June/July - The Greets Green Partnership Legacy Website

spotlight SPOTLIGHT ON on CRIME crime & COMMUNITY & community SAFETY safetyBE AWARE OFBOGUS CALLERSA bogus caller at your door willpretend to be from an officialorganisation, such as the healthauthority, the council or the waterboard. They may impersonate aworkman and say that they needto check something or make urgentrepairs and then vastly overchargeyou for the work they do.Theme Leader comes on boardRemember these simple, but veryeffective steps, and you can put offnon-genuine or bogus callers andnot get ripped off.1Think2Use3Ask4If5Look6Ifbefore you open the door.Are you expecting anyone?a door viewer and put thechain on before opening the door.the caller for proof of identity.Check it carefully, but keep thechain on.the caller doesn’t have anappointment, ask them to waitoutside while you ring their officeto confirm their identity.at the caller’s clothing.Some official callers will weara uniform with the organisation’slogo on and will be driving avehicle with it on.you have any suspicionsat all, do not let the callerinto your home. Call thePolice on 999.Phil Hartley has been appointed Greets Green Partnership’s new Crime &Community Safety Theme Leader and is looking forward to carrying on the goodwork which has already been done to tackle crime.For the past two and a half years, Phil has been Community Safety Manager at KingsNorton New Deal for Communities where he has been dealing with issues similar to thosein Greets Green including crime, the fear of crime, drugs and alcohol misuse and improvingthe local environment. During his time there, his team helped to bring down crime and thefear of crime significantly in the area.Prior to this, he worked in the regeneration team at Optima Community Association inAttwood Green in Birmingham.He says: “I live just down the road in Handsworth and am keen to work closely with thenew Greets Green Crime Fighting Team to tackle crime and community safety. I’m currentlyfinding out what types of projects are up and running, where there are any gaps and whatservices are needed.“I’ll be looking to put sustainable projects in place so that when Greets Green Partnershipcomes to an end, the work we have started will continue.”FREE ALARMS FORTHE ELDERLYElderly and vulnerable people throughout Greets Green cannow feel safer thanks to the Neighbourhood Wardens.The Wardens spent a week in April handing out 500 free personalalarms at community groups including Ryders Green Methodist DayCentre, Bull Lane Sailors Club, Oakdale Social Club and the KrishnaCommunity Forum.“We asked community group leaders to identify people who couldbenefit from a personal alarm and then visited their group to givethem out,” explained Senior Warden, Neil Woodfield. “If someone isfeeling a bit vulnerable, they can hold the alarm which alsohas a useful torch on it. We hope the alarms will helpreduce the fear of crime amongst older people.”iTo contact the Neighbourhood Wardens,call 580 4481.6 Greets Green Magazine June/July 2005