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.
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 >>
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' >>
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’.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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