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Neighborhood Action: Neighborhood Organizing
People Working Together Can Make a Difference!
Crime and fear of crime threaten a community's well-being -- people become afraid to use streets and parks, suspicion erupts between young and old, shops gradually leave. Crime in turn feeds on the social isolation it creates. Today's lifestyles -- many homes where both parents work, more single parent families, and greater job mobility -- can contribute to this isolation and weaken communities.
You and your neighbors can prevent or break this vicious cycle, and in the process, build your community into a safer, friendlier, and more caring place to live. Statistics tell the story. Police and sheriffs' departments in cities, small towns, and suburbs throughout the country report substantial decreases in crime and fear due to local crime prevention efforts.
Start with a Neighborhood Watch or block club to address immediate crime problems, focus on home security, and build neighborhood cohesion. Then move into other areas such as educating residents about child protection, drug abuse victim services, and domestic violence. Explore circumstances in the community that might contribute to crime -- the physical design of buildings, traffic patterns, drug trafficking, few jobs or recreational opportunities for teenagers, lack of affordable housing -- and look for long-range solutions.
The First Building Block -- Neighborhood Watch
Neighborhood Watch, Block Watch, Town Watch, Crime Watch -- no matter what it's called, this is one of the most effective and least costly answers to crime. Watch groups are a foundation of community crime prevention and a stepping stone to community revitalization.
Getting Started -- Meetings, Block Captains, and Maps
Organize a meeting for neighbors from your street, block, or apartment house to discuss the crime problem in your area, residents' concerns, and the Watch concept. Select a meeting place that is accessible to people with disabilities. Publicize your meeting at least one week in advance with door-to-door fliers and follow up with phone calls the day before. Stress that a Watch group is an association of neighbors who look out for each other's families and property, alert the police to any suspicious activities or crime in progress, and work together to make their community a safer and better place to live. Ask the local law enforcement agency to send a crime prevention officer to the meeting.
- Start a McGruff House or other block parent program to help children cope with emergencies while walking to and from school or playing in the area. A McGruff House is a reliable source of help for children in emergency or frightening situations. Volunteers must meet specific standards, including a law enforcement records check. Programs are established locally as a partnership among law enforcement, schools, and community organizations. For information, call 801-486-8691.
- Spearhead a Gang or Violence Prevention Task Force to assess these problems and develop solutions.
- Translate crime and drug prevention materials into Spanish or other languages needed by non-English speakers in your community.
- Get a local Boys & Girls Club or other youth organization to help the elderly with marking valuables, enhancing home security, or going to the store. In turn, senior citizens can help with tutoring or recreational programs, oral history projects, or cooking classes.
- Turn a vacant lot into a park, playing field, or community garden.
- Work with small businesses to repair rundown store fronts, clean up littered streets, and create jobs for young people.
- Link up with victim services to train your members in assisting victims of crime.
- Recruit utility workers, cab drivers, and other people with two-way radios or cellular phones to extend your Neighborhood Watch network.
- Ask people who seldom leave their houses to be "Window Watchers," looking out for children and for any unusual activities in the neighborhood.
- Encourage businesses to hold lunch time crime and drug prevention seminars and special events for employees and their families.
- Sponsor a crime and drug prevention fair at a shopping mall.
- Get banks and other businesses to mail crime prevention tips in statements and bills.
- Work with local media -- newspapers, radio, TV stations -- to publicize events and thank supporters.
- Sponsor a seminar for the elderly and others on how to avoid becoming victims of con games and fraud.
- Get a local theater group to produce a play teaching children how to protect themselves from crime and drug abuse
- Work with the telephone company to teach children how to use 9-1-1 or other emergency numbers.
- Establish a "buddy" system for the elderly and people with disabilities, in which someone checks by phone with them daily and summons help if needed.
- Seek out community leaders to be your advocates and mentors.
- Link Neighborhood Watch to efforts promoted by other groups: drug prevention, child protection, anti-vandalism projects, arson prevention, neighborhood cleanup, recycling. Share resources and promote each other's activities. Invite guest speakers to Neighborhood Watch meetings.
- Publicize your program and its successes in the local media. Start a community crime prevention newsletter. Block captains or volunteers can distribute the newsletter, which also helps them keep in touch with residents.
- Work with business to develop a Business Watch program. Ask them to help pay for fliers and a newsletter, provide meeting places, and distribute crime prevention information.
How To Keep Your Neighborhood Watch Going and Growing
Going beyond watching out for each other and reporting crime is the best insurance against a Watch slowly dying when crime drops. Blend crime prevention into other community concerns. Have Watch members accompany victims of crime to court, or monitor city services such as trash pickup and street light repair which affect neighborhood conditions and create opportunities for crime. Get landlords to hire teenagers to clean graffiti off buildings. Investigate solutions to drug and gang problems.
