Olympic borough youngsters serve for their community

A police officer praised a community-based project a great opportunity to involve young people “in building a truly worthwhile and long lasting legacy” to the Olympic borough.

Teenagers from Waltham Forest are teaming up with local police officers to tackle anti-social behaviour and reduce fear of crime as part of a project named 'Develop', which encourages them to take responsibility for their local area and learn about the important contribution that their efforts can make to the community.

Police Constable Jeff Wade from the Metropolitan Police Service, who works on the Olympic Safety and Security Programme,said: “It has been a fantastic start to the project, the pupils we have worked with have been really keen and have enjoyed having their say.”

“These activities are a great opportunity for all members of the community to get involved in building a truly worthwhile and long lasting legacy to the Olympic for Waltham Forest.”

Pupils from year 9 and 10 at Walthamstow School for Girls and Rushcroft Sports Academy were invited to take part in phase 1, where teams were supplied with equipment such as cameras and maps and asked to identify good and bad points about their local areas, which included places they felt were intimidating or in need of development.

All the activities are delivered by officers from the Waltham Forest Safer Schools Team and local Safer Neighbourhoods Teams.

The next stage of the project is a problem solving workshop and involved local residents working with the pupils to consider potential solutions to the concerns raised.

The final stage will see the creation of initiatives to put their ideas into practice.

The project also strengthens understanding and relationships between the diverse communities as they are work together on raising pride in their local areas.

As part of London 2012's Changing Places Programme, it is launched within the five east London Olympic host boroughs include Nemham, Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Greenwich.

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