Youngsters seek residents’ ideas to create safer communities
20 October 2017
Young people want to generate ideas to help make people safer in their communities as part of Grangetown’s annual Safety Week campaign.
Safety Week, a collaboration between Cardiff University and Grangetown Community Action with support from Cardiff Council, is now in its third year and returns to the streets of Grangetown from 23 to 27 October 2017.
This year’s themes include road safety, first aid and youth safety.
Safety Week is part of the University’s Community Gateway project, which is building a partnership with residents in Grangetown to make the area an even better place to live.
As part of Safety Week, members of Grangetown Youth Forum will present the findings of a small focus group study of community safety in Grangetown carried out in conjunction with the Crime and Security Research Institute at Cardiff University.
The research involved innovative community intelligence tool ‘SENSOR’, a data capture application that allows users to identify and target the issues that have a disproportionate impact upon neighbourhood security.
The young ‘SENSOR champions’ plan to work with residents to agree community safety ideas that can be implemented with other partners such as South Wales Police, Cardiff Council and Cardiff University.
One of the young people, Saeed Ahmed, 17, said: “I live in Grangetown and this piece of work will be good to help keep us even more safe and secure by improving policing priorities. Also being involved in this as a SENSOR champion is doubly good.”
The biggest and best yet
This year’s Safety Week is the biggest and best yet and will feature door-to-door home safety visits from South Wales Police, South Wales Fire & Rescue Service, Neighbourhood Watch and Cardiff University students.
Other activities include free first aid training with St John Cymru Wales, water safety talks for young people, youth engagement and free cycle safety checks. Cyclists can also benefit from useful items donated by Halfords.
In addition, there will be a talk about substance misuse from Switched On, a multi-agency team which educates children, young people and practitioners about drug and alcohol issues throughout Cardiff and The Vale.
Last year saw the unveiling of South Wales Police and South Wales Fire and Rescue Service’s ‘Paws on Patrol’, which invites dog walkers to report crime while out and about. Paws on Patrol activities will be included this year on Tuesday, 24 October.
"The partnership working which takes place during Grangetown Safety Week leads to innovative and creative solutions which improve local safety and communication between residents and agencies."
Rosie Cripps, Community Gateway Project Manager, said: “This year, alongside a whole host of exciting initiatives and safety events, Cardiff University will be sharing research conducted in Grangetown, led by the Crime and Security Research Institute and Grangetown Youth Forum, with the aim of working together with residents and agencies to produce solutions to make Grangetown an even safer place to live and work.”
Ashley Lister, chair of Grangetown Community Action, said: “This year we will be building on our previous successes by delivering more first aid training and home safety checks, as well as information sessions with primary school pupils. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank all our partners in Cardiff Council, emergency services and third sector for their ongoing support in helping to make Grangetown a more safer and cohesive community.“
Neighbourhood Partnerships Officer for Cardiff City & South, Alex Gray, said: “Grangetown Safety Week is the essence of true partnership work in action. A set of identified issues that are fed through from the community via partners working in the area are addressed through a number of interesting and imaginative activities and events that make a real difference to the community.”
