I felt it was appropriate to revisit a community safety blog from this time last year when I was very recently collating the responses to the local youth survey. The results suggest that young people feel safe using social media, 81% saying they either always or usually felt safe using various platforms. Many respondents should have been too young to use social media and parental supervision and no access were mentioned on several occasions. The results here may present complacency in terms of community safety especially when some of  the comments left by young people are read and the picture becomes less clear: “Social media is horrible as there is lots of negativity and bullying online , social media is very bad for mental health issues”, ” With Instagram I watch videos of people enjoying their life and when I turn off my life feels incomplete, but I usually feel safe” , ” There is cyber bullying but there is also good stuff about social media”, ” I don’t talk to strangers and block the ones who try to talk to me”, “My parents monitor my online activity quite strictly” & ” I don’t go on anything weird and I work in technology a lot so I am used to knowing what’s safe and what’s not.”   Having spoken to a few local young people last week about this very issue has convinced me that Social Media should be a local community safety concern  and that it can badly affect young people’s mental wellbeing and their physical health. This issue requires further discussions and I therefore  intend to meet with the NHS Health promotions team and other agencies involved in this area so expect some activity in the  future that is focussed upon young people’s safety and wellbeing within the context of Social media, for now let’s revisit some of my blog from December 2020. The difficult choices that we ask our young people to make

Social media, just how social is it? and how is it changing our lives and that of the communities? It is quite difficult to get a balanced view about the pros and cons, the benefits and the drawbacks, the uses, and abuses. It is an issue that is particularly relevant to community safety and I am hoping that I will be able to identify some of the main issues that affect young people through the recently launched youth survey. There is however so much misinformation out there and anybody can become confused and stressed by opinions and attitudes which we find difficult to evaluate or identify fact from fiction. The clear positives are the communications and the connectedness that the likes of Facebook and twitter can provide for us, social media for example is an important strand to the current work of the Our Place Camelon and Tamfourhill project. The different platforms are extremely effective at getting messages out to the community, highlighting local developments, and involving people directly with current issues. The downside to all this is the potential for bullying and intimidation, spreading nastiness and falsity and undermining positive community activities. Social media is democratic, that is everybody and anybody can contribute to the narrative, however this can open us all up to danger and risk, Have a look at his short film:

You couldn’t imagine that a modern teenagers life could  get any more complicated , but in many respects their lives have become ever more reliant upon  instant gratification with the constant pressures for peer acceptance and once you add in social media, this must become an ongoing stressful experience. Unfortunately for some young people their anxiety levels must go through the roof, their Image, friends and being popular, all accentuated and raised to previously unknown levels through the intense immediacy of social media platforms.  Now I don’t wont to sound over dramatic or cause concern where it is not appropriate , social media is more often than not a good thing , hey rock n Roll had its critics back in the day and I still have my collection of hard core punk vinyl , however young people have always required support and guidance and social media can place an additional burden  on them , their family and the wider community.  The local community safety strategy will be required to have empathy and understanding of these issues, in young people’s terms and as they experience these issues in their language. Local community safety will need to encourage relevant inputs and activities which can reassure parents and family about the welfare of their children when using social media whilst  also  equipping our young people with the confidence and self esteem to make the right decisions in often difficult and contradictory circumstances. I hope that through the youth survey and various focus groups to listen to young people explaining their experiences and concerns about using social media, how might they develop appropriate support, resources and information that would be useful to them and their peers and potentially also their families. I have had recent discussions with Neighbourhood Watch about how they might  make their services and provisions more relevant to young people and how we could better equip young people to deal with the risks that they may face online. This could be a strand of the local community safety strategy where we develop a young people’s scheme which is about them looking out for each other, whether that is online or generally out and about in the community. The key is to empower young people to have responsibility for finding their own solutions to tackle the relevant issues, that way any safety strategy is more likely to be effective. I have indicated in the past the possibility of setting up a Young Community Safety Volunteers Project which would develop and deliver peer information inputs and social media would be one of the key themes that I would like to explore with such a Group. 

Here are some online safety links:

https://young.scot/get-informed/national/four-tips-for-being-safe-on-social-media

https://tutorful.co.uk/guides/how-to-keep-kids-safe-online/social-media-safety

https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-centre/young-people

Top tips for 11-19s

Protect your online reputation: use the services provided to manage your digital footprints and ‘think before you post.’ Content posted online can last forever and could be shared publicly by anyone.

Know where to find help: understand how to report to service providers and use blocking and deleting tools. If something happens that upsets you online, it’s never too late to tell someone.

Do not give in to pressure: if you lose your inhibitions you’ve lost control; once you’ve pressed send you can’t take it back.

Respect the law: use reliable services and know how to legally access the music, film and TV you want.

Acknowledge your sources: use trustworthy content and remember to give credit when using others’ work/ideas.

A review of the canal clear up programme and some considerations for moving forward in the long term:

The Projects central aim was to deliver monthly Canal Clear ups and Conservation sessions and to be targeted and made available to local community organisations, groups of young people, schools and youth groups, and local families.  The Project was to be a collaboration and implemented as part of the wider community safety strategy for Camelon and Tamfourhill. The Project was developed and coordinated  by Our Place  through funding provided by the Great Places Falkirk Heritage Lottery Project.  

