Safer Hastings Partnership youth engagement project scoops Home Office award
| Published: 23rd July 2008 10:31 |
SHP youth engagement project scoops Home Office award
The Safer Hastings Partnership has a scooped a prestigious Home Office award for its work to engage with young people in our town through schools competitions.
The Home Official regional director for the South East, John Scott, presented the Safer Hastings Partnership will the Tilley Award for the South East region at an East Sussex celebration of the recent crime reduction figures, including a Hastings reduction of 17% (2006/07 compared to 2007/08).
Mr Scott has experienced our work to engage with young people first-hand, sitting on the judging panel of the SHP Schools Competition 2007 at the end of last year.
He praised the SHP's youth engagement work, quoting the Tilley Award judging panel, which said, "Very Impressive. This is a sustainable activity that changes behaviour in the target audience with positive reinforcement. It is not dependent on any one agency's resource commitment and [...] is simple yet effective."
This is the second instance of national recognition within the last month, as the SHP's Communications Manager, Natalie Williams, was a finalist and commended in the Local Government Communicator of the Year category at the National Good Communication Awards ceremony held at the Arsenal Emirate's Stadium at the end of June.
Chief Inspector Andy Gooch, chair of the SHP, said, "It's fantastic to be part of this award-winning partnership, because these awards recognise the innovative work we are doing here in Hastings to make people safer. Since the schools competitions launched, we have seen a significant reduction in the repeat victimisation of 11-18-year-olds, down from 10.4% in 2003 to 2.9% in 2007.
"We are also working hard to convince our residents that crime is falling in Hastings & St Leonards and has been for several years. Since the schools competitions began, we've seen a significant change in public perception, with the number of respondents in Partnership surveys stating youth crime as an issue of concern to them falling from 91% in 2004 to 29% in 2007."
