSE
Last year in North Yorkshire, offenders completed over 85,000 hours of unpaid labour supporting local projects and initiatives under the supervision of the National Probation Service.
Now you can have your say in what work takes place by offenders in your local area to benefit your community.
North Yorkshire Probation service www.nyprobation.org.uk would like to hear from you about projects which you think will make a real difference to your local community. Please contact the probation service with projects on:
Harrogate (01423) 566764
York (01904) 526000
Scarborough (01723) 366341
