Believe Housing teams up with Crimestoppers to prevent crime
A new partnership between believe housing and the independent charity Crimestoppers is aiming to keep communities stretching from the Durham coast to upper Weardale safer.
believe housing has become the first housing association in County Durham to act as a ‘Community Ambassador’ for Crimestoppers. The new collaboration is aimed at increasing confidence to encourage residents to report what they know about crime completely anonymously.
The Crimestoppers Community Ambassador programme is designed to increase awareness of Crimestoppers through partnership with businesses, public authorities, other charities and agencies. Acting as Ambassadors, they enable Crimestoppers to spread the word about its unique service guaranteeing anonymity to help protect people, places and communities from the harm caused by crime.
Crimestoppers exists to help people who might otherwise be silenced into speak up about what they know about crime, 100% anonymously. Always.
The link-up is the latest move by believe housing to work with customers and communities on issues ranging from fires to domestic abuse. The Seaham-based housing association has been nationally recognised for its sector leading work on community safety.
Jonathan Hamill, Chair for Crimestoppers in Durham and Darlington, said: “We are delighted to announce believe housing as our first Community Ambassador in County Durham. As one of the largest housing associations in the North East of England, Believe Housing is ideally placed to promote awareness of our charity.
“Their vision of believing in a life without barriers is well aligned with our ours of helping everyone to feel safe from crime. We are excited about developing a strong partnership and making a real difference for local residents.”
Ian Porter, Director of Neighbourhoods and Customer Services at believe housing, said: “This new partnership will help us to make our customers feel safer when it comes to reporting issues that are affecting their lives. We know that anonymity is of the utmost importance when dealing with issues in communities, particularly in the tight-knit neighbourhoods we have across the north east.
“I hope we’ll be able to increase confidence in all parts of the community that reporting issues is at the very heart of making our neighbourhoods safer and better places for everyone to live.”
Crimestoppers and believe housing will be working closely with a number of communities during the year on known issues such as illegal quads and motor bikes. Both organisations also have plans to increase their work with young people and schools to ensure that they have the confidence to report crime and antisocial behaviour.
