Press release
Minister Helen McEntee launches new All Island Community Safety Network
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Published on
Last updated on
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee TD has launched a new All Island Community Safety Network.
The project is being funded through the Community Safety Innovation Fund, which seeks to reinvest seized proceeds of crime directly back into projects to improve community safety.
Community Safety is a priority topic at both national and local levels and this Network will facilitate the sharing of ideas, good practice, and projects in relation to Community Safety and Policing engagement across the island of Ireland, North and South.
The Network will offer communities an opportunity to hear first-hand about the successes of other groups across the entire island and offer them the chance to shine a light on their own examples of effective collaborative community safety projects that might be mirrored elsewhere.
The establishment of this network is timely given the recent enactment of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act, which allows for the establishment of Local Community Safety Partnerships on a nationwide basis.
The project builds on the project partners’ previous experience collaborating on Beyond Borders: The All-Island Community Safety Conference held in November 2022, when over 300 attendees from both jurisdictions came together to get an insight into best practice in Community Safety not only from Ireland but further afield.
The Network is a collaboration between Longford Community Safety Partnership, Drogheda Implementation Board and Newry Mourne and Down Policing and Community Safety Partnership.
Current and new Local Community Safety Partnerships in Ireland; Policing and Community Safety Partnerships in Northern Ireland; Joint Policing Committees; alongside relevant statutory and community organisations, will be invited to participate in Network events and activities.
Minister McEntee said:
Community safety is about people being safe and feeling safe in their communities.
Local communities, key workers in the area and local representatives are often best placed to know and identify issues that will improve community safety in their areas.
But learning from what has worked in other communities is also important, so that best practice can be mainstreamed. This all-Island network will allow statutory and community partners to hear about examples of effective collaborative community safety projects and to develop better cross border relationships to enhance community safety across the island of Ireland.
I am delighted to launch the Network today, wish the project partners well and look forward to seeing the initiatives and project concepts which emerge positively impacting communities across Ireland.
Martina Maloney, Chair, Longford Community Safety Partnership, speaking at the launch commented:
The high numbers of attendees at Beyond Borders, coupled with the very positive feedback we received from attendees showed us that there is a desire for more opportunities to share learning and gain insights into best practice in Community Safety across the island of Ireland.
Indeed a number of community safety projects emerged from the event, including the delivery of Kids’ Courts by Longford Community Safety Partnership alongside An Garda Síochána and local primary schools; and a collaborative youth drug prevention programme delivered by Foróige and Youth Work Ireland Louth in Drogheda.
We greatly appreciate funding from the Department of Justice which has enabled us to establish this Network and continue to bring together Community Safety practitioners from both North and South of the Border.
We will be hosting a series of thematic events in 2024 and 2025 on topics relating to Community Safety that are of importance to people in our own communities and beyond –Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence; community led Crime Prevention; Road Safety and more – and will also be establishing a Practitioner Forum to provide peer supports to individuals and agencies involved in Community Safety structures.
Councillor Oonagh Hanlon, Chairperson of Newry, Mourne & Down Policing & Community Safety Partnership said:
Collaborative working and shared learning is vitally important in tackling crime across both jurisdictions. The All Island Community Safety Network provides a unique opportunity to raise awareness of the work of our Policing and Community Safety Partnerships (PCSPs) and Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs); to share learning and allow us to build and maintain the relationships which are critical to this work as we strive to make our communities as safe as possible.”
The first event, focusing on policy and practice relating to Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence is being hosted by Drogheda Implementation Board on Tuesday 12th March 2024. Policy makers and practitioners from across Ireland will be in attendance. Enquiries relating to this event should be directed to Drogheda Implementation Board at implementationboard@lmetb.ie
ENDS..//
Notes to the Editor:
For more, contact:
Gráinne Berrill, Drogheda Implementation Board Coordinator
Tel: 0861083903
Email: gberrill@lmetb.ie
or
Janine Bartley, Longford Community Safety Partnership Coordinator
Tel: 0861037184
Email: jbartley@longfordcoco.ie
Community Safety Innovation Fund
In 2021, the Community Safety Innovation Fund was established by the Department of Justice to reinvest proceeds of crime funds returned to the exchequer by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) back into communities to fund innovative local projects aimed at building stronger, safer communities.
The fund encourages and supports the development of innovative ways in which to improve community safety from those people who best understand the needs in their locality.
Investing this money back into the community is a tangible way of showing that there can be a direct link between the activities of law enforcement and building stronger, safer communities.
The fund had an initial allocation of €2m in 2022, which increased to €3m in 2023. The size of this fund was increased to €3.75m under Budget 2024.
The Minister for Justice expects to launch the call for applications for CSIF 2024 later this year.
Local Community Safety Partnerships
The Government’s vision for community safety is for people in every community to be safe, and feel safe, as they go about their daily lives. This vision is a shared one which is reflected through the development of our new Local Community Safety Partnerships.
With the new Partnerships, we are bringing together everyone interested in tackling community safety issues locally - not just our Gardaí, but local business leaders, healthcare providers, social services, and above all, communities themselves.
Community safety is more than just policing, it is how we unite and work together to address issues of criminality and anti–social behaviour and to support and protect the most vulnerable in our society. It is about supporting those with addiction challenges, early childhood interventions, thriving businesses, and having a say in how our communities look and feel to live in.
Each of our new Partnerships, which will be rolled out nationwide this year, will develop and implement Community Safety Plans, tailored to the community’s needs.
Drogheda Implementation Board
In 2020, Minister Helen McEntee commissioned a scoping exercise in response to rising concerns regarding crime and fear of crime in Drogheda.
The report, entitled ‘Drogheda: Creating a Bridge to a Better Future’, was completed by Mr. Vivian Geiran, former director of the Probation Service, and published in January 2021 and explored the challenges presenting in the Drogheda catchment area, in addition to local strengths and resources.
It also identified measures that could support community safety and chart a path to improved community wellbeing in and around Drogheda.
Drogheda Implementation Board is the core driver and implementer of change associated with the implementation of the recommendations of the report Drogheda: Creating a Bridge to a Better Future and the subsequent Drogheda Report Implementation Plan.
The Drogheda Implementation Board is resourced by the Department of Justice through Dormant Accounts funding and supported and hosted by LMETB.
The Drogheda Implementation Board is led by an independent Chair, Michael Keogh. Board members are senior decision makers in statutory agencies and community sector representatives. The board is hosted by LMETB who employ a full time coordinator, Gráinne Berrill, to support its work.
Newry Mourne and Down Policing and Community Safety Partnerships
Working to help make communities safer and to ensure the voices of local people are heard on policing and community safety issues, the Newry, Mourne & Down PCSP aims to empower communities to work in partnership to develop solutions that will help tackle crime, the fear of crime and help make local communities safer.
The PCSP is made up of 10 Councillors and 9 Independent Members as well as representatives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service (NIFRS), NI Housing Executive, Youth Justice Agency, Probation Board for NI, the Education Authority and the Southern Health and Social Care Trust. The PCSP is funded by the Department of Justice (NI) and the NI Policing Board.