NHW Schemes and their associations

 "BurtonJoyceBlogger"

In today's social media, websites particularly NHW origin are beginning to feel the "pinch" in the number of visitors they expect,  receive., together with those who choose to continue to return repeatedly

Once attracted to the site ( and ACTUALLY attracting visitors to a website is a totally different issue ) the answer is all down to the INSTANT interest stimulated within the visitor via the initial content of the page, immediately in front of them. this will invariably be the site 's HOME page

It follows that this HOME Page must visually attract and appeal. Attractive images are vital on any website page, particularly the '"landing' page" as the HOME PAGE is often referred to. It is both necessary to ATTRACT. INTEREST & INFORM from the FIRST MOMENT on the landing page, in order to create "stick ability" and stimulate the visitor into journeying further into the website and most importantly RETURNING in the future

This situation mirrors the fact that NHW schemes an Co-ordinators hesitate, "nay" resist the coming together as Associations at national, regional & county levels. The individual NHW schemes and their Co ordinators appear to be quite sceptical of any possibility from benefits in joining in with other schemes and are sceptical of  the "would be" benefits of promised by larger group/asociation dynamics.

I must add, that after my brief first hand experience of the situation, I have also reached the same conclusion - Why ? and what is the better alternative.

There appears to be a mistaken conclusion that larger associations are better equipped to obtain financial donations and thus provide some aid and financial support to the local NHW schemes. Yes ! These associations do have various degrees of success in achieve varying degrees of financial support - some quite gross in their size. However very little of this really ever actually benefits and percolates down to the majority of NHW scheme members or their Co-ordinators

In fact, many individual NHW schemes and their Co ordinators are definitely and distinctly opposed/sceptical of any "suggested" benefit available via "upper" NHW administrations, which is probably why the vast majority of NHW schemes and their Co ordinators choose to remain "below the vision line", keep their head down and get on with their own individual "community contribution"

The only genuine association needed is that which results from the real/meaningful permanent bonding/association/support between each and every individual NHW scheme/Co ordinator and their "local Police Neighbourhood Beat Team".  

The engagement between these two community components (in both direction) has always been seen as vital by many, on both sides, for with a ongoing will from both sides it can, produce and established the development of  permanent cost effective Neighbourhood Community Crime Prevention and Solving

 However it does need, a renewed ongoing and genuine effort by BOTH parties

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MEET, GREET, INVITE, UNITE

BurtonJoyceBlogger

Genealogy/Timeline website  - www,brianalvey.co.uk

1. 

                                                  TWO minutes prior to sunset in S Notts 16/11/2012

 Are the days of NHW as we have known it  - OVER?

The advent of the digital revolution several years ago have had life changing consequences for us as a nation an individuals

I will go out on a limb and suggest that the many NHW Co-ordinators and schemes members thro-out the UK are also experiencing the results of the changes

Consider their role in improving the welfare/safety of their immediate neighbours and community. In the past, adopting the initiative of EYES  EARS & GRAPEVINE was probably the most viable, important and significant aspect of their local crime prevention/solving role.

 In todays environment, I would suggest that a greater emphasis by the NHW Schemes &; membership, will very probably be the "social" well being of their community and individual.

 Why do I say this ?

The advent of instant digital communication, several years ago, was instrumental in the creation and introduction of the "local" (Nottingham)  NEIGHBOURHOOD ALERT initiative.

 In its basic form, this initiative was introduced to the Police & NHW, as a proposal and ground breaking pro-active scheme for assisting crime prevention/solving.

 This scheme proposed/designed/suggested by a local NHW Co-ordinator "Mike Douglas" was the introduction of digital technology for assisting the well being of the individual and community by notifying them promptly and directly with matters of concern,  assessed and considered as relevant by the local Police and there relevant Administrations

"Mike Douglas" the Co-ordinator was particularly perturbed with the fact that issues of immediate concern and the "well being" of members and the community  were NOT ( at that time ) being relayed promptly to the individual and communities, which were probably likely to be affected or could indirectly assist/ be involved in improving/resolving a situation.

In OCTOBER 2012 it was announced that the "Neighbourhood Alert" scheme ( nationally) had attained a membership of 144.000 with 1,500,000 messages sent out, direct in that month alone.

 The important figure is 144,000

" Neighbourhood Alerts" were out sent out direct to over 144,000 individuals in the UK during October  of this year and numbered in excess of 1,500,000. 

