Quarterly Communications update: July -
September 2009
Introduction
The Safer Havant Partnership Communications
update is a quarterly document detailing all major communications,
publicity and community engagement events that have taken place or
are being planned by the Safer Havant Partnership. This
document will inform both partner agencies and residents of all
communications that are being planned or that have taken place and
will inform the work of the Safer Havant Partnership Community
Engagement Group.
Update on communications
Safer Havant website update
The Safer Havant Partnership has now had over
3,800 unique visitors and over 18,000 page views since its launch
in November 2008. The entire site has recently been refreshed
and updated with a new focus on the Partnership’s three priority
areas, which are anti-social behaviour, alcohol and violence.
A new ‘Practitioners Area' has been set up, which includes minutes
of recent meetings, dates of upcoming meetings and events and
documents relating to the Anti-Social Behaviour Panel and Community
Tasking and Coordinating Group. For more information please
follow the link below:
Link to Safer Havant Partnership
Practitioners Area >>
‘Feel Safe, Have Fun’ day
The Safer Havant Partnership’s ‘Feel Safe,
Have Fun’ day, our major public community engagement event of the
year, was a great success.
The event took place on the 12th of
August outside the ASDA store in Bedhampton, where 78 professionals
from over 20 community safety agencies manned exhibits giving
information and advice to residents and promoting partnership
working.
Over 1000 members of the public visited the
event over the course of the day to share their views on community
safety issues and nearly 200 residents completed a community safety
survey to give their views on the Partnership’s current
priorities.
Free performances and activities for young
people ran throughout the day, including face painting, displays by
the fire service and police and performances by Soul-Vant, a local
boys’ dance group who are sponsored by the Safer Havant
Partnership. Exhibitors comments included: ‘All enjoyed it
and would like to see more of this type of event’. ‘It was nice to
see a multi-agency approach’, ‘Very well organised and run’, ‘Good
to see young people so well represented’. Follow the link
below for a full evaluation of the event:
Link to an evaluation of the 'Feel Safe, Have Fun
day' >>
Other community engagement events
The Community Safety team and the Accredited
Community Safety Officers held a stall and ran activities for young
people at Havant Borough Council’s Play Day event. The team
ran a safety-themed colouring competition for young people,
distributed promotional materials and spoke to over 200 local
residents about the work of the Safer Havant Partnership and the
community safety issues that matter to them. Over 100 surveys
were completed by local residents on the Partnership’s current
priorities and on the issues that concern them. 
The Safer Havant Partnership also held a stall
and spoke to a number of local businesses at a Business Crime
Reduction event organised by St. Faiths Safer Neighbourhood
Team.
The Community Safety team also spent the day
talking to over 100 local residents and distributing information
packs on the 9th of July at Leigh Park library as part
of the police-led Leigh Park CREW events.
Representatives of the Partnership also
exhibited at the Havant College ‘Fresher’s Fair’ event on the
8th of September. Over 150 young people were
spoken to and promotional materials and information packs were
distributed to all who were spoken to. The Partnership also
held an exhibit at the week-long South Downs College ‘Enrichment
Fair’.
Promoting the Partnership
The Safer Havant Partnership have continued
their support of the Junior Citizen event, where 1,200 primary
school children act out a number of community safety scenarios that
they may face in everyday life. Each child was given a
reflective Safer Havant rucksack filled with community safety
advice, including a Safer Havant information pack.
Promotional materials were also distributed at
the Safer Havant-sponsored Cackle and Pop
parties.
Internal Communications
The Community Safety Team has continued to
promote the Safer Havant Partnership internally with messages on
the internal website posters and displays of the Safer Havant
Partnership in the reception and Committee Room of Havant Borough
Council Civic Offices.
In the news
The Safer Havant Partnership has continued to
promote their work through a range of local media:
The Partnership has secured three centre-page
spreads in Park Life community newspaper. The second
centre-page spread, which was distributed in August, focused on
informing residents of the three new priority areas and giving
advice on the issues raised by Leigh Park residents through the
Havant Borough Council Citizen’s Panel and local Neighbourhood
Watch schemes. The spread was article-based and included a
short survey for Leigh Park residents to complete, which helped to
promote the message that we are actively seeking the views of local
residents. Fifteen responses have been received to date,
which will be collated with the surveys taken at community
engagement events throughout the summer and the results will be
published on the Safer Havant Partnership’s website.
The Park Life centre page spread has also been
converted into a newsletter which is being distributed to local
residents as part of the Safer Havant information packs.
Articles on the Safer Havant Partnership were
included in both the Summer and Autumn editions of Havant Borough
Council’s Serving You magazine, which is distributed to every
household in the Havant Borough. Topics covered included the
‘Feel Safe, Have Fun’ event, the success in visitors to the website
and the use of two Safer Havant Partnership case studies in a Home
Office best practice guide.
Press releases were issued by Havant Borough
Council’s Communications Team promoting the 2500th
visitor to the website, the use of two Havant case studies by the
Home Office and promoting the ‘Feel Safe, Have Fun’ day. A
short article was featured in The News following each release and a
number were discussed on local radio. Sam Charlton, Community
Safety Coordinator for Havant Borough Council, was also interviewed
for Quay radio about the success of the Safer Havant Partnership’s
website.
Finally, The News printed a half page article
following the ‘Feel Safe, Have Fun’ event, which included a large
picture of the chip pan fire display and a quote from Councillor
Andy Lenaghan.
Future plans
‘Know Your Limits’ Autumn campaign
The Safer Havant Partnership plan to link up
with the national ‘Know Your Limits’ campaign in October and
November in order to work on their priority area of alcohol
misuse. Linking to their recent television adverts, with the
slogan ‘You wouldn’t start your night like this…so why end it that
way’, the Partnership aim to order a number of mannequins posed to
seem as if they are suffering the ill effects of alcohol and
display them in prominent locations. The Meridian Centre has
kindly agreed to display two of the mannequins in an unused shop in
the centre of town.
Christmas domestic abuse campaign
The Safer Havant Partnership is currently
considering of developing and promoting a domestic abuse campaign
over the Christmas period. Initial ideas include asking
residents or business to donate toys or toiletries to their local
women’s refuge. The campaign could also link to the Crime
Stoppers service by encouraging those who are concerned for a
friend or neighbour to report this anonymously.
The Christmas and Autumn campaigns will be
discussed at the next meeting of the Safer Havant Partnership
Community Engagement Group on the 7th of October
2009.
Report produced by Katherine Vasey,
Community Safety Projects Officer, 23rd of September
2009
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