Merseyside is full of communities that care. I want my Neighbourhood Resilience Fund to help you kickstart, improve or expand your community watch work!

Neighbourhood Watch, Road Safety Groups, and other similar schemes such as local residents’ groups, bring community spirit back into neighbourhoods by creating and maintaining a caring community.

They give people the opportunity to get to know and help each other and help provide a strong voice when action is necessary to solve a local problem, working together and with local police teams, to protect their community and report suspicious people and incidents. 

Such schemes help to promote crime and disorder and anti-social behaviour prevention initiatives, while encouraging people to be alert and aware of what happens in your community,

I am very proud that the majority of Merseyside Neighbourhood Watch type work locally is delivered by dedicated and passionate volunteers, donating their time, skills, and experience to help make their communities safer, more connected and vibrant.

However, I am very aware that this does not mean the work requires no financial expense.

I am therefore delighted to offer funding via my Neighbourhood Resilience Fund to local schemes.

Groups applying to the fund needed to show how their project would prevent crime, increase community safety and cohesion, improve the environment or wellbeing of their community, make their roads safer, engage young people or build and enhance local networks.

The successful applicants for the inaugural Neighbourhood Resilience Fund were announced on September 11th 2023. 

They are as follows. 

Cross Border

  • Onward Homes to provide two community hubs in areas of high ASB to give communities a safe space to talk to services that are needed to improve community safety in the areas - Beechwood Wirral and North Liverpool (St Luke’s Close, North Liverpool)

Cross Border total = 1 project - £1,000 - 120 beneficiaries

Liverpool

  • Rawden Residents Association - The project will offer planters and planting from a centralised community garden space to residents, building connections and improving the area and deterring crime and ASB. The project is also looking to use solar lighting in alleyways making dark spaces less hidden or discreet.

Cost: £798 - beneficiaries: 500

  • Granby Toxteth Development Trust - The focus of the project will be working with 50 young members of the Roma community who are at risk of becoming criminalised and involved in ASB to help engage in positive.

Cost: £1000 - beneficiaries: 50

  • The Shrewsbury Youth and Community Centre – To run a community evening once a week for 6 weeks in the China Street Park area with a BBQ and games for all community members and families helping to promote community cohesion, whilst also ensuring people are fed. The team will facilitate inter-generational discussions and will cross all aspects of the diversity in the community to encourage people to mix and build positive relationships within their community.

Cost: £1000 - beneficiaries: 40-150

  • Fazakerley Federation- To hold weekly breakfast on a Friday morning in their community hub bringing together people in the community, where the local PCSO will be in attendance holding a police surgery. The community hub is perceived as a safe space, and this project will enhance opportunities for people to raise issues affecting their community safety and mental health.

Cost: £1000 - beneficiaries: 20

  • Team Oasis – Dingle Liverpool South - The funds will help to continue with CCTV system. This contribution would assist in maintaining the safety and security of the community centre and surrounding area which has high levels of crime, ASB and deprivation.

Cost: £1,000 - beneficiaries: 300

  • Bridge Community Centre – To provide a community hub, a safe space with trained volunteers for community members in Norris Green and Clubmoor to get help and support for a wide range of issues, such as ASB, domestic abuse, and wellbeing.

Cost: £1,000 - 800

 

St Helens:

  • Think FAST Academy - Working with young people vulnerable to child exploitation using boxing and healthy exercise and strengthening resilience to make positive life choices.

Cost: £1000 - beneficiaries: 100

 

Knowsley: 

  • Share Knowsley - to hold workshops with Refugees and Asylum Seekers on community integration, cultural awareness and how to stay safe in the community.

Cost: £700 - beneficiaries: 2,500

  • Clockwork Studios Prescot CIC - to run art, tattoo, and graffiti projects for all ages in an area with high ASB.

Cost: £835 - beneficiaries: 100+

  • Fairhaven Residents Association - CCTV provision, safety door chains, Neighbourhood watch posters for residents and to encourage drop ins with local police officers.

Cost: £1,000 - beneficiaries: 38

  • Young Adults Respite CIC - Working in Huyton with a range of young adults with disabilities on what makes a good neighbour project finishing with a community cohesion event with neighbours in the surrounding area afterwards.

Cost: £1000 - beneficiaries: 100

 

Wirral

  • Liscard Community Links- A horticultural project in Liscard Town Centre with residents and young people, and a refurbishment project of local youth provision at Wallasey Fire Station.

Cost: £1,000 - beneficiaries: 1,000+

  • Wirral Change - Development of a community champion scheme training residents to tackle issues including hate crime and anti-social behaviour, and a diversity event fostering cultural appreciation and promoting community cohesion.

Cost: £1,000 - beneficiaries: 360

  • YMCA Wirral - A partnership project between YMCA and Brooks Court to improve community cohesion and break down barriers between residents.

Cost: £650 - beneficiaries: 25

  • Mid-Wirral Crime Prevention - To raise awareness and understanding of anti-social behaviour through informational leaflets, and a targeted poster campaign to encourage reporting.

Cost: £550 - beneficiaries: 2000

  • Age UK Wirral - A new community café in West Kirby providing social value to residents through a free and safe community space and hosting key agencies including health and Local Policing to break down barriers.

Cost: £1,000 - beneficiaries: 9,000 (per month)

 

Sefton

  • Friends of Maghull & District CIC (FOMD)- a social / environmental project to transform an inaccessible green space into an accessible place of wellness that will engage the community requires the construction and maintenance of a noticeboard to communicate support and engagement at every level in the town’s highest footfall area.

Cost: £1,000 - beneficiaries: 20,000

  • Maghull Town Council - To engage the youth of Maghull by creating a Youth Council to improve the voice of young people and help the council understand what they need to improve provision for them, informing council actions. The Youth Council will also support the development of a Maghull Youth Volunteering scheme to engage students in local volunteering projects. These will include litter picks or engaging with projects such as the Cosy Club.

Cost: £1,000 - beneficiaries: Unknown at this stage

  • Brunswick Youth and Community Centre - Residents will set up their own community steering group to meet monthly to discuss issues and solutions to help the community prosper and improve. Funding will support the development of this group and family activities to help divert children and young people away from anti-social behaviour and criminality. The group will also be used for community consultation and liaison with the police when asked to feed any concerns they have around crime in the Bootle Area.

Cost: £1,000 - Beneficiaries: Unknown at this stage