During volunteers week (1st-5th June 2020), the Northampton Town Community Trust and its project partners have been celebrating and thanking their various volunteers.
The Northamptonshire CrimeStoppers committee have won an award for Crime Awareness Committee of the year. Regional CrimeStoppers groups are made up of volunteers from different agencies all working towards raising awareness around anonymously reporting crime, reducing levels of crime and improving the safety of residents.
Our Premier League Kicks co-ordinator Anna Letts is part of the Northamptonshire CrimeStoppers committee. This anti-crime project is part of the committee's efforts to reduce crime levels by providing positive diversionary sporting activities for young people in key areas of the county. As well as free weekly football sessions based at four different locations, Northampton Town Community Trust staff deliver Fearless and anti-crime workshops in schools, with community groups and their Kicks groups to educate and raise awareness around knife crime, gangs, county lines and anti-social behaviour.
Work undertaken by Northamptonshire's CrimeStoppers committee:
The Northamptonshire CrimeStoppers committee has gone from strength to strength over the last 3 years. The committee's membership has grown and the dedication developed ten fold, with new and creative ideas for awareness raising becoming more forefront to their way of thinking and working. In the last 18 months, the committee has worked tirelessly to promote Fearless in and around the hard to reach communities within Northamptonshire. These communities are dealing with high levels of drug crime, violence, weapons, gang crime and other issues. The committee, using the Fearless and Crimestoppers message, have worked on new initiatives, facilitated engagement days and delivered campaigns in these areas to enable young people to find a way out of a life of crime, or find the information they need to help make the decisions to report information on crime, or walk away.
In doing so, the committee has:
• Delivered theatre productions to over 1,500 students
• Cut arson by 50%
• Facilitated events attended by over 700 people
• Delivered the Fearless message to over 10,000 students, with a further 4,000 due to be delivered to this year
• Worked with the Northampton Town FC Premier League Kicks programme to ensure Fearless is a part of their delivered workshops
• Funded a schools Knife Crime Rap to deliver the Fearless message to Northamptonshire students about the effects of Knife Crime.
Northampton Town's Premier League Kicks co-ordinator Anna Letts said: "It is fantastic to see that the committee have been recognised for all the work that they do. I am so pleased that PL Kicks is playing a part in this important work to help reduce crime, educate young people and make the county a safer place to be."
For more information please visit:
ntfccommunity.co.uk/pl-kicks
crimestoppers-uk.org/support-us/volunteer/volunteer-awards-2020
fearless.org