 YES thats 1.5 million "Alerts" despatched via and as a result of social media

However I now understand that it is suggested there is approx just under 5 Million NHW members now in the UK

There is an obvious shortfall in the numbers of NHW members who have signed-up to  or receive the Neighbourhood Alerts  -

 SHAME. What does this appear to tell us - 

One of three things

1)There is a need for more NHW members to become digital minded or connected

2) There is a large potential available within the NHW who should be recruited into the NHA system

3)There is an enormous number of potential households in the UK not in the NHW who could be recruited to the NHA /  NHW scheme

HOWEVER to achieve this requires  - Community & Establishment  PRO -ACTIVITY!

Here is a suggestion a new initiative

"MEET! GREET ! INVITE ! UNITE ! "

The initiative is to mobilise the single most effective means of improving, developing, safer, greater community engagement in all areas of our county  towns villages,urban ,sub-urban  & rural areas

There is a obvious need by those with influence to actually "get out" into the communities and develop " face to face " engagement with the man /woman on the streets

There is a need to show those in positions of influence there is a   "want-to", "need-to", establish "face to face" contact and dialogue with the communities

What is the most effective/economical way of achieving this.?   Taking a leaf out of the "Politicians Electioneering handbook " and physically getting out into the county, shaking hands /spreading the message and therby "enrolling" recruits for the cause,  be it the NHA/NHW/Police/ CVS/Community Life

Will this be Costly?  -  absolutely NOT !

All it needs is the commitment by those who really care about the interests and safety of all those in our communities, within our county, to join together with combining their joint resources  - and  make it happen

Yes, it will require a little finance and personal commitment and it cannot/will not happen "over night".  However, I am sure there will be sufficient vested interest within

NOTTSWATCH,  CNNHWC, our POLICE, COUNCILS,  COMMERCE etc  to make itg happen

By investng a little  time and effort to organise a"battle bus", "road shows", "meet and greets" - and by utilising existing resources of materials, membership, volunteers etc to arrange a programme (in the better weather of spring , summer & autumn) and physically /proactively bring those individuals committed to their communities it can happen and achieve 

 A "FACE to FACE" with those in our society .

A "FACE to FACE"  on their ground, in their "patch", at a time, which provides access with little or no inconvenience to the communities and the resident  with little disruption to their normal routines 

All it needs is the desire, a little initiative and the involvemen/ "coming together" of those ORGANISATIONS with a vested interest in seeking to develop a better society in which we all live and enjoy

MEET!  GREET!  INVITE!  UNITE!

"Its worth a try surely ?"

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TWITTER & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

                                         I tell it as I see it - "A SPADE is a SPADE"

There is little doubt that Social Media continues to grow and be accepted at an alarming pace.

Generally it also appears to be used for good /healthy  debate, conversational, together with enabling "instant/notification of significant community conversation/notifications.

My opinion is that "Twitter" as a particular piece of social media is rapidly developing into THE nations preferred ONLINE vehicle for conversational subjects - the majority of which deserves exposure as contributing to genuine COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

"Twitter"  allows anyone with access to the Internet to give and express their personal statements or opinions in < 140 characters. What a superb example of genuine democracy.

However with such democracy we all need to be aware of and RESPECT the right of the every individual to their own personal space and privacy.

There is a "fine line" which we all should tread and respect when we use "Twitter".  Regretfully, at times, an individual's personal enthusiasm and passion can cross that "fine line" , it will happen for we are not automatons, we do have human frailties and passions. I anyone of us do unintenrionally cross that liner, then we should be "big enough" to apologise and be "man enough "nott being sexist !) and accept the consequences.
However we must all understand and accept the possibility of the "dire" consequences if we do "cross that line" generally accepted as a safeguard for individual personal privacy and maintaing the law in today's democratic society

THINK before you TWEET

CONTENT is more important than "structure"

Autocracy !

  BJ BLOGGER
     

Autocracy !!

Over the past few years I have personally experienced the results of localised autocracy in the volunteer and government sectors .

Is this attitude, historical, ongoing and on the increase?

Well ! what-ever the situation I personally choose to "opt-out" of any environment which tolerates this practice.

I am an avid Tweeter ( I consider this particular example of social media to be an excellent vehicle for improving the development of "community engagement" in particular. Recently I "re-tweeted" a particular posting, which illustrated the tremendous savings - which one individual had achieved - by using the information available through an On-line  "Comparison" site. It was a saving of several £100's on a current  heating bill of approx £800. My personal opinion was this was a topic which could illustrate and also benefit  many individuals in the our communities - by simply investing some took the time and little effort it could make a dramatic difference which will help with their current finances in these difficult times.

My personal and individual decision to "re-tweet" this particular posting was criticised by another, who had NOT taken the time to ascertain that these postings were actually my personal views.

RESULT 1 - pressure to have me deleted the re-tweet from the Twitter site - I resisted.