This was an activity-based Project with a community development ethos, the focus was to clear up the canal, but it was also a means of encouraging involvement and to contribute to the  process of putting the canal at the centre of the community: socially, culturally, and educationally. Additionally, the Project was facilitating a  community education approach with a focus upon environmental awareness and encouraging the local community to have a sense of ownership and responsibility for this historical and culturally significant resource. 

The Project was run for a fixed term period from April – October 2021, and is evaluated in terms of its wider community and environmental  impact and in relation to the learning experiences of the participants. A longer-term consideration is to establish this Programme as a sustainable activity which provides ongoing learning and development  opportunities for local people  and also continues to make a significant contribution to keeping Camelon and Tamfourhill: Tidy, Clean and Green.  

It was good fun in the canoe although it was hard work-my arms were very tired by the end. We could spot the litter but working out how to get to it in the canoe was tricky! I enjoyed people on the tow path saying Hi and thank you to us as we cleaned up the litter. It’s sad how much rubbish had been thrown in but glad I could help to clear it up.  (Hannah Rous: young volunteer)

The Programme and its  outputs: April -October 2021:

Each day was split into 3 distinct stages: Paddle pick up on the water, canal towpath litter pick & Learning evaluation workshops. Certificates of achievement and community volunteering awards were an important aspect of the Project. 76 people took part and everyone received a certificate of achievement, 20 Scottish Government Group challenge Saltire Awards were made and 98 hours of saltire volunteering credits were earned.

The school pupils responded well to the workshops when they often do not respond positively in classroom learning contexts, they had got a lot out of these sessions and participated really well ( Ankale Denovan: CLD Worker St Mungo’s High School)

Scottish Canals’ Activities Manager Matt Skilling:

“I have delivered many Paddle Pickups across the Lowlands Canals network since 2017 however this focussed community effort has been outstanding. The group have successfully created a programme of events over the 2021 season.  The group have engaged and involved a variety of local people which has brought a positive environmental impact particularly on the stretch of canal from TFW to Lock 16”Scottish Canals’ Activities Manager Matt Skilling:

The Canal project learning workshop brought a conclusion of activity and educational learning around plastics and the impact litter in waterways can have on the environment. Pupils were engaged with discussion about plastics, their uses, why we produce so much of it and how it’s a huge aspect of life (e.g. packaging). Pupils also thought about their own consumption and how they can reduce plastic litter and also plastic waste with some small changes that can be used within their everyday habits. With great discussion and learning about plastic facts with a interactive quiz, pupils gained insight to the consequences of plastic while also relating it to habits and behaviour. The project was a worthwhile experience that brought together a practical activity that benefited the community (canoe litter pick) but also the educational workshop that bridged the activity with the why. The project was well received by the pupils with many asking to do it again.’ Ella Gorman Education Enforcement officer, Waste Management, Falkirk Council

The opportunity to be participants within the canal clear up has given our youth groups the opportunity to engage in a fantastic outdoor learning experience in their own  community.

Some of our young people had never been on the canal before even though it is on their doorstep.

They were able to express their feelings on community issues and put forward their ideas whilst learning new skills  and engaging with other local children.

The wider community has enjoyed seeing the local youth participate in litter picks, providing great links for intergenerational work within the community going forward. Lynne Boslem Youth Worker: Tamfourhill Community Hub

An interesting and refreshingly positive aspect of the Canal Clear ups has been the young people’s workshops which have concluded the days clean-up work on both the canal and the towpath. The group who took part on Wednesday 21st July were tasked with thinking about where they lived and the places they played with their friends and to then consider some of the environmental issues at these places and to come up with their own plans and ideas for keeping these special places #tidycleangreen. I was really privileged to hear about all the locations the youngsters went to and were important to them, from the Roman Park in Tamfourhill, the places with the special named stones in Rowen Crescent and the skatepark in Falkirk. The group who were aged 8 -11 years old worked in groups of three or four and  a taste of their ideas  for improving and keeping their special places #tidycleangreen, can be found at this link: .

The Young Voices of the Future: We must save our Environment !!!

64 individual participant evaluation forms were completed , they were all asked what they had learnt form taking part, here is a brief sample of the responses:

• How stable the canoes are
• How many beer cans people throw into the canal
• The amount of people that smoke
• Canoeing is not dangerous
• Putting all he boats together as one
• Not to be afraid of the water
• Micro plastics get into the crops on our farms
• The amount of rubbish me and my partner found
• The amount of micro plastics in the world
• It was cleaner than we expected
• My Xbox has plastic

What was the part they had enjoyed the most?

• The canoeing or learning how to canoe x 40
• The Camaraderie
• Having a McDonalds for lunch
• The Litter Picking
• Helping the environment
• Climbing trees
• Family time and being part of cleaning up the area
• The Banter
• My parents helping out with the clear up
• Sitting on the canoe collecting plastics
• Making new friends

90 % of respondents said they would take part in these activities again , and when asked to rate the days activities on a scale of 1-10 the average score was 8

There Is no doubt in my mind that this was a very successful Project, it was an enjoyable learning experience for everyone who took part and community volunteering was recognised  through the Scottish Government’s Saltire Awards and also with certificates of achievement  being awarded to all participants. The positive impact upon the  canal  between lock 16 and The Falkirk Wheel has been notable, and this has been acknowledged by the wider community encouraging many to take an interest in this project. Local people made positive comments from the tow path during the sessions and this support was also expressed through social media.  The canal is a key aspect to the local community and to see local people connecting with it positively in this way and within the context of the local community safety strategy has been a rewarding and very worthwhile experience. The climate emergency and the requirement to move towards  Net Zero should accentuate the  significant role that can be played by the canal and that this needs to  involve the local community. Community safety is integrally linked with environmental improvement,  and  it is therefore advisable that the existing partners and other stakeholders  meet in the coming weeks to examine how they can resource and support a longer term #tidycleangreen project based around the canal network

