The last month has been a busy one for Poole UK Youth Parliament, as it has for most people. Both Nathan and I started sixth form a few weeks ago, so with early mornings, a new timetable and working to achieve our priorities, we have all been keeping very busy.
Nonetheless, it has been a successful month once again. On Saturday 10th September I took part in a workshop, working with the older generation, to look at our perceptions of crime in Poole, and how we can make our community feel safer in Poole.
We began with each generation working separately so that we can compare our views on crime. We first looked at what 'Crime', 'Anti-Social Behaviour' and 'Community Safety' means to us.
Then we worked in groups to design a map of Poole showing areas where we felt safe and liked, and those areas where we felt less safe or liked the least, with reasons for it.
It was a really fun workshop, making our maps from stickers and pom-poms, but also really interesting to hear all the thoughts that young people have about crime.
We then had a short break during where we met the other group, which was a really good experience to talk with the older generation and discuss our views.
We presented to each other what we had done in the previous session, and it was interesting to see that we all had really similar views about 'safe' and 'unsafe' areas and the reasons for it.
So we split into two groups to look into this further, and started to come up with project ideas to make our community feel safer. We came up with some great practical ideas around good street lighting and making the area cleaner and a nicer place to be, as well as having really interesting debates around national policies that could be used to tackle crime.
Overall it was a great afternoon and very worthwhile. We will be feeding back what we discussed and hopefully there will be more meetings like this in the future so that we can make a real difference to community safety in Poole.
I hope everyone has a fantastic month and don't forget to check out the Poole UKYP Facebook Page
Vicky Olive (Deputy Member of Youth Parliament for Poole)
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