A Dozen Ways to Safer Summer Neighborhoods
By Jean O’Neil, National Crime Prevention Council
Back to Ask the Expert: Jean O'Neil
Summer offers a great time to build up your neighborhood and increase safety for all. Here are a dozen things you can do, wherever you live.
Get to know your new neighbors and catch up on what’s happening with established residents. Consider getting computer-savvy young people to develop a newsletter for the summer. You can even email it to most folks!
Have a block party. Work with local police to get a block-long area set aside for an old-fashioned get-together.
Set up vacation watches for those traveling during the summer, making sure there is a point of contact in the neighborhood when someone is going to be away and that mail and packages are picked up and arrangements made for lawn mowing and the like, if needed. Make sure people take turns helping out.
Trim back shrubs and bushes to help ensure that crooks don’t have places to hide near your home or around sidewalks and curbsides.
Recruit older children and teens to develop neighborhood beautification projects, sprucing up common areas (check with local officials first) and helping those in need of assistance to perk up their homes and yards.
Make sure there’s a convenient recreation program that children in the neighborhood can get to easily. If not, talk to local officials about lining one up for next year and consider starting a mini-program for your immediate neighborhood.
Hold a parade—decorated wagons, bikes, lawn chair drill teams, tin-pan bands, and other home-made attractions can give kids a starring role and bring neighbors together.
Inventory neighborhood needs and find out where to go to put in requests for street improvements, lighting, park services, public transit access, and other help. Your community policing or crime prevention officer can probably link you with the right agencies.
Walk and bike all routes to schools. Do it with a group of neighborhood children. Ask an older child or teen to be the note taker for what needs to be fixed—safe walking areas out of traffic, potholes filled to make roads safe for bike riders, vacant lots cleaned up, dangerous shortcuts corrected or blockaded and marked off limits.
Arrange for a fire hydrant splash or a lawn sprinkler arcade—get adults as well as kids to join in the fun (but make sure you have a safe area and any permissions needed).
Start your own classes for kids and adults—knitting, painting, crochet, dance, sports, and more—to pass along skills. Older residents may be an especially great resource here.
Remember the basics—lock those doors and windows even if you’ll only be gone “a minute;” make sure your car windows are up and the doors locked each time you park; put away items in the yard so thieves won’t be tempted; review at-home-alone and safe-play rules with kids. Think about changes for summertime and for older children.
Most of all—enjoy each other and help each other stay safe!