This Programme was supported by the following agencies & organisations :

• Tamfourhill Community Hub
• Scottish Canals
• Carmuirs Primary School
• St. Mungo’s High School
• Forth Valley Recovery Community
• The Conservation Volunteers
• Tidy, Clean & Green Community Group
• Falkirk Council Waste Management
• Great Place Falkirk
• Our Place Camelon & Tamfourhill

A key outcome of the Community Safety Strategy is that  Young people will have increased opportunities to have their voices heard about the issues that affect their safety within the community, and within this I gave an undertaking that there will be ongoing consultation and engagement with young people through  streetwork contact, youth surveys and through the formation of a Young Peoples Community Safety Focus Group. I have therefore spent time over the spring and  into autumn being out and about pounding the  highways and byways of Camelon and Tamfourhill. You may have read some of my earlier blogs highlighting the Cookouts in the Parks  and the street-based sessions and some of the details about those conversations  that I have had with young people at Nailer Road Park, Easter Carmuirs Park, at lock 16 and at the MUGA on Mariner Street.

Although I haven’t yet been able to establish a young people’s focus group, I have begun to analyse the youth survey responses and similarly collated the  detailed recordings from  the streetwork sessions. I am now able to summarise the many voices of local young people  and highlight  the main  issues that have so far been confirmed through these engagement activities.

Let’s briefly look at the Youth Survey responses: I received 77 completed and partially completed surveys, 73% of respondents were between the ages of 12-18 years old, 51% were females, 47% Male and 2% stated they were neither. The important data showed that 73% of young people felt either always or  usually safe when they were out and about in the local area, of concern however are the 27% who only either feel safe sometimes or unfortunately rarely or never.  The important considerations for young people if they are outside and using facilities like MUGAS or the park are that there should be no bullying , 65% considered this to be either very or quite important , the locations should be light up and the facilities themselves required to be of a good standard with little mess or littering. The top five community safety concerns for young people were , and in this order of significance: 1: Gangs and violence, 2. Bullying, 3 Their Personal Safety , 4 Drug and substance use and 5. Alcohol. Young people sited three methods or places where they would want to learn more about these community safety concerns, and in this order, they were: 1: School, 2: In workshops with their friends and 3: In a youth group or club or 4: online through accessing websites.

A key consideration derived from the survey results for young people’s safety in the community is that outdoor activities or places where they meet up should be at light up locations and where there is no bullying and with these places having  little mess or litter. Young people felt most safe when they were with friends they knew and trusted , thus strong peer relationships are  a significant factor in young people’s perceptions and experiences of being and feeling safe throughout Camelon and Tamfourhill.

My period of street engagement was interesting and insightful and involved a wide and diverse range of discussions , I very much appreciated young people’s willingness to discuss issue openly and honestly and to give myself and colleagues respect and trust through these engagements.   Some topics were of a very sensitive nature and some issues should be of  concern to the wider community and other agencies. I noted on several occasions that young people lacked knowledge of certain issues like alcohol and substance use and were unaware of risk taking and the  consequences of taking or consuming different substances for themselves and their families. There was no obvious source of support, advice, or places where they would feel they could access such services or support. A recurring concern highlighted in several discussions was mental health and wellbeing and a need for appropriate  local support and advice  Taking these discussions and survey findings I am proposing some areas of youth development. These provisional proposals are concerned  with  improving young people’s  safety through  reducing risk taking by  providing new opportunities for young people to engage  with positive and healthy  activities, provide community development opportunities  and enable young people to access appropriate  support, information, and advice.

This is a provisional or draft set  of proposals, and the details will need to be worked through, but its safe to say that future youth activity will be couched in a community development context and that community involvement will be underpinning any youth strategy. This approach will ensure that new  youth activities are going to be  driven by local community safety priorities and the aspirations of  young people.

• There needs to be safe outdoor activity programmes operating throughout Camelon & Tamfourhill, the activities will need to be based upon young people’s existing interests and they will  require  to be supported locally so that they are long term and sustainable. In the first instance, through a  grant awarded by the Camelon Sports Hub we will be piloting a Programme of Twilight Sports sessions which will operate on a Friday evening , after school and run into the early evening, will be targeted at 10-16 years old and will take place at MUGAS and parks in Camelon & Tamfourhill, the Pilot Programme will run from December to March 2022.
• Linked to the above proposal is the need to negotiate the involvement of young people at key locations with  programmes of outdoor learning and personal development opportunities.
• Its critically important that we support young people with planned community development projects at Camelon Juniors Car park, Easter Carmuirs  MUGA situation and other initiatives , they require an input and sense of ownership of emerging or developing community development projects.
• Establish youth information resources, support, information, and advice services for young people with a particular focus upon mental wellbeing and providing reliable information about personal risk taking. There may be potential opportunities to progress this with the support of NHS Health Promotions.
• Implement a programme of detached youth work throughout Camelon and Tamfourhill and to be focused on locations where young people are at risk of getting involved with anti-social behaviour and risk-taking behaviour, it should be targeted at 14+ years and be linked to support around substance and alcohol issues and the negotiation of activity programmes as described above.
• A young people’s Focus Group should be established which utilises youth friendly versions of the Place Standard Tool in order to carry out peer research and make recommendations for the development of local facilities and youth provisions. This will also provide valuable insight into young people’s aspiration for the development of their local community.   
• Look for opportunities to establish a supported pathway for young people to get into employment and training and target those young people furthest away form the employment pipeline.

