THAMES Valley’s Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Barber has lent support to one of Neighbourhood Watch’s biggest ever recruitment drives.
A Better Place to Live is a national campaign aimed at boosting community participation in reducing the fear and likelihood of crime, and launched on Monday, March 6.
Now the office of the PCC has lent its support by donating £7,000 of funding which will provide resources for grassroots services.
The support will fund resource packs to help new volunteers, to help coordinators to increase memberships, and to encourage others to start their own groups and projects.
It is part of a larger package of support, totalling £25,000, which the PCC awarded to Thames Valley Neighbourhood Watch in April last year.
Matthew said: “One of my key areas of focus for Thames Valley Police is to strengthen community policing; to tackle neighbourhood crime, anti-social behaviour and help people feel safer where they live.
“Effective partnerships within communities such as local relationships with Neighbourhood Watch coordinators and volunteers play a role in achieving this.
“Neighbourhood Watch’s committed volunteers work hard to support the police in preventing crime while looking out for and providing reassurance to people in their communities to help reduce the fear of crime.”
He explained that he was “Pleased to support A Better Place to Live to help increase the number of Neighbourhood Watch volunteers and groups across the Thames Valley.
“Neighbourhood Watch has a great relationship with the police and we want that to continue with new people and areas joining the scheme.”
Paul Adkins, Chair of Thames Valley Neighbourhood Watch Association said: “Thames Valley Neighbourhood Watch are very pleased to support the nationwide Better Place to Live campaign which aims to recruit new members and also provide more support to existing members.
“We would like to thank Matthew Barber, Police and Crime Commissioner for his generous award, which makes this possible.
“In addition, we will be running local campaigns and projects across Thames Valley to target specific issues, which we will be announcing separately as they go live.”
Information about how to sign up for a Neighbourhood Watch scheme is available via:ourwatch.org.uk/joinNW
Details and resources for group coordinators are available: ourwatch.org.uk/betterplacetolive
