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Reducing urban crime and violence243nity’, but rather to understand its diversity and to ensurethat the range of views and interests often to be found is notobscured by this process of simplification. All of thesefactors need to be carefully thought about when consideringforms of community involvement, including the role of thepublic sector as initiator, rather than just playing an enablingrole.It is clear that right across the spectrum ofcommunity-based approaches in enhancing urban safety andsecurity, there is considerable scope for beneficial development.This needs to be seen in terms of opportunities,rather than in terms of problems, and must be approachedrealistically, which means properly understanding the localcircumstances. There is no point in drawing idealistic conclusionsabout what local communities are capable of achievingand then criticizing them for failing to live up to these ideals.However, there is every point in taking the view thatcommunity capabilities are not static, but can be developedthrough appropriate training, information, support andopportunity. Consequently, programmes to develop communitycapability need to sit alongside appropriatecontemporary programmes of community engagement. Inparticular, if the part of the spectrum which is about directcommunity action, rather than about information andconsultation, is to be developed, it is important that publicandprivate-sector agencies and partnerships learn to trustcommunities and to be willing to work with them as equalpartners.The following points need to be made regardingcommunity-based interventions:• Given the nature of crime and violence, they are bysome, not considered very appropriate issues to bedealt with at the community level. The police, forinstance, may be reluctant to share data on crime or ontheir operations with communities and the public atlarge, for fear that this information may be abused.• Communities themselves may have their own views ofcrime and delinquent activities that may not be fullycompliant with the definitions and classificationsprovided by the law. Indeed, in many communities, thelines between legal, formal, informal and illegal activitiesare blurred. A measure of common ground has tobe found before any meaningful engagement can takeplace.• Security may be a major issue for mobilizing a communityinto action, but may not be such a sustaining force;as the problems get solved, the community may shiftattention to other issues. It is therefore important tobuild security and prevention issues into broadercommunities agendas, and link them with service delivery,management of services, and communitydevelopment in general. In this way, efforts can besustained and modulated over time.• Finally, city strategies need to acknowledge the socialmechanisms and knowledge that communities alreadydeploy, possibly in isolation from, or even in contradictionto, official practice to address risk factors andvulnerabilities related to crime and violence. As theyhave enormous potential to contribute to overall safety,these mechanisms need to be described, discussed andassessed.Indeed, communities not only have the direct experience ofcrime and violence, of which they often bear the brunt, butthey also often have the understanding of local dynamics andrisk factors, as well as of the ideas and mechanisms vital fortackling them. That said, communities have a key role to playin the prevention of crime, both by reducing vulnerabilitiesand addressing risk factors.■ Community safety approaches: Toronto andKingstonA good example of an approach described in the precedingsection is in the Crime Prevention through SocialDevelopment strand of Toronto’s Community SafetyStrategy, summarized in Box 4.7. Here, there are severalinstances of individual programmes where, in effect, a policy,financial and administrative framework is provided forcommunity-based initiatives, but where the initiativesthemselves come from communities. Examples include:• youth opportunity initiatives: Jobs for Youth, whichprovides government funding for community-basedorganizations to run summer employment projectstargeted at youth from priority neighbourhoods;• the Youth Challenge Fund, which supports communitysafety ideas that come from people living in Toronto’s13 ‘at-risk’ neighbourhoods, and encourages communityorganizations to apply for funding in order to implementprojects of this nature;• grassroots/community-based youth services, whichprovide support for not-for-profit community-basedagencies to implement programmes and services foryouth in ‘at-risk’ neighbourhoods.There are also examples of programmes with some of thesecharacteristics in Kingston (Jamaica), where ‘top-down’programmes of the type described in Chapter 4 were accompaniedby programmes designed to encourage localcommunities to play a more active role in some parts of thecity in addressing the problems that were contributing tohigh levels of crime and violence. For instance, in theFletchers Land community, major efforts were made toencourage better parenting in order to tackle what was seenas a breakdown in family values. The success of this initiativeled to its replication in other parts of the city. Similarly, theGrants Pen community in Kingston, which once had a reputationfor its volatility, has witnessed significant progress inreducing crime through a range of programmes, which haveincluded a major emphasis on the creation and use of sportsopportunities targeted at young people. In both of thesecases, important roles were played by formal programmes interms of the provision of facilities or opportunities; but thelocal communities also played a major role in determininghow these were utilized. 14It is, of course, possible to go beyond this and to havea completely open-ended approach to community-basedCity strategies needto acknowledge thesocial mechanismsand knowledge thatcommunities alreadydeploy…to addressrisk factors andvulnerabilitiesrelated to crime andviolenceCommunities notonly have the directexperience of crimeand violence, ofwhich they oftenbear the burnt, butthey also often havethe understanding oflocal dynamics andrisk factors, as wellas of the ideas andmechanisms vital fortackling them