At this stage this is a direction of travel rather than a detailed  plan, it is in part aspirational but is in the main deliverable. I would welcome comments and contributions and off course the involvement of  local volunteers will be essential as will a buy in from statutory agencies and services in order to realise the different aspects of this youth focused community safety initiative.
 I will provide details about the Twilight Sports sessions when we are ready to kick off the pilot project, hopefully early next month.  

A very topical  question as Glasgow is now engrossed in COP26 and the Climate Emergency dominates our media both social and mainstream. The old adage think Global act local seems extremely  relevant and undoubtedly the impact of our environmental  actions locally will affect the planet wholesale, but equally worrying is how that initial local impact then bounces back to bite us all in the bahookie a second time. The mess in our streets can  make our daily lives miserable and hazardous but the bigger story is how that detritus then ends up in our waterways and the  oceans and then ultimately in our food chain and then it comes back to our community to poison ourselves and our families through our diets, other consumptions and the quality of the air and environment around us.

Back in April of this year I supported a groups of young people from Camelon and Tamfourhill to take part in canal clear up day which  also involved an environmental learning workshop , let’s look back to an earlier blog when I noted the following:  A recurring theme throughout the Canal clear ups was how our littering actions locally actually impact upon the world globally and then come back to affect the quality of our lives locally. A big circle of environmental damage and pollution that will affect every one of us in our daily lives. The young people who took part in the workshop sessions held at Tamfourhill Community Hub came up with highly creative ideas about how we can start to reduce the damage that we are causing by our constant use and dependency upon plastics. Their ideas are detailed in this blog of 20th April 2021 https://opcamelontamfourhill.co.uk/2021/04/20/

It is rather disturbing when you take a moment to reflect upon how climate change will affect the communities of Camelon and Tamfourhill; Climate Change will significantly impact upon our :safety in the outdoors, our safety in the home and upon our personal health and  wellbeing, I attended a recent community safety webinar and here is a concerning list drawn up by the participants of how climate change will affect us locally:

• Regular flooding of our homes and streets and communal spaces like parks.
• Increased spread of disease through broken sanitation and sewage systems.
• Accidents and drownings through flooding.
• A significant increase to the cost of our home insurance.
• Erosion of the land and fertility of the soil.
• Disruption to our transport networks and infrastructures greatly reducing our mobility and connectedness.
• Wildfires and the  destruction of forests.
• Unsafe and polluted  beaches.
• Civil unrest, increase  in criminality and anti-social behaviour.
• Isolation, mental health issues and a higher incidence of drug and alcohol dependency.
• Harder to access health and social care services.
• Economic disruption leading to unemployment and  increased levels of poverty.

I think I will stop there as this list is extensive and to be honest never ending , these circumstances get worse as these affects will not be experienced universally as those already disadvantaged by inequalities:  in health, poor housing and poverty will be much worse affected by the climate emergency than those geographic areas and communities that are socially and economically better off. In other words, If you live in an already socially and economically  disadvantaged community then to use a rather unfortunate and overused cliché: this is the perfect storm.  

Cop 26 in Glasgow offers some hope of dialogue with resultant  action on a global macro level, but in terms of community safety we also need to be taking local actions immediately and with absolute urgency. I would want to positively  emphasise  that as individuals, families, and communities that we can be a part of the solution and that we can play a critical role in bringing about the changes that our planet requires through our immediate local actions. The current crises impacts on us locally, but the solutions involve actions at distinct levels , the solutions to this Climate Crises are therefore  dynamic and interdependent:

• Macro, Global  & Structural : This is where the onus is on national governments ,however  we must ensure they act and listen to our concerns and demands. Multinational companies and governments (local & national )  must be held to account , it’s  the current economic system versus  the planet, as individuals and communities we must keep pressure on the decision makers and our elected representatives from Community Councils, the Local Authorities and through to our governments in Edinburgh and London. We need greater fairness, and we need to combat poverty and inequality , we need economic and climate justice for our most vulnerable  local communities.
• Local: & Community:  The actions we take locally are critically important and we can look no further than to some of the ideas and strategies identified by the young people who took part in our canal clear up workshops for a source of direct action and activity. The establishment of our #tidycleangreen group (https://opcamelontamfourhill.co.uk/tidycleangreen/ ) is an excellent example of the types of activity that we need in order  to look after our communal green spaces and parks, to tidy them up and keep  them greener and cleaner thus facilitating sustainability and greater biodiversity. Community growing projects and establishing local food production and distribution networks can contribute to combating poverty especially  through aligning these initiatives with the local food pantry’s. As a community we can  encourage positive  behaviour change through promoting  positive nudge activities, and this particular approach will be addressed locally in the near future  through the #tidycleangreen groups creative messaging project which has been made possible through the funds the Group secured from the Councils Environmental Improvement Fund.  Local youth workers and community activists can take part in carbon literacy training, and we can then start to run our Community Hubs and buildings on a net zero basis, reducing our carbon footprints and delivering services locally that are sustainable and have no negative environmental impacts. An opportunity currently exists  through the Community Climate Action Plan (CCAP) The  application process is now open and  Keep Scotland Beautiful will be  supporting several communities to develop their own unique plan to address the climate emergency. Full details can be found here: https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/news/oct-2021/applications-for-community-climate-action-plan-programme-now-open/ The programme will involve a set of workshops with community members, empowering them to find opportunities for climate action in all areas of community life. 
• Individual & personal: This  is about changes to our own behaviours and everyday actions,  and this is where the  process of community and societal change often begins ,this can be about recycling or upcycling, taking part in a litter pick or some guerrilla gardening , it might involve campaigning work or just ensuring we separate  our rubbish out for the appropriate bin collections.

