This year’s Neighbourhood Watch week saw the conclusion of a unique initiative in Northamptonshire between the Scouts and Neighbourhood Watch.
Over the last eight weeks, Towcester Neighbourhood Watch has been working with the 1st Towcester Scouts (Crusaders) group on their Community Impact badge: a badge specifically designed to encourage Scouts to take practical action in the service of others, in order to create positive social change.
The partnership began with a presentation on the background to Neighbourhood Watch and an open discussion and break-out session covering three themes: what is acceptable behaviour; what is not acceptable behaviour, and ideas for a safer town and community.
The next stage was a walkabout around Towcester interviewing local residents with a survey based on our themes and the opportunity for the Scouts to discover examples of unacceptable behaviour.
“Working with the Scouts has been really rewarding”, says the chair of Towcester Neighbourhood Watch Nick King. “They have been enthusiastic and creative with our partnership and came up with all sorts of ideas around our three themes. The highlight for me was the short film they produced where they professionally presented their findings and some excellent suggestions for a safer community from our young generation. Have a look at the film here.”
Scout leader Oliver Hunter added: “The Scouts really enjoyed working with the Neighbourhood Watch team, looking for issues in their local community and thinking of ways to address them. Making a short film of their findings was a great experience and counted towards several badges. We hope that their suggestions will help the team to improve the local area.”
Part of the challenge was a competition for a logo for a Youth Neighbourhood Watch and the winner was Ted Leeson (aged 13) and you can see his prize-winning logo below.
