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Age Friendly

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“<br />

outputs that doesn’t required large financial outlays. It’s a chance to make all our<br />

lives a little bit better.”<br />

Pat O’Connell, Sergeant for Cavan/Monaghan who worked on the Crime<br />

Prevention Ambassadors programme. “We identified the older people who were<br />

isolated in the county through our Older People’s Register. Then we recruited<br />

volunteers through the community alert groups and the Older People’s Forum in<br />

both counties. Each volunteer had to be Garda vetted before they could become<br />

a Crime Prevention Ambassador.<br />

Then we gave the volunteers a three to four hour briefing session, explaining<br />

how they would become a local link in the community to deliver crime prevention<br />

advice. The whole initiative is in line with the Garda Older Persons Strategy which<br />

focuses on community engagement and crime prevention. The idea is that the<br />

Crime Prevention Ambassadors can feed back information to the Gardai about<br />

anti-social behaviour or where the Gardai need to patrol more. There is a lot of<br />

things that we might not be aware of.<br />

Each Crime Prevention Ambassador is given high-vis jackets and crime<br />

prevention packs to give to the people they visit. This includes advice on how<br />

to keep your house secure, contact numbers of Gardai and other community<br />

services and panic alarms if needed. Being involved in the <strong>Age</strong> <strong>Friendly</strong> Counties<br />

programme meant that we could quickly take the lead on this project. It is<br />

currently being evaluated for potential roll-out on a national basis.”<br />

“<br />

136

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