Here are some useful  links which are especially relevant as Scotland and Glasgow hosts cop26 for the next 2 weeks:

Links and further information from  :

https://www.iacdglobal.org/2021/11/01/

https://www.gov.scot/news/cop26/

https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/community-and-place/cop26-scottish-youth-climate-programme/

https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/keep-scotland-beautiful-at-cop26/

https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/climate-change/climate-change/climate-emergency-training/

Tamfourhill Youth Group with the assistance of McDonalds Restaurants on Glasgow Road carried out a litter pick at the Juniors Car Park on the morning of Wednesday 13^th October, and this was greatly appreciated as it fully prepared that location for the Gather and Play event scheduled for the Friday. The Group worked tirelessly  to clear the area of rubbish. McDonalds who are taking their commitment to keeping Camelon and Tamfourhill #tidycleangreen very seriously and they awarded the group and the volunteers with a complimentary lunch and drink back at the restaurant. A big think you to Rachael at McDonalds for her hospitality and also thanks to the hard work of herself and staff team to help the youth group rid the CJFC car park of detritus , rubbish and fly tipping, and yes, we did find a McDonald’s drinks cartoon in the bushes, and it was duly removed and binned.   

After the Group were fully fed and watered, we all walked up through Easter Carmuirs Park to the Falkirk Wheel where the group would conclude the programme of canal clear ups which had been funded though the Great Place Falkirk Heritage Lottery Project. The Canal Clear ups had begun back in April of this year and have run consistently throughout the year with groups from the local schools: Carmuirs Primary, St Mungo’s Secondary, Youth Groups from Tamfourhill Community Hub along with a family group and a delegation from the Forth Valley Recovery community that have all participated and made a massive contribution to keeping the canal and the  towpaths #tidycleangreen.

Credit is especially due to the Spar stores on Camelon Main Street who have made a very generous donation to the catering at the Gather and Play day and also the Community Fun Day in Easter Carmuirs Park , and McDonalds restaurants who have supported two recent community litter picks and provided tremendous hospitality for the young volunteers

The autumnal sun shone on a day of greening , creativity and safe place making at the car park area of Camelon Juniors Football Club. The location  historically has  had a negative reputation for anti-social behaviour, so the Community Safety Event: Gather & Play was organised to encourage a new perception and experience of how the location could be used safely and redeveloped for the betterment of the local community.  Camelon Arts Project facilitated workshops which focused upon  hands on creativity that identified themes which could be further developed into local permanent public art works , they also provided  tote bag designing and a display of local peoples sign writing and these activities all contributed to the days creative themes. A community artist led an all Games Allowed session which involved inventing new streets games and the Tidy, Clean and Green Group provided a pop-up park with children’s games and a bulb planting stall. There was a very informative stall form Frog life,  and the staff and young learners form Camelon Early Years and Childcare centre had a detailed exhibition of their community involvement.

Camelon Juniors Social Club provided everybody who attended with a fabulous lunch, and this was a magnificent catering effort to feed and water the 150 plus local people who came to take part in the days programme. 

The Community Safety Engager form the Our Place Camelon & Tamfourhill Project facilitated a participative workshop where young people , children and families could discuss and offer their s  visions and aspirations for the making the area safer and to also consider how the location could be transformed from being a community safety  problem into a positive community asset.  A prominent theme was the need for a safe play area for younger children and suggestions as to how the area could be better landscaped to include a seated relaxed social space but also with an area where children could build dens and have safe adventurous  play in the  outdoors. Traffic concerns and the dangers of children having to play in the nearby streets was raised consistently and it was highlighted that local people and other agencies could work together with the aim of  addressing these issues, realise aspirations and form partnerships which could  enable some of these community safety priorities to be successfully and creatively resolved.

Work will continue and further community meetings and activities will be arranged which encourages ongoing discussions and also brings people together to consider a plan of action so that some of these community aspirations for the Camelon Juniors Car Park  might be realised. This is the start of a journey, and the Our Place project will be there to support local people to take whatever course of action they feel is the most appropriate and useful.

For further information or to get more involved please contact: John R Hosie: Community Safety Engager for Our Place Camelon & Tamfourhill on 07391524528 or email at:  communitysafetyengager@tamfourhilltro.co.uk 

A hands-on day of games, greening, safe place making and art

Friday 15^th October 11am-4pm at Camelon Juniors Football Ground Car Park

 

The Camelon Juniors Football Club Car Park and its immediate environs have historically been viewed as a problematic area for the local community with a longstanding high incidence of anti-social behaviour . The situation was exacerbated last year when a fire badly damaged a container within the football ground which was being used as a temporary changing room facility due to the COVID pandemic. This concern for the location and the security of the football club were consistent themes that were raised through the local community safety consultations that took place throughout 2020 and early 2021, and in response to these specific community safety concerns  a multi-agency group was convened by Falkirk Council to look at strategic solutions for both the security of the football club and improving the location for the benefit of the wider community. The local community safety strategy  advocates a partnership approach with a focus upon community-based solutions and in this context, it was advocated that:  a community engagement and development process involving all the local stakeholders  was required as this would be  the most effective way of transforming the space from being a negative location into a community asset

The Our Place Camelon & Tamfourhill Community Safety Engager therefore  began an engagement process with the key stakeholders.

