Pupils tackle anti-social behaviour in Waltham Forest

This article is published on the BBC London Website:

By Yixiang Zeng
BBC London

Youngsters from one of London's Olympic boroughs are working with police to tackle anti-social behaviour and reduce the fear of crime.

The project 'Develop', part of London 2012's Changing Places Programme, has been launched in Waltham Forest in preparation for the Games to make the community safer and more pleasant.

Metropolitan Police Constable Jeff Wade, who works on the Olympic Safety and Security Programme, said: "Some areas are heavily painted by graffiti, by removing this from the walls it will make people feel our community is safer and nicer.

"In the meantime, we organise people to paint community art pieces such as landscapes, like flowers."

Cameras and maps

Groups of children from Rush Croft Sports College and Walthamstow School for Girls are teaming up with police officers and their teaching assistants.

The pupils from year nine and ten have been given cameras and maps to photograph or film graffiti, broken windows and overgrown gardens as part of a task to identify blackspots in their community.

These photographs and footage will then be displayed and showed at a workshop at a later stage of the project.

Sean Reed, Assistant Head Teacher from Rush Croft Sports College, said: "Our school children are quite enjoying taking part in these activities and they are learning to be active citizens taking care of the places where they live and study."

The police added that it helps break the stereotypical image of associating young people with anti-social behaviour and knife/gun crime.

Waltham Forest councillor Liaquat Ali, who is responsible for Children and Young People, said: "By getting young people involved in this kind of project, we make sure they take pride of their ownership."

Getting adults involved

Apart from working with local youngsters as Develop's starting point, the project is also designed to involve other age groups at a later stage.

The next stage is a problem-solving workshop and involves older members of the community working with the pupils to consider potential solutions to the concerns raised. After that, the ideas will be put into practice.

At the final stage, an event is planned to bring all the schools together to showcase their ideas and discuss what they have been doing throughout the whole project.

According to PC Wade, the project might be introduced to other Olympic boroughs and then to other areas in the UK in partnership with local forces.