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News Letter |
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V108, Vox Studios 1 – 45 Durham Street Vauxhall, London SE11 5JH
1st October 2025 Resident
Well summer has definitely left us and the days are getting shorter again, but I hope you have been able to get outside before the wet and cold really set in?
2025 On-line Conference We held the conference last week with over 420 participants at different times over the session. As I previously mentioned the aim was to have lots more coordinators attend than the in-person events and we did which was great. Initial feedback has been very positive and there was a good buzz of activity on the chat and in the breakout sessions. We will look to run more on-line events for coordinators and give more chance for networking and catching up with other volunteers and coordinators.
Many people felt the session from Assistant Chief Constable Tom Harding was very positive about the importance of Neighbourhood Policing and the emphasis it is being given by the Royal College. I thought the challenge presented to us about ensuring Neighbourhood Watch works in more areas of high crime and is more diverse, is one we are well aware of, and are addressing with good progress. However we all know there is a good distance still to go.
2026 to 2030 5-Year Strategy As presented at the conference the new strategy is clearly heading in the right direction with overwhelmingly positive feedback from the on-line polls. We will continue to improve the strategy and will continue to develop the Delivery Plan which we will present at the AGM in December. I am really pleased that the ‘Neighbourhood Watch, Neighbourhood Connect, and Neighbourhood Act’ as a way of describing what we do and what we are about was so well received as I think this will help define us over the next five years and make it easier for the public to understand what we are about.
The other message that again came out clearly, was the imperative to engage with younger people across the movement and to ensure we are increasingly relevant and welcoming to younger people and families. The new 5-Year Strategy will definitely have a key focus on younger people and we hope our increased efforts and presence on social media will support this.
I would really like to thank all the Association Leads, coordinators and volunteers who have worked on the strategy with the staff team for their time, effort and thinking in getting to where we are.
Central Support Team Staffing Update Ashley Fontaine (Young Peoples Development Manager) will be leaving us next week but will be replaced by Simeon Earnshaw. Many of you will remember Simeon as he was the Young Peoples Development Lead a couple of years ago when we were first developing the work with young people. Since then he has been working for Redbridge Council developing and supporting their Youth Council which we hope will be useful for us. As Simeon knows Neighbourhood Watch well from his previous role we hope that the transition from Ashley to him will be fairly seamless.
We are also welcoming back Emma Drozd, who was previously managed the BT and Eon Projects. Emma is taking up the new Income Generation Role and will be working with our partner Sopro to raise income through sponsorship and developing other income to support the work of the movement.
Lastly, we are also welcoming Mila Du as the new Social and Digital Communications Officer. Mila comes with a great background both professionally and personally in social media and creating content. As previously mentioned we plan to increase our presence and depth of engagement on social media platforms including static and video content as we know that social media platforms are the most frequently used formats that 18 to 35 year olds use to gain news, information and entertainment. As someone mentioned to me recently, that the best time to increase social media presence was a few years ago and the second best time is now!
Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2025 We are planning on this year’s AGM being at 2pm on Wednesday 10th December 2025 so please keep the date free. As previously we will have some interesting speakers and will update on this years work. As mentioned we will also present the new 5-Year Strategy and Delivery Plan and take final feedback. Then we will hold the formal AGM with voting on Trustees and presenting the financial reports etc.
October Association Leads Quarterly Meetings We are shortly sending out the agenda for this month’s quarterly meetings which will be on Monday 27th and Tuesday 28th of October. We look forward to welcoming you to our event. If any of you would like to have the opportunity to talk about your Association, please do let Cheryl know. Resident
Warmest wishes,
John Hayward-Cripps CEO Neighbourhood Watch Network
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