 A tenants survey took place in  Jan/Feb 2021 which  confirmed that local tenants would like to see the area transformed through creative and green projects. The football club were supportive of this approach and in particular were keen to see the perimeter wall of the Football ground upgraded in a creative way and to encourage the wider community to participate with that process.

Throughout May/July 2021 further audits of the spaces  and consultations with stakeholders and local tenants  took place to collect views and ideas as to  how that location could be reimagined, redeveloped, and better used. This included children’s street games taking place on the car park and an ongoing commitment from the Tidy, clean and Green Group and the Forth Valley Recovery Community to keep the area cleared of litter and dog mess and further support form Falkirk Council has seen the installation of temporary CCTV and the clearance of the overgrown area next to the canal towpath. 

The sustainable long-term solution to this area will necessitate a collaborative approach and with the involvement and commitment of the Camelon Arts Project, along with Our Place Camelon & Tamfourhill, The Tidy, Clean & Green Group and community artist Mark Bleakley’s  All Games Allowed Project, the next phase of this engagement process will take place on Friday 15^th October when there will be the Gather & Play Community Safety Event:  This will involve a day of drop-in creative workshops and games, cleaning and greening, and temporary interventions at Camelon Junior’s car park .This is a bit of a taste and try day where local people can come and experience some of the ideas that have already been suggested  to improve the car park and its surrounding area: The drop-in event will run from 11am – 4pm and will include the following workshops from Camelon Arts:

• All Games Allowed with Mark Bleakley
• Tote bag printing with Alice Dansey-Wright
• Mural painting workshop based upon the football grounds perimeter wall with Gregor Horne & Theo Christy (Gallery Malmo)
• A temporary exhibition of Canal College Artists’ sign paintings
• The launch of our Camelon and Tamfourhill calendar.

In addition

• The Tidy, Clean & Green Community Group  will host their first pop up park with children’s games, and this will  provide an opportunity for families and children to experience what a safe play area and family social space might be like at that location.
• There will be food and drink provided free of charge,
• A great prize can be won  for a day out at the Falkirk Wheel.

Most importantly the Event will provide opportunities for further discussions and engagement  to take place with the community safety engager, Camelon Arts , the supporting artists, the Tidy, Clean and Green Group  and with Falkirk Council. The longer-term aim is to establish a community  agreed plan which will contribute to making this area safer, and to also listen to peoples wider aspirations for their neighbourhood, hopefully the Gather & Play approach will inspire more  local people to get directly involved with that community development process.  

Reallocation of Street Space and safer use of our neighbourhoods

To acknowledge last weeks national #CarFreeDay I thought it was worthwhile to revisit this Blog from exactly one year ago in September 2021.

Traffic and roads is one of the local community safety themes with car usage and a lack of safe crossing locations being a notable concern for the community. During the COVID lockdown people have enjoyed taking to the streets on foot, bicycle, skateboard and scooter and the clean air and quieter roads have had many health and well being benefits. The development of our local community safety strategy will be required to create and sustain this new social and health positivity. A possible and very practical means of achieving this would be for Camelon and Tamfourhill to become Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. This may mean roads being closed for periods of the day, for example outside local schools so that overtime there is a culture change where we no longer expect there to be motor vehicles within a given distance from any school. As the wearing of seat belts and drink driving are no longer considered to be sociably acceptable so will the presence of cars near schools be expected or allowed. The benefits are many , the safety of our children and young people and a reduction on the school car run and its environmental damage, healthier parents and children as walking and cycling become the new school run.

Consider how you and your family could benefit from a living in a Low Traffic Neighbourhood.

In my role as community safety engager I have been invited to participate in regular multi agency discussions chaired by the Leader of Falkirk Council Cecil Meiklejohn , this will put various local community safety issues onto the agenda and in particular the issue of road safety and traffic management will be a priority consideration for this Group. As always my focus will be to put the community at the front and centre of any new safety initiatives, so please watch this space for opportunities to be involved with shaping particular plans and actions.

Often our problems are ones of perception and if we change the view then we can change the narrative. I therefore would propose that instead of putting up big aggressive signs that say a road or street is closed that we put up cheerful signs that exclaim the road or street is open to : walking, cycling, skateboarding , wheel chair access and just about any form of sports, games and exercise, this below is the kind of signage that I am talking about:

My colleague Dan was recently highlighting the Road Safety Trust who will provide funds for councils and communities to devise, plan and implement improvements to road safety and this could be one avenue we pursue locally in order to improve road and traffic safety.

I want to finish this week on a high note and ask you to consider what it might be like if we began to transform our neighbourhood into a Low Traffic neighbourhood. On the 15th October we will launch our first #tidycleangreen pop up park as part of the Gather and Play event at the Juniors Car park, this will be a strictly no car allowed but all games allowed event, a low traffic neighbourhood in action, please come down and have a look and enjoy the space in a creative, safe and green way.

