A Richmond Borough campaign has received funding aimed at educating school aged pupils in the area on how to stay safe against crime.

The Richmond Safer Neighbourhood Board (SNB) has invested funds in StreetW!se, a campaign founded in 2019 by two residents, Barbara Lingle-Elliott and Felicity Barkus, after a number of personal robberies against school aged pupils in the Richmond area.

Felicity and Barbara now co-chair a local action group "Mothers Against Muggings (MAM)" which is supported by the Richmond Community Safety Partnership who are working together towards their shared goal of keeping children and young people safe.

Councillor Gareth Roberts, Leader of Richmond Council said: "Improving outcomes and keeping people safe is our number one priority.

"We know that there can be so many barriers that stop young people from speaking so I'm excited to share that following its many successes in local schools, Streetw!se will continue to play a key role as part of the local effort to improve personal safety awareness among our children."

The StreetW!se campaign has so far delivered personal safety assemblies to over 10,000 Year 6 and secondary school children in the borough.

As part of the assembly campaign, young people are given a StreetW!se travel card holder that contains key information on staying safe and emergency police contact numbers which is funded by the Mayor of London's Violence Reduction Unit.

According to Richmond Council, this work has contributed to a 49% decrease in youth muggings.

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Mothers Against Muggings has released a new poster advising young people in Richmond Borough on how to be more alert when on the street (credit: Mothers Against Muggings).

To continue this effort and ensure widespread visibility, Mothers against Muggings has created a new poster campaign based on their original StreetW!se messaging around personal safety for all schools.

The second phase of this campaign will also continue the sharing of crucial safety messages within the school environment, fostering vigilance among students, teachers and visitors.

Felicity Barkus, Co-Chair of Mothers Against Muggings, said: "We are proud to be working with our local police, the Council and the wider local community to rollout this initiative.

"Our StreetW!se posters are bright and bold with some simple messages to keep people safe. We are confident that they will reinforce our key safety messages to young people, so they are more aware of their surroundings and better equipped to know what to do if something happens.

"We are obviously targeting young people in schools in Richmond – but our personal safety messages equally apply to all adults. We would love for our StreetW!se campaign to spread across London or even nation-wide!"

Richmond Council said the partnership with MAM is a key part of the work being done locally to create a safe environment in the borough by actively involving residents and local groups in crime awareness and prevention initiatives.

To learn more about the StreetW!se campaign, click here.

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