Streetwise and looking to the future (From Bournemouth Echo)

Streetwise and looking to the future

7:00pm Monday 23rd November 2009 in

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NO ONE can really measure the success of the LV Streetwise Centre.

How can you calculate the number of accidents which haven’t happened? Or count the deaths which haven’t occurred?

But 11 years since the Bournemouth facility first threw open its doors, they are pretty sure of their success and on Thursday celebrated their achievement with a thank-you event for all their supporters, as they looked forward to the future.

Part of that future, Dorset’s chief fire officer Darran Gunter told them, could include a national role, exporting their successful brand to other parts of the country.

“We need to be sure we are going in the right direction for the right reasons,” he told visitors. “Should we extend the brand nationally?

“There are now three or four other lifeskills centres and they were all developed using ideas from this place.”

He pointed out that despite the efforts of many involved in safety in Dorset: “ Twenty-two children a year are killed or seriously injured in road traffic accidents in the county.”

LV Streetwise has spent more than a decade trying to minimise these numbers. Within its hanger space in the Turbary area it has constructed a number of scenarios and situations for youngsters to explore to make their lives safer.

There is a road, ‘half a bus’ donated by Wilts & Dorset, a beach, playground, police station, a Sainsbury’s and a train in which youngsters can gain some idea of how dangerous it is to stray onto railway tracks.

There is also a house which is used to train children about the dangers of anything from slips and trips to fire and internet paedophiles.

Among the group of Streetwise volunteers who received awards was former school inspector Geoff Dark, who has been with the project for 10 years. “It is wonderful to be able to be involved with helping young people still,” he says. However: “It does seem odd that some of the greatest dangers a child could now face might be from a paedophile on the internet while they are sitting in their own home, rather than if they are outside away from it.”

Streetwise is already working with disabled groups and older people and has developed an innovative new income stream, Murder Investigation evenings where companies or groups pay £350 to have a whole crime to solve, complete with suspects, witnesses and bystanders.

Casualties Union member Fredda Thickens says: “It’s a nice way to be able to help and it’s always fun listening to the groups try and puzzle out the murder.”

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