COMMUNITY SAFETY PROJECT to strengthen family support!            

Objective: Unite neighbors to reduce fear, loneliness, and isolation. Connected neighbors can protect each other, especially children. Engaged citizens can help prevent crime, child abuse, gang activity, predators, and sex trafficking. 

Popular attitudes among citizens! I don’t know much about crime. What can I do? I don’t trust my neighbors. I have a gun to protect my Family. Just lock up all the criminals! I don’t want to think about crime! I have a Security system. We pay the police to protect us! 

The problem! In many neighborhoods, neighbors go their separate ways, living behind walls, gates, and cameras. Many people never get to know or trust their neighbors. That needs to change because social isolation, fear, and distrust create a hostile environment, and we stop relying on one another to guide children. 

Who to contact? Community influencers eager to make cities safer and healthier for families. They mobilize the community to work together, promoting safety and raising awareness of its importance for everyone.

What is needed? Be aware of your local crime and violence statistics and the associated costs to taxpayers. Appoint proven successful volunteers to the Community Safety Committee who are committed to strengthening families, improving community involvement, and communication.

What is the goal? The goal is to plan, secure funding, hire, and train community members who reflect the neighborhood and speak its language. They collaborate with the police and other agencies but stay independent. They oversee coordinators working in neighborhoods to unite residents and create a safer environment for all families. 

The police: Over the years, youth crime has steadily risen, and hostility toward the police has grown as well. In neighborhoods with high crime rates, the police have gained too much power over residents, which has fostered distrust, hostility, and anger.  

Why is citizen involvement vital for youth safety? Engaged community members who know and trust one another can help reduce fear, anger, and abuse, and provide oversight of young people’s behavior. Every criminal, gang leader, child abuser, sex trafficker, and offender lives in someone’s neighborhood. Together, we can neutralize the threat. 

What are the benefits of a neighbor meeting? Every year, 400,000 children aged 11 to 15 join gangs, costing $566 billion annually. Citizens can support each other and their children by learning about crime and police presence in their neighborhoods. The national average is 1.5 police officers per 1,000 residents. When neighbors get to know each other and share community information, we can prevent crime and keep many children from joining gangs. Appoint a neighborhood leader, distribute local information about available groups and organizations, and encourage neighbors to share ideas and develop solutions for neighborhood issues. 

Cities need to hire and train Neighborhood Safety Experts. Non-profit groups should collaborate to establish a training center for Neighborhood Safety Experts who look like and speak the community’s language. Citizens should be trained to unify neighbors, manage anger, run meetings, and host neighborhood gatherings to share vital community information. This will help reduce fear and social isolation, improving neighborhood Health and safety. There are many benefits to strengthening neighbor support.

1. Involvement decreases social isolation. When neighbors know and trust one another, they take responsibility for the kids in the neighborhood and help prevent negative juvenile behavior and gang violence.
2. Involved neighbors can help lower the costs of juvenile delinquency, graffiti, arson, and smash-and-grab youth crimes. We need adults to step up and take charge of neighborhoods.
3. Improving communication helps neighbors stay informed and less vulnerable.
4. Strong families and neighborhood support help prevent youth misconduct and child sex trafficking.
5. Crime, violence, and shootings breed distrust, Anxiety, and anger, and can lead to mental and physical health issues.
6. When people trust and know a “Neighborhood Safety Expert,” they share information they wouldn’t tell the police, such as about drug dealers, child abusers, neglected kids, and illegal activities.
7. Neighbors can be encouraged to collaborate with newly released prisoners, immigrants, or inmates to help them integrate into the community, reducing fears of the unknown.
8. Involving neighbors, with support from “Neighborhood Safety Experts,” can reduce the need for extra police, saving taxpayers Money.
9. Citizens will feel safer and less likely to be suspicious of neighbors or buy guns for protection.
10. Seniors can be encouraged to babysit, organize activities for youth, assist with homework, or join an after-school Safe House program. We can reduce loneliness and Mental Health problems as neighbors feel needed.
11. When “Neighborhood Safety Experts” establish a network of neighborhood leaders, police can send criminal descriptions to those leaders, who can then inform all neighbors. Fast communication helps catch criminals more quickly and lowers illegal activity.
12. Neighborhood involvement helps develop new grassroots leaders who can later serve on community boards, city committees, and in politics.
13. When we empower families and neighborhoods, citizens become more self-reliant and rely less on government control.
14. Support and Education help citizens strengthen American democracy by encouraging involvement, keeping informed, and taking responsibility for family and neighborhood safety.

The post Attention City Leaders: Involvement Protects Children appeared first on Safe Kids Now Network.

Originally Published on https://safekidsnow.com/

Stephanie Mann Author, Crime and Violence Prevention Consultant

Author, Crime and Violence Prevention Consultant – 40 years

Founder/ExecDirector: Safe Kids Now – National Network to strengthen families, neighborhoods, and communities.

Author: 5 Prevention books on home, neighborhood, and city-wide safety.

Stephanie Authored "Alternatives to Fear: Guidelines to Safer Neighborhoods," which helped launch the National "Neighborhood Watch" program.

"Safe Homes Safe Neighborhoods: Stopping Crime Where You Live"
"The Adopt-a-Block Guidebook, "My first steps to a safe neighborhood," and "A Safe Neighborhoods Program Binder for City Leaders"

Latest books, "Empowerment Parenting: How to raise resilient children who become happy, self-reliant adults," empowers parents to help children develop the 3C's: Courage, Character, and a self-protective Conscience so they make good choices for their future. New book soon, "Magical YOU: Empowering Teens to Stay Safe and Healthy in an Unsafe World."

Hosted a national and international TV/Radio program from NY, "The Safe Kids Now Show," on aaumedia.com -

For more information, www.safekidsnow.com.