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I have been involved in recent discussions about the provision of safe play facilities for younger children and families and this has become an emerging theme in relation to the local community safety agenda. This matter will be raised again over the coming weeks and will be significant in relation to the Gather and Play Event which is scheduled for the CJFC car park and surrounding area on 15th October 2021. I will be writing a detailed blog about this event nearer the time but for now I thought it was worthwhile to look back to a section from a previous blog where I was promoting the importance of outdoor learning and play for children and the need for our communities to have safe play spaces

John Muir the Scottish conservationist and an advocate of children’s play and exploration in the wildness of the outdoors and who I have quoted in the title of this article knew the value and necessity for younger people to engage fully with and explore their natural environment. Post Covid I believe we need to be championing the cause for greater outdoor learning for children and families and acknowledge the healing power of the outdoors. There are a variety of local opportunities where young people could potentially better engage with their outdoor environment and where they could recapture a sense of wildness and freedom which is uniquely gained from unstructured and unsupervised play in the great outdoors.   

If we consider the landscape of our outdoor parks, open spaces, and common grounds in Tamfourhill and Camelon and then ask, are they safe and conducive to allowing our children and young people to explore, take calculated risks and bond with their peers and allow them to affirm with the natural world, and if the answer is, they are not, then they must be a local community safety concern. This perspective was echoed in the community safety survey and has been highlighted in Focus groups and with some of the agencies that I have met with, rubbish, fly tipping, detritus, drug use and Anti-social behaviour have all been sited as reasons why our open spaces and common grounds might not be considered safe. Another historical factor at play here has been the steady erosion of available open spaces for children to play. In Scotland since the industrial revolution children have one ninth of the roaming room they had in earlier generations. Childhood is losing its ancient commons of woodlands, parks, and heaths and with the modern fixation with using technology, devices and computer screens that alienation from the natural outdoor world has been further accentuated. Play for children has become enclosed indoors whilst outdoors signs and messaging bark at children like vicious guard dogs: NO CYCLING, NO SKATEBOARDING, NO BALL GAMES, NO SWIMMING, PRIVATE KEEP OUT!!!! These mantras require to be challenged and this is touched upon through a current Project that is being carried out by my colleague and commissioned community artist Mark Bleakley called “All Games Allowed” and this project will be an important part of the Gather and Play event taking place next month at the CJFC Car park. Needless to say it turns the No ball games allowed approach on its head and creates a contrary safe space where younger children’s street games in public spaces are positively encouraged . I will return again to this activity and wider event nearer the time.

In the months ahead it makes considerable sense to be encouraging greater outdoor experiences, for us all, but especially for our children and young people. I know there will be genuine concerns that leaving children unsupervised in open and wild spaces is far to risky and increases stress levels for parents and family members. It would however be legitimate to ask the question the other way around, can we afford not to allow and encourage this in the post COVID world? There is a balancing act required but for certain the wellbeing and mental recovery of children and young people must be the critical and determining factor. The safety of our open spaces must be a local community safety concern and the provision of safe play facilities for families and children and priority.

“As part of a wider recovery
process, children should be
encouraged and supported to spend
time outdoors, playing with other
children and being physically active,”
say Play First UK. “This is not an
either-or decision. Social connection
and play offer myriad learning
opportunities and are positively
associated with children’s academic
attainment and literacy.”

All good on the streets and parks of Camelon and Tamfourhill :

As I have described  in my recent community safety blog: , https://opcamelontamfourhill.co.uk/2021/07/13/community-streetwork-and-community-safety/

I have been taking to the streets in the last couple of months in order to engage with the young people of our local communities , my task has been to listen to their views and experiencers of living locally and to confirm their particular community safety  priorities. Although the main focus of these sessions has been young people, I have also been very fortunate to have met and engaged with local parents. This process  has been very successful and has greatly benefited from a period of hot and sunny weather  and through holding two community cookout sessions in the Nailer Road and Easter Carmuirs Parks. In this respect I would like to thank Dave Park who has volunteered his time and his considerable outdoor cooking skills which have significantly contributed to the success of these street and park based family and young person engagement sessions.  

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I will off course be collating all the conversations that I have had into  a coherent report and will be making a number of recommendations and proposals about how the community and partner agencies can work together to develop appropriate local youth provisions and create new opportunities which will contribute to making the  community safer. Through my street presence I have been supporting young people to complete the local youth survey and have also been facilitating some snapshots about young peoples understanding of the risks around consuming alcohol and using a wishing tree to assist young people and families to imagine how aspects of the community like Easter Carmuirs Park could be further developed in the future. I can’t make these aspirations happen, but we can work together to form a plan of action and ,most importantly we must be able to get local people involved, including the youth of the area, as without local people coming forward to support these aspirations, we will not be able to translate them into reality. There is no money or resources currently available so the reality is that the community will need to be organised and prepared to roll up their sleeves if these wishes are to ever be realised.  As things stand this is the beginning of a process , a  conversation that will hopefully lead to community action which will produce tangible outcomes that will contribute to making the community a safer, happier, and more attractive place to live.

I have been really impressed by the willingness of the younger members of the community to come forward and make really good suggestions about new facilities and activities and how we can make the local area a better and safer place for local young people and their families.  Many of these ideas revolve around our local parks and the facilities and activities which could be provided from them and the tone  of this has been enthusiastic, positive, and constructive. There are  clearly big challenges out there and I will be endeavouring to involve the key agencies in partnership with the local community to begin a  development process which will deliver in the long term a safer community.

