View British Community Safety Award Winners 2001

British Community Safety Award Winners 2001

British Community Safety Awards are designed to highlight
innovation and best practice in the field of crime reduction. Now in
their fifth year, the awards have become part of the crime reduction
calendar. The awards are organised by Crime Concern and the 2001 awards
were sponsored by Securicor.

The winners in 2001 were:

LOW HILL AND BUSHBURY NEIGHBOURHOOD SAFETY PROJECT (Wolverhampton)

A highly visible, community based project that works in partnership
to combat crime and social exclusion. It was set up in response to the
Crime and Disorder Act 1998 with the overall aim of engaging the local
area in the implementation of action plans and to undertake work to make
the solutions sustainable beyond the project life. Over the past three
years that the project has been operational, there has been a 41%
overall drop in domestic burglary and a 35% drop in overall crime. The
project�s success has been attributed to its partnership work which
has allowed effective work to flourish.

SAFER PUBS AND CLUBS (Peaks and Dales)

A project that aims to reduce violent crime, the fear of violence and
the seriousness of injuries caused as a result of violence in and around
licensed premises, namely pubs and clubs. Four licensed premises in the
Peaks and Dales area were presented with their Safer Pubs awards based
on the following reductions in violent incidents: Burlingtons � 100%;
The Eagle � 80%; Olde English � 50% and Brody�s � 100%.

OFFENCE RESOLUTION PROJECT (Hawick, Scotland)

Working towards preventing young people from entering the criminal
justice system while at the same time, enabling injured parties of
offences to have some input into what happens to offenders and to ensure
their views are considered in the resolution of the crime. The project
works towards three main aims: to reduce the likelihood of re-offending
for those aged 11 � 16 who have committed an offence; to support a
resolution between the parties involved in an offence and to offer
support to those affected by offending behaviour. Operating as a
voluntary process, both the offender and the victim are contacted and
asked whether they would be willing to resolve their offence. Depending
on the outcome, an appropriate plan is devised with the main focus being
that the young person gains an understanding of the consequences of
their offence.

JUSTICE SUPPORT PROJECT (Teeside)

Aims to strengthen the skills that young people already possess to
help them deal more positively with life�s difficult issues. It is
widely accepted that tackling the problem of youth crime impacts very
favourably upon all aspects of the life of a community. The strength of
this is in its ability to design and directly deliver specialist
programmes which address the diversity of children and young people�s
issues and which, if it were not for the project, would not exist.
Started as a two-year pilot programme in 1993 with a target of a 5%
reduction in youth crime, the project has now worked with more than 2500
young offenders achieving a 36% reduction in youth crime.

PROLIFIC OFFENDER PROJECT (Newcastle)

A community�based initiative which targets the most �hard-core�
of persistent offenders. The project was originally the brainchild of
the local Crime and Community Safety Topic Group of the Newcastle
Western Urban Villages Community Partnership SRB. It is made of 95% of
people with serious drug misuse problems who largely commit offences to
fund their drug habits. All of the offenders must have committed six or
more crimes in a 12-month period � one of which must be a serious
indictable offence -to be eligible for the six or twelve month
programme. Since it began, the prolific offenders team shows that a
total of 34 offenders have been on the project of which 17 (57%) have
been crime free or have shown a very marked reduction in their
offending.

The Prolific Offender Project was selected to go forward to
compete in the European
Crime Prevention Awards held in December 2001. For further
details of the project, contact Steve Stockall, Probation Officer, Tel.
01782 717 074 email [email protected]

More Awards

A further five projects were awarded �Certificates of Excellence�:

• Reducing Burglary (Stoke on Trent)

• Past the winning post, Racecourse estate (Houghton le Spring,
  Northumberland)

• Safer Stations (Wandsworth)

• Phoenix Project (Sunderland)

• Youth Matters (Lincoln)

And four received ‘Certificates of Commendation’:

• Safer Scotland (Scotland)

• Domestic Violence Support (Gloucester)

• Trends (Blandford)

• Kids on Track (Durham)

Last update: 02/09/03