Page 1798 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 5 May 2010
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Neighbourhood Watch is a partner of ACT Policing, and they work closely together to ensure that neighbourhood safety is a community responsibility. The relationship between the two parties has never been stronger, and the president of Neighbourhood Watch advises that the support they received from ACT Policing has never been as valuable. This support extends to working with them at community events, providing invaluable assistance in the provision of information and preparation of newsletters, attending numerous meetings and hosting the coordination meetings and responding with little delay to all inquiries from the Neighbourhood Watch executive.
ACT Policing also assisted the Neighbourhood Watch executive prepare a strategic plan so they could prepare for strong growth into the future and strategise how they can foster and harness participation by the younger generation. Neighbourhood Watch in the ACT is unique from other jurisdictions in that it is a totally voluntary organisation and, therefore, does not expect support or funding. The ACT government has committed to providing funding to this essential community organisation, however, between 2009 and 2013, with the first payment being $20,000 for this financial year, growing each year to a final payment of $22,000. This funding provides greater flexibility for Neighbourhood Watch to run its core activities and to expand the network even further throughout the ACT.
ACT Policing also contributes to this funding. In an effort to increase the profile and effectiveness of the program, it now funds the attendance of a Neighbourhood Watch president and a member of the ACT Policing SPS team to attend the national Neighbourhood Watch meetings that occur three to four times a year.
Neighbourhood Watch is a grassroots crime prevention program and is a leading example of how the community and police can work together to combat crime in our suburbs. Crime prevention is an effective and crucial policing tool and has come a long way in the last 25 years. The ongoing work carried out by Neighbourhood Watch has played an enormous part in this progress.
Even though in the ACT we are lucky enough to have the suburban policing strategy, such a strategy is, of course, ineffective without community support and assistance, and Neighbourhood Watch provides the perfect conduit for this. By promoting and facilitating community engagement and developing safety initiatives and education programs, encouraging neighbours to get to know each other and fostering partnerships with other organisations such as scouts, schools, business and local residents associations, Neighbourhood Watch bridges that gap between the police and the community.
Neighbourhood Watch is an extremely effective way of keeping residents informed of the incidence of crime in their local areas, through the internet, newsletters and advertising. Providing residents with advice on personal and household safety allows householders to effectively secure their homes and increase their personal safety and the safety of those around them.
There are approximately 3,000 members of Neighbourhood Watch, which is a reflection of just how far the association has come since its humble beginnings in
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