The Plan going forward:

I will be continuing with the Streetwork approach over the next few months , the weather may not be as good as I have enjoyed over the recent weeks and the nights will be fair drawing in , however  where possible and practical I aim to continue with this street-based approach to community engagement and in the furtherance of delivering the community safety strategy. Local youth provision is a key local community safety  concern, so I need to ensure that young people are fully involved and empowered to shape that provision and that the community has the capacity and capability to support future local youth activities.  This therefore is an ongoing process and I hope to be able to support some new local activities  over the winter months and I will be actively looking to involve local volunteers with any such developments , so watch this space for new opportunities to get involved.

During the October school holidays I intend to have some young people involved with a community safety activity day which will involve a litter pick  sponsored by McDonalds Restaurant on the Glasgow Road in Camelon , the participating young people will have their lunch provided at McDonalds and in the afternoon, they will get to carry out a paddle pick up on  canoes on the canal and led by Scottish canals.  Please get in touch if you know any young people 11-16 years old who would like to take part in this community safety activity day. The October week will conclude on Friday 15^th October with a community event being held at the CJFC car park , the Gather and Paly, Safe Place Making Day will include a pop up park, children’s games and some creative workshops, there will also be food and refreshments  available, I will go into this community event in greater detail in a future community safety blog,  I can however announce that this  this day will be open to all local people and is part of a wider project to make that specific location safer and of better use to the local community.

If you are interested in these events or the young peoples community safety day in October please get in touch with myself at communitysafetyengager@tamfourhilltro.co.uk or 07391524528 or leave a comment in the box below and I will get back to you ASAP. Regards John

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 [JH1]

One of the biggest challenges I face as the Community Safety Engager will be reassuring people that for most of the time, they are safe and to reduce their anxiety and fear about crime and who is considered to be responsible for causing crime within the local community. The community safety survey found that 64% of respondents felt that the fear of crime and the need for reassurance was a noticeable and fairly significant problem in the local areas.

In November 2020 the Scottish Community Safety Network, published a significant piece of research. ‘The Scottish Picture of Antisocial Behaviour (ASB)’ report, produced by Robyn Bailey, Social Researcher for the Scottish Government, who was commissioned to research into ASB in terms of how common it is, which types are most common, who is engaging in it and what is driving it. I know many people cannot be bothered with facts and figures; but it is in my view worth pondering over some of Robyn Baileys findings, as they are revealing and, in some respects, consistent with many local peoples experiences. However, when we look at the national picture this is suggesting that problems with ASB are actually falling.

The research found that Levels of ASB have decreased over the past 10 years and the public have noticed this decline in their areas, nevertheless, those living in the most deprived areas, in socially rented housing and in large urban areas, as well as younger people, are more likely to perceive ASB issues in their area. The consultation work I carried out in 2020 echoed these concerns and I noted a high level of concern about the connection between poverty, lack of opportunities and the very local levels of ASB. It would therefore not be unreasonable to conclude that if we do not address poverty and inequality then the same local neighbourhoods will continue to suffer from disproportionately higher levels of ASB

The next observation is that although youth crime rates in Scotland are falling, the percentage of people who view young people hanging around on the streets as ‘problematic’ has continued to grow (Neary et al 2013) This seems to be due to stereotyping of young people congregating in public, which leaves them in a difficult position: just being young and hanging about can make these youngsters seem to be unfairly criminalised and often treated like modern day folk devils. This process over time leads people to think that groups of young people hanging about is in itself a form off ASB. If the levels of ASB are actually decreasing as the research is suggesting then a significant part of feeling safe has to be about changing some peoples perceptions of what young people are actually doing when they hang about in groups. They are often just socialising and not actually involved with ASB and the research would seem to support this observation.

As always, the challenge is in responding to these circumstances in ways that are effective, and which bring about change for the better. The research finds that in reality ASB is more often caused by people in their thirties and not teenagers, and the most common ASB is unwanted and intrusive noise. The best course of action that is suggested will require the community and agencies to try and correct these false historic perceptions. The recommendation is that we need to adopt community-led approaches to tackling ASB. My role therefore as community safety engager should be key and central to facilitating, engaging, and supporting the community to develop responses and opportunities which will have the best chance of success. Firstly, we need to understand the causes of ASB and then we will have a far better chance of successfully reducing that negative behaviour. The solutions might be practical, for example excessive noise might be remedied through improving wall insulation and having more effective sound proofing in the housing stock. Another pertinent example might be about developing new local youth services that are appropriate to their needs and interests. In areas of low income and with high incidence of poverty and deprivation then access to local sports and leisure facilities may need to improve and the barrier of cost be removed. Similarly unresolved mental health issues and ongoing substance dependency need to be tacked at their route causes as opposed to tackling their symptoms and the social and criminal consequences of these addictions and negative behaviours.

Finally, we need to address the perceptions of ASB and who engages in it and acknowledge that this is often influenced by stereotypes and reinforced through the media and the creation of moral panics. The responses to the local community safety priorities will require us to get behind these stereotyped labels, better understand the causes of people’s behaviours and attitudes and then as a community work together to facilitate successful sustainable solutions. One of the strap lines of Neighbourhood Watch Scotland is “We all need to look out for each other” and in that statement lies the core of an effective community safety strategy

The Picture of Anti-Social Behaviour in Scotland can be found at:https://www.safercommunitiesscotland.org/new-research-the-scottish-picture-of-anti-social-behaviour/