RESULT 2 - another site which ran duplicates of my postings was "persuaded" and removed ALL my existing and future Twitter postings  

RESULT 3 -  I am NOT a happy bunny and will now need to re-assess the channels available to me for my ongoing community contribution

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Message from BJ's Gedling Councillor

Hi Everyone 

Here is a friendly message from BJ's Gedling Councillor

"There is also another event that you may like to mention on your website. This is a new initiative by GBC called the Gedling Conversation where Cabinet members and senior managers will be travelling to all areas of the borough so that people can have their say in person. They will be visiting Burton Joyce on Thursday 4 oct between 2pm-4pm in the village center. So everyone please go along if you can.  Regards S J Poole

Help to reduce domestic violence. Sign up to the "man enough to say no" campaign at www.man-enough.org "

We hope and trust, that many within our community will use this unique opportunity/initiative to chat, discuss and give their opinions and preferencesduring this  face to face - opportunity .

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"Out oft Box" - Digital Vertical Engagement

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"Out oft Box" - Vertical Engagement

WHY IS IT  that many of those individuals who gain or aspire to a position of significance in a major organisation or charity actually ignore, or fail to recognise, the importance of VERTICAL ENGAGEMENT with their staff and volunteers ?.

I have worked within industry in the UK and abroad with various sized companies and of late with volunteer organisations in the UK – primarily the NHW ( recognised as probably one of the largest UK Charities with up to 10 million volunteers.)

Surely this cannot be the way to communicate today 

NHW Volunteers generally work tirelessly to achieve the aims of themselves, colleague and neighbours to assist in preventing and solving crime in their areas , in addition to creating , improving the lot of each and everyone in their particular community

.

YET  the salaried management of the NHW national organisation somehow misunderstands the importance of continuous stimulation, individual recognition, material assistance, face to face contact, ongoing moral stimulation & assisting the generation of ideas which can result from a genuine and purposeful vertical engagement with the “foot soldiers” 

It is easy to finance and create mundane websites, establish and equip a salaried HQ Office and management structure, however, personal contact and communication will most definitely be more effective and  appreciated. Sending out messages enquiring what the volunteers think about the website is pointless and wasteful, hasn’t anyone heard of website statistics !.. Websites and content statistics are constantly available, analysing the smallest detail of interactivity, and visitor interest and the number of page/article visits even to the smallest detail of which page they exit the site from. Yet it appears to me that the attitude and finesse used in the successful commercial is not embraced nor considered useful .

The Neighbourhood Alert system by VisaV is a fantastic example of the use of the internet and digital contact in vertical engagement. However,  personal individual engagement still an important element also.

 Here is an example of what I mean with the illustration of a personal engagement with NOTTSWATCH the Nottinghamshire NHW Association - some 12 months ago..  .. 

..

Three years ago my wife and I became  IT Champions with a local concern – regretfully for several reasons after 6 months  this association came to an end. 

Following our experiences in re-establishing the village NHW, it quickly became evident that the majority of NHW volunteers were NOT computer literate – resulting in an ongoing communication problem. We therefore decided to begin coaching our volunteers – many in their 60.70/80’s in the use of library computers ( high successful with many buying their own laptops )

Mary -  "Going Solo"

As a result of this experience and honing our "computer training" down to the absolute basics via our "One to One" tutorial,s we developed our own “ABC” in Basic Computer instruction. This was just prior to the launch of the Governments Guru Marth Lane Fox’s “Get on Line” initiative.

Regretfully about this time Notts CC, as many other council authorities in the UK,  found it necessary to begin cutting the number of libraries in the County and reducing the hours of many others to meet financial requirements.

 After several meets with Notts CC Library staff  and our local County Councillor, our initiative to develop “Computer Training” in libraries did not progress any further. 

A  little time later we broached developing the subject with a National NHW representative – “nothing in this years budget to cover that” was the response

A couple of months after this, in our role as NHW Co-ordinators, we introduced our initiative to NOTTSWATCH-after dekivering a small presentation at one of the monthly meetings, immediately our ABC initiative became a live topic again.

The Chairman and members ( including the Police ) saw the immense potential in introducing, improved andr sharper community engagement with existing and new NHW volunteers ( the majority of NHW volunteers are 50 plus and not computer savvy).  OK it has taken some 9 months to reach the  position todate  ( with a launch in a months time), however it should be understood that NOTTSWATCH is also a volunteer organisation with NO full time salaried members and. the committee representatives from each Council district of the county have to travel considerable distances for meets each month and  they are not computer e mail gurus either.

 .

I am confident that now is the time to roll up our sleeves and really make an effort to beat this digital/computer divide "ONCE and FOR ALL"  for that is what it will be 

 "ONCE and for ALL time" - for following generations are already computer savvy thro their schooling and employment activities.

