REGENERATION

CoMMunity SAFety
3
One of the primary requirements of any sustainable
community is a safe environment for its people to
live their lives. The importance of personal safety to
the success of an area is unsurpassed. It is affected
by design, management and behaviour, and in
turn it affects people’s decisions about whether to
stay in an area or leave at the first opportunity.
Since its inception in 2005, the Safer Ballymun
Community Safety Forum has become an integral
part of the social regeneration programme in
Ballymun. Preventing crime, solving crime and
fostering an environment where crime and anti-social
behaviour will be shunned, has been one of the key
challenges facing the Ballymun community.
A structured and integrated approach has been taken
by policing and local government; the twin agencies
with responsibility for creating a safe, clean and
green environment. This approach has won several
awards for Safer Ballymun, including a Taoiseach’s
award for Excellence in the Public Service.
The Safer Ballymun partnership acknowledges
the interdependent relationships involved in
achieving its vision. Action-based problem-solving
initiatives to embedding a sense of personal and
community safety are contributing to a new way
of thinking, making Ballymun a successful, safe
and clean place in which to live, work and visit.
35