ANTI CRIME DRIVE COMES TO CAMDEN SCHOOLS

25 January 2006

Camden Mayor Cllr Barbara Hughes and Camden Police Borough Commander Mark Heath yesterday (24 January 2006) helped launch a new school’s crime and safety awareness initiative for the borough Prison Me No-Way!. The scheme run by the No-Way Trust aims to show children aged 12 to 14 the consequences of antisocial or criminal behaviour through a range of interactive activities.

The No-Way Trust together with representatives from Camden Council’s Youth Offending Team, the Police, Fire Service, Victim Support and other agencies will visit every Camden secondary school between February and June. The awareness days consist of a series of workshops, role-plays and drama, with young people removed from their class and treated like prisoners for the day. Children will also get to experience life behind bars in a life like mock up of a prison cell.

Prison Me No-Way! was launched in Camden at a Mayoral reception at the Town Hall, where Mayor Barbara Hughes and Mark Heath joined David Lloyd Jones, Director of the No-Way Trust, to find out about life behind bars in the mock prison that will tour the borough’s schools.

Cllr Barbara Hughes’s Mayoral theme is community safety and she was particularly keen to promote this initiative. At the launch she said: “Camden’s young people are often the ones most badly affected by crime and antisocial behaviour - many often the victims of assault, theft and abuse. Prison Me No-Way! is a fantastic scheme that will show them the consequences that crime and antisocial behaviour could have for their whole life.”

The crime and safety awareness project is being funded by the Community Safety Partnership, which is made up of Camden Council, The Police, Fire Brigade and voluntary organisations. The partnership pools resources and knowledge to make Camden a safer place.

Camden Police’s Schools Partnership Officer PC James Day was responsible for getting the project off the ground in Camden. Borough Commander, Mark Heath said: “Key partners are working in an innovative way, enabling young people at a really impressionable age to realise that momentary decisions which lead them to criminality could have consequences for the rest of their lives. Also during these events, we seek to educate young people about the consequences of knife crime and anti-social behaviour."

Prison Me No-Way! will visit Camden’s secondary schools on the following dates:

• La Sainte Union School, Monday 6th February
  
• Parliament Hill School, Tuesday 7th February
  
• William Ellis School, Wednesday 8th February
  
• Maria Fidelis Lower School, Monday 4th April
  
• Camden School For Girls, Tuesday 5th April
  
• Hampstead School, Wednesday 5th April
  
• Haverstock School, Monday 26th June
  
• Acland Burghley, Tuesday 27th June
  
• South Camden Community School Wednesday, 28th June