Crime Reduction - Helping to Reduce Crime in Your Area

Community Engagement Seminar

Workshop 4

Neighbourhood Apprentices: Building Community Capacity in Tackling Crime

Shaun Whelan, Senior Consultant, Crime Concern
Dave Fernley, Crime Reduction Centre

Shaun Whelan explained the basis of the Neighbourhood Apprentices Programme:

• A Norwich Union sponsored pilot trainee scheme, focusing on local people receiving training and practical work experience to NVQ level 2 within the community. Accredited training and exit strategies should allow the skills and experience to benefit the community and the individuals in the long term.
  
  

• Currently running in 4 high crime areas for a one-year pilot with an external evaluation due to report in June 2004.
  
  

• The trainees take on a "community development" approach and are managed on a day to day basis through local neighbourhood projects but employed by Crime Concern.

Key points from the discussion

• It is important to base the trainee in the community where they will be working, not in council offices.
  
  

• The programme needs partnership commitment and needs to be based on problems and issues within the community.
  
  

• The programme could be put in place within a three-month timescale once the funding has been obtained - this allows time to engage with the community on key issues.
  
  

• Some of the possible barriers are the attitudes of agencies towards the community, generation gaps between young and old, and a fear that the initiative might be short term.
  
  

• Sustainability and possible extension of the pilot would be determined after the external evaluation, however, community involvement was needed to sustain the project.
  
  

• To date the pilots had been well received with communities welcoming something they did not see as coming from the establishment.

Download the full PowerPoint presentation 80 Kb

Crime Concern website:  www.crimeconcern.org.uk 

David Fernley introduced the Crime Reduction Basics training package which is a two and a half hour package to introduce basic principles for reducing crime to a wide range of groups in the community. He highlighted the fact that only 10% of the public were aware of CDRPs.

Key points from the discussion

• Advantages of this kind of training package:
  - helps to develop understanding
  - adaptable
  - modular
  - useful for schools/colleges
  - can be added to other sessions
  
  

• Disadvantages:
  - Different languages within communities (this is being worked on currently, focusing on hand outs initially)
  - Style - it needs to be sold in different ways
  - What's next - rolling expectations to target specific problems
  
  

• People who attended the sessions in Blackburn were interested and these had been expanded to other agencies. A grant of £10k had been made available to them.
  
  

• Ways to encourage involvement in being trained included incentives such as payment, lunches, providing future opportunities and promoting possible outcomes of benefit to the individual.
  
  

• Equal access to training required some focus on practical issues such as times, location etc.
  
  

• To avoid raising expectations which are unsustainable due lack of funding, the package should be targeted at areas where a difference can easily be achieved.
  
  

• Recipients of the training have included Neighbourhood Watch, Housing Associations, community centres, community groups, the elderly. CRC is working towards an evaluation in the next financial year.

Download the PowerPoint presentation 100 Kb

Crime Reduction Basics training package 

Last update: 31 March 2004