Back to case studies listing

Derby City

About

The Derby City Fair Share Trust panel granted costs for two Community Safety Officers, managed by the Derby Community Safety Partnership, which coordinates developments and initiatives in crime prevention, specifically in reducing the fear of crime - a significant issue in the local area.

The Community Safety Officers have led and coordinated a project, repairing and applying street art to the four subway areas in Sinfin, working in partnership with the Police, Community Cohesion, Youth Services, Anti-Social Behaviour Team, Community Pay Back, local schools, and Youth Offending Team. A number of consultation sessions were held across the community to incorporate all age groups. Open workshop sessions were carried out initially to gather the interest of young people, and this was extremely successful. Local faces were placed on walls with inspirational words and a montage of local community members’ larger faces as a show piece.

A celebration took place on 12 August with the opening of one of the subways by the Deputy Mayor Cllr Sean Marshall. The opening also provided information for local residents from various agencies including Neighbourhood Watch, Neighbourhood Teams, Police, and the local Fire Service. Ram FM attended the event, providing a variety of freebies for the residents, and Asda provided stocks where partner agencies volunteered to be the target. Raffle prizes were donated by local businesses such as Asda, KFC, Gala Entertainments, and Showcase. A total of £50 was raised and the proceeds were given to Scills, a local charity that supports adults with learning disabilities to develop and learn everyday skills.

As a result of the Subway Project, there is a lasting physical legacy in the area. Of more significance, however, is the level of community involvement the project attracted. Because of the sense of ownership that people now have with their local surrounding, there has been no vandalism in the area since the project finished.

Challenges experienced during this project included the oversubscription of young people to participate, and difficulties from statutory agencies to provide staff who could supervise the young people and support their work, as well as the work of artists over the weekend. In the event, however, local interest meant that lots of parents did attend and help staff the event so there was a ‘carnival atmosphere’.

Back to top