Over 1,700 students took part in community safety events, Stay Safe and Think Safe, coordinated by Hart District Council.
The events saw students from across Hart take part in workshops, throughout June and into July, covering topics that not only could impact them but also impact the community.
Stay Safe is a new initiative developed by Hart’s Community Safety team and has been rolled out to secondary schools covering child criminal exploitation/county lines, child sexual exploitation, healthy relationships, mental wellbeing, antisocial behaviour and its impacts/consequences and knife crime. This initiative also captured students that would have missed out on Think Safe events due to the coronavirus restrictions.
Students experienced an interactive theatre performance and associated workshops using professional actors and a specialist facilitator to explore key issues around exploitation and serious youth violence.
Think Safe, now in its tenth year, saw 14 primary and junior schools with year six students engage with the programme to learn about rail safety, fire safety, cyber safety, stranger danger, risks of and support for homelessness, awareness of potentially dangerous objects on MOD land, and domestic abuse.
Cllr Stuart Bailey, Cabinet Member for Community Services at Hart District Council said: “These events are important and they are designed to empower young people to be more aware of themselves and their situations, use critical thinking about their own risk and protection, and ultimately stay safe.
“My thanks to all the project partners in supporting these events and to the community safety team at Hart who has worked tirelessly to coordinate these across the district.”
As well as educating students, the community safety team recently held a Stay Safe advice session for parents at Robert Mays School, in Odiham. Following the event, a parent said: “The whole presentation was excellent and even more of an eye-opener” with another parent adding “An incredibly powerful and informative evening.”
For more information about the community safety team, please visit www.hart.gov.uk/community-safety