It's vital to celebrate the success of the effort and recognize volunteers' contributions through awards, annual dinners, and parties. To help meet community needs, Neighborhood Watches can sponsor meetings that address broader issues such as drug abuse, gangs, self-protection tactics, isolation of the elderly, crime in the schools, and rape prevention.
Don't forget events like National Night Out (sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch the first Tuesday in August) or a potluck dinner that gives neighbors a chance to get together. Such items as pins, T-shirts, hats, coffee mugs with the group's name also enhance identity and pride.
Beyond Neighborhood Watch
Have your Watch group identify the neighborhood's strengths and problems and then brainstorm on what members can do to improve the quality of community life. Here are some ideas to get you started.
- Encourage schools to teach crime and drug prevention in the classroom.
- Cooperate with parent associations, recreation departments, and schools to organize after-school programs for children and teens.
When the group decides to adopt the Watch idea, it should select a coordinator and block captains. The block captains recruit other neighbors into the program, serve as liaison between the neighborhood and the police, and communicate information about meetings and incidents of crime to all residents. One block captain can serve as coordinator for the Watch area, or the group may decide to select one individual to coordinate all the block's activities. Try to spread the work out so a few people don't have all the responsibility. With guidance from a law enforcement agency, the Watch trains its members in home security techniques, observation skills, and accurate crime reporting. Residents also learn about the types of crime that affect the area.
A neighborhood map showing names, addresses, and phone numbers of participating households should be prepared and distributed to members. Block captains keep this map up-to-date, contacting newcomers to the neighborhood.
When the Watch group meets eligibility requirements set by the local law enforcement agency (usually 50% of all households must be enrolled and some crime prevention training conducted), Neighborhood Watch signs are erected.
Organizers and block captains must emphasize that Watch groups are not vigilantes and do not assume the role of the police. They only ask neighbors to be alert, observant, and caring -- and to report suspicious activity or crimes immediately to the police.
Watches are adaptable. There are Park Watches, Apartment Watches, Window Watches, Boat Watches, School Watches, Realtor Watches, Utility Watches, and Business Watches. A Watch can be organized around any geographic unit.
Tips for Success
- Hold regular meetings to help residents get to know each other and to collectively decide upon programs strategies, and activities.
- Consider linking with an existing organization, such as a citizens' association, community development office, tenants' association, housing authority.
- Canvas door-to-door to recruit members.
- Involve everyone -- young and old, single and married, renter and home owner.
- Endorsement by the police or sheriff's office is critical to a Watch group's credibility. These agencies are the major sources of information on local crime patterns, home security, other crime prevention education, and crime reporting.
- Establish a telephone tree to get out information quickly. For a high-tech Watch, use electronic bulletin boards and faxes.
- Gather the facts about crime in your neighborhood. Check police reports, do victimization surveys, and learn residents' perceptions about crime. Often residents' opinions are not supported by facts, and accurate information can reduce fear of crime.
- Physical conditions like abandoned cars or overgrown vacant lots contribute to crime. Sponsor cleanups, encourage residents to beautify the area, and ask them to turn on outdoor lights at night.
Neighborhood Watch
Make It a Permanent Force for Community Betterment
Typically, Neighborhood Watch groups organize to respond to an immediate threat -- a series of rapes, a sharp increase in burglaries, rising fear of street crime. Often, when the crisis is resolved, membership and commitment to the Watch start to fade away. After all, why keep looking out for criminals if they've been arrested or gone elsewhere?
This short-sighted attitude ignores key benefits of the contemporary Neighborhood Watch -- a Watch group empowers people to prevent crime, forges bonds between law enforcement and the communities they serve, and builds a foundation for broader community improvement. Neighborhood Watch is far more than a quick fix for an immediate crisis -- it can be a moving force for positive changes that tackle root causes of crime.
Why Do Some Neighborhood Associations Thrive and Others Die?
In the mid-1980s, the Citizens Committee of New York City (CCNYC), with funding from the Ford Foundation, undertook the Block Booster Project, a two-year study of relationships among block associations, crime, and community development. The study found that active block associations substantially reduced fear of crime, encouraged crime reporting, stimulated members' involvement in crime prevention, inhibited drug trafficking, and spurred beautification activities. According to Project Director David Chavis, "Block associations weave a tight social fabric and have a profound effect on the sense of community and the way people help each other."
The Block Booster Project also examined why some groups thrived while other withered and died. Use of resources emerged as the key factor. Active, healthy block groups had the same resources as inactive ones, but they used them more effectively. Here are key survival tactics discovered by the Block Booster Project:
- Spell out roles and responsibilities of the association and its members. Adopt bylaws and elect officers.
- Decentralize planning and work. Delegate tasks and establish standing committees.
- Keep in touch with members. Use personal contacts, in and outside of meetings. Distribute a newsletter to communicate regularly with members.
- Plan for and train new leaders. Don't burn out existing ones.
- Mobilize collective resources and use them. Know members' skills and personal and business contacts. Be realistic about how many people you need to do a job.
