subject: Simple Steps to Taking Back Your Neighborhood that Start with Home Security [print this page] Simple Steps to Taking Back Your Neighborhood that Start with Home Security
Taking back neighborhoods from violence, crime, and drugs can be an intimidating task. It can be discouraging, as most change is slow and sometimes unnoticeable. It requires a long-term commitment and a good does of positivity. Not everyone is able to muster the strength, creativity, and patience required to transform neighborhoods into places where children are safe and families live in peace. Yet it is possible.
Concerned citizens across the country have fought for safe neighborhoods and improved property values. They offer examples and advice to those considering it in their own cities.
The first action to take is one of defense. You need to make your own home safe before you can improve the community as a whole. If everyone in the neighborhoods commits to home security, then most of the battle is already won. The first thing you can do to greatly increase home security is buy a home alarm system and extra locks or dead bolts. From there, you can consider other ways to make your home less enticing to robbers, such as trimming bushes and low-lying trees branches and installing extra flood lights over the garage or in your backyard.
Second, you should start building lines of communication with your neighbors. This is the first step in creating the sense of community with your neighbors that is critical for you to turn your neighborhood into a place of safety. A strong community will work together. The end goal is a neighborhood that will look after each other. It is a community that will not stand for delinquency, crime, or drugs. It is a community that will discourage drug use. That is the goal. The way to get to this goal is to encourage communication among neighbors.
You can do this in many ways. Go door-to-door and meet your neighbors. Hold a neighborhood cookout or organize a neighborhood garage sale. You can form clean-up days to encourage community pride and cleanliness. You can initiate the painting of a neighborhood mural. Another important thing to do is hold a regular community safety meeting. You can teach your neighbors how to work towards neighborhood safety. You could even organize a fund to assist lower-income residents in purchasing home alarm systems or upgrading their overall home security.
Third, you can get local businesses involved. If your residential area is surrounding by businesses, then you may want to get them involved in the clean-up process. This could include merely informing them of your effort to be more vigilant, or could extend to asking for financial assistance for neighborhood safety programs. The more stakeholders involved, the better.
Fourth, you can encourage the police to increase their presence in your neighborhood. This can be done by contacting them and informing them of your area's efforts to take back the neighborhood. It might not encourage them to do any more than they are already doing, but it would at least strengthen the lines of communication between the police and your neighborhood. This is something that police forces across the country need more of from crime-ridden neighborhoods. They need to be trusted and welcomed in the neighborhood more easily.
If you are ready to take your neighborhood back from crime or drug use, then consider putting into place a plan of action. You can use some of the above suggestions in coming up with your unique neighborhood action plan. Whatever you do, remember that you have the power to make your neighborhood safe and secure for you and your children.
