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Five-Step Plan to a Successful Program
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Developing and Maintaining an Agenda |
Developing an Agenda
You will need to develop an agenda for your neighborhood that involves community participation. Once you become stagnant, it will be very difficult to get them interested again.
Agendas can be further categorized into two main areas:
- Proactive - activities aimed at improving the neighborhood.
- Social activities, bake sales, block parties, street B-B-Qs, neighborhood garage sales
- Training classes or seminars on safety and crime prevention. These can include:
- Street walks
- Emergency or Disaster preparedness planning
- Protective - activities aimed at maintaining a safe and secure neighborhood
The two major areas here are:
- Observe
- Watch what happens in your neighborhood.
- Report
- Learn what to do if you see criminal activity.
- Suspicious persons or vehicles
- Infrasctructural damage (sidewalks, trees, lighting, etc)
Maintaining your Agenda
Develop policies and procedures to encourage people to join the neighborhood watch/ patrol. New members should become familiar with the principles or mission of the Watch program and the way the community operates. Encourage new members to actively pursue their interests and serve on any committees.
Plan regular meetings and schedule neighborhood activities that include days and hours of operation based on the availability of the majority of the community. Notify police of the schedule and ensure that contact is maintained with them.
Identify additional activities that the neighborhood watch may take on including community clean-ups, block parties, community gardens, street lighting, code enforcement, and youth recreation.
It is important to try to attract new members. Harness the talents and energies of watch volunteers to recruit new blood. Engage those families in your neighborhood who are not participants in order to maintain a solid organizational foundation. New residents in your neighborhood should be welcomed. The best way to recruit participants is through one-on-one contact and visits.
To sustain membership, delegate assignments and engage others. Give people a choice of what to work on and use their skills and talents in a meaningful way. Therefore, in addition to developing a phone tree with contact information, create a skills tree or inventory that identifies skills, talents and abilities of members. In addition to delegating assignments, maintain communication. Send out newsletters, safety bulletins, and crime alerts to community residents and others. An informed community will be an involved community!
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