- Use outside resources, such as government agencies and community-based organizations.
- Strike a balance between business and pleasure. Conduct business meetings on time and efficiently, but have a time for socializing before or after the meeting.
- Involve all elements in the community -- single parents, renters as well as homeowners, teenagers, senior citizens, business owners and managers.
Extending the Scope of Neighborhood Watch
Successful Neighborhood Watches move beyond the basics of home security, watching out for suspicious activities, and reporting them to law enforcement. They sponsor community cleanups, find solutions to local traffic problems, collect clothing and toys for homeless families, organize after-school activities for young people, help victims of crime, tutor teens at risk of dropping out of school, reclaim playgrounds from drug dealers, and for task forces that influence policymakers.
Looking for Leaders
A Neighborhood Watch's effectiveness depends heavily on its leaders. Good block captains usually:
- Are reliable.
- Get along well with people.
- Have good communication and negotiating skills.
- Do not view the position as a power trip or a chance for personal gain.
- Are willing to delegate tasks and listen to others' opinions.
- Are organized and can conduct meetings efficiently.
- Don't get discouraged easily.
- Don't stop at prevention -- have a long-range vision for community improvement.
Motivating Leaders (and Other Volunteers)
- Hold special training events. Look to police departments, community action and social service organizations, religious institutions, colleges, business associations, schools, and youth organizations for help.
- Provide public recognition through awards and articles in newsletters and newspapers.
- Issue certificates of appreciation from the mayor or chief law enforcement executive.
- Organize a coalition of Neighborhood Watch captains so leaders can learn from each other and join forces to address community-wide issues.
- Always look for emerging issues that could affect the community's quality of life.
Mobilizing Community Resources
Community businesses and organizations offer numerous resources for crime prevention programs. Look to:
- Religious institutions for meeting space, copying machines, and access to volunteers.
- Service clubs and businesses for partnerships in fundraising initiatives.
- Libraries for research materials, videos, computers, and meeting space.
- Printing companies for free or discounted services for newsletters, fliers, and certificates.
- Parent groups and labor unions for advice on organizing and recruiting volunteers.
- Local media for publicity.
- Senior centers and schools for facilities and equipment.
When Your Neighborhood is Multicultural
The United States has experienced a dramatic increase in cultural and ethnic diversity in the last decade. According to the 1990 census, 19.7 million persons -- just under 8% of the population -- were foreign-born. Never before have so many immigrants lived in this country. This wave of immigration has spread unevenly throughout the nation, with the Northeast and West experiencing far greater increases in foreign-born residents than the Midwest and South.
Organizing a Neighborhood Watch in a multicultural community poses unique challenges -- recent immigrants may not speak English, and many may still be adjusting to life in this country. Disputes or misunderstandings can erupt between neighbors of different cultures, races, and ethnic backgrounds. Cultural conflicts arise because two groups of people have established different values, different standards of acceptable behavior, different traditions and communication patterns, and different ideas about such things as dress and attitude. Often, the hardest thing for everyone to learn is that different does not equal wrong or improper.
When working with individuals raised in different cultures, you need to consider such things as:
- Their length of time in the United States.
- English or other language skills.
- Possible distrust of law enforcement, stemming from a fear of people in uniform and in government offices based on experiences in their native country.
- Educational level and social class (especially the social class in the native country for immigrants and first-generation residents).
- Role expectations for males and females, parents, grandparents, and children.
- Religious and ethical values.
- Rules and expectations for interpersonal relationships.
- Ways to share and get to know cultural differences: international potluck suppers; international youth performances; international music, oral histories by elders.
When You Start To Organize
Determine the ethnic groups of non-English speaking residents and what language they speak. Then look to local government agencies, private advocacy and service organizations, religious institutions, mediation services, and other groups experienced in dealing with immigrants for help. A translator is essential when you hold a Neighborhood Watch or crime prevention meeting -- learn to speak slowly and establish rapport with the translator. Print materials in different languages if possible.
Don't be discouraged. In talking about his efforts to organize Neighborhood Watch presentations in ethnically diverse Modesto, California, crime prevention officer David Huckaby says, "It's tough, but Asians -- Cambodians, Lao, and Hmong -- and Hispanics are very interested in crime prevention information."
Selected Resources
National Association of Neighborhoods
1651 Fuller Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009
202-332-7766National Association of Town Watch
PO Box 303
7 Wynnewood Road, Suite 215
Wynnewood, PA 19096
610-649-7055Block Captain's Organizing Manual, available from the Campus Blvd. Corp., 5501 N. 11th St., Elkin Bldg., Rm. 408, Philadelphia, PA 19141. $5 plus $3 for postage and handling. It explains how to organize a block and maintain a block association. It addresses how to get residents from diverse cultures to work together. Includes forms for reporting drug activity, abandoned automobiles, and problem properties.
Last updated 02/24/02
Please send questions or comments to John Butcher