 In Nottinghamshire we need to -

Bring together all those organisations involved, in their own way, in introducing computer /digital use to the county’s uninitiated   - NottsWatch, NottsCC. Notts libraries, Age Concern, RCan, District Councils plus the Broad Band providers, Major Stores and Computer/Digital  Sales outlets and of course Media organisations etc.

 We should and need to interest and establish direct and meaningful relationships with the many community interest groups  - WI.s, Senior Citizens, Residential Homes etc, who  for all these and their members will  naturally benefit from an initiative such as this

The scope is tremendous, for  if only we can establish a contact and meaningful relationships with organisations across the county, there is little doubt that a genuine co-operation can be generated  thro-out the wide range of the county’s  Administrators  and by integrating existing resources and a purpose of intent , we can collectively and successfully develop the genuine

“Intent to resolve this problem  - ONCE and for ALL”  

   

I could go on all day with listing the benefits  to the Police, Social Services, the National Health services etc., etc., but most of all, it will benefit each and every individual and family who at present is left outside and devoid of the numerous benefits and social advantages available to them by being computer familiar and involved in the UK's digital revolution

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"TYKE TALK" - "art oft box" part 2

"TYKE TALK" - "art oft box" part 2

There is a saying in Yorkshire  

"Ifs thas nowt to seh -  seh't to thisen"  -       

" Av got a lot to seh" :-) especially now I have found my ancestral roots   

Part 2

Not the earliest image of me , but probably the least embarrassing 

Our “Queen of Villages” could NOT boast as having an Airport or Bus Station. In fact, throughout the full 20+ years I lived in the “Queen of Villages” I NEVER once saw an aircraft pass overhead -

 I did once hear the Luftwaffe though, I think it was 1942 - flying over us at night, to drop their load of bombs on the numerous Steel Works in the Sheffield/Rotherham area. It was during some dark, dismal and dank night, that I recall scrambling under our lounge table for protection, in case the bombs dropped on our house - none of the families nearby ever retreated to/used the brick built Anderson Air-Raid Shelters built for our communal protection, for they were damp, filthy and smelly. 

Oh! I should add that the local bus service did pass by our front garden (a 10ft x 10foot patch of grass described as lawn when the need to impress occurred). The “Yorkshire Traction” bus passed by twice each hour - every hour - in both directions, from 6.00am in the mornings to 10.00pm at night.  (20 minutes to, and 10 minutes passed, the hour, in one direction to Thurscoe and 10 minutes to and 20 minutes passed the hour, the other way, towards Wath centre/West Melton/Brampton/Wombwell and BARNSLEY - the nearest large town). The regular bus service was six days a week - on Sundays it was a reduced service, which did not start until mid-day and finished early at about 6.00pm.

I should have added that we did in fact have a 2 Bus Stops within 20 paces ( crafty measurement … yes? ) -that’s 20 child’s paces of our front door. No cars, or taxis service though. Shanks Pony was the only alternative - very few pushbikes also ( War effort  - I guess !! )

The “Queen of Villages” could boast an Infants and Junior School - Victoria School - (5 Bus Stops away) This was my school where I had my early education. I walked there and back most days - 30 to 45 minutes in each direction ( all weathers). I also had my own “personal coat hook” in the School Cloak Room- designated with a dangling coloured cardboard cut out, of a “Grey Elephant “- this was my own personal coat hook and I was very proud of it ( as the retention in my memory obviously substantiates).

 

                                       

There were separate Girls and Boys outside Loo s - the Boys Loos were really "Bogs !!" and were open aired and exposed to the elements, I doubt if this was true for the girls though. We also were allocated a camp bed put up each afternoon in the School Hall/Class Room - one itchy blanket. All the "infants" class were supposed to have a sleep - don't know why, probably because the school administrators considered that the possibility of nightly bombing raids would keep us awake and deprive us of rest we needed - hug ! No one of my friends appreciated the concern

I went to church every Sunday - to St James’ ( cant remember from what age). In later years I did play the Church Organ there, and occasionally (less than discretely I should add) during practice “pepped” up the music with jazz and boogie. That was until “Skip" - the Scoutmaster heard me one time, and suggested it was not the best way to air my talent, and that if I was not careful he may consider demoting me from the Patrol Leader of the my beloved “Peewits“ Patrol

(Only recently I learned that both Billy Connelly and Bernard Cribbens were also Peewit Patrol Leaders - such exalted company!) What a disgrace this would have been, it would be too great to handle, I guess I would have left the 12^th Don and Dearne St James Scout Troop - with Sherwood Green trimmed with Yellow edge Neckerchief, held in place with a woggle - in such a personal demise that life would have ended for me there and then ( is that where an anxiety complex took root ? ;-) )

Part 3 to follow

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