Celebrate Safe Communities! Whether you are planning a summer safety fair, a Neighborhood Watch expansion, or a meet and greet with local police and fire officials to keep your community safe during the summer months, the National Crime Prevention Council has a program, Celebrate Safe Communities, which offers support for your local efforts.
Celebrate Safe Communities (CSC) is crime prevention done the right way—local folks working with local law enforcement to address local issues. CSC spotlights communities’ crime prevention efforts, enhances public awareness of vital crime prevention and safety message, and recruits year-round support for ongoing prevention activities that help keep neighborhoods safe from crime and prepared for any emergency.
Since its inauguration in 2008, CSC has reached more than 500,000 Americans of all ages in 39 states and Washington, DC, with crime prevention messages and resources. Register your public safety event at www.celebratesafecommunities.org to join hundreds of other neighborhoods across the country working together to create safe communities.
A CSC event can be anything large or small that promotes community safety. Some communities hold block parties. Others host a neighborhood safety fair, a shredding event, or safety training program. Any effective strategy to engage your community to be proactive in reducing crime or the fear of crime or to prepare for any public safety emergency can become a CSC event.
Get a free website created for your organization, localize ready-to-use public service ads to promote your event, or partner with Kwikset’s home safety McGruff® Tour to help your community fight against burglary and home safety crime. These are some of the exciting incentives offered by CSC partners. Organizations that register will have access to free downloadable resources, training programs, and other resources, and the first 600 will also receive a starter kit with materials to hand out at events or to use in your agency crime prevention programs.
Resources in the starter kit include, such items as 100 each of Neighborhood Watch Needs You booklets, Tips With Thanks from McGruff the Crime Dog® pamphlets, McGruff silly bands, and plastic bags with tips for reporting crime. Other program materials are being developed based upon feedback from 2010 CSC participants. Some new items that will be available in 2011 include templates to localize and promote your event (including some in Spanish), comic books with updated images of McGruff and his nephew Scruff, and tips sheets on current crime trends.
Even if you are planning a summer event, we encourage you to plan now to also participate in Crime Prevention Month in October. CSC is a year-round effort to promote the participation of all people in neighborhood safety.
CSC is brought to you by the National Crime Prevention Council in partnership with the Bureau of Justice Assistance at the U.S. Department of Justice. CSC was developed in 2008 in partnership with the National Sheriffs’ Association to help extend your message of crime prevention and community safety.
For more information, visit www.celebratesafecommunities.org or www.ncpc.org.