Ethos Public Relations Manchester

The true cost of vandalism

by Ethos public relations

A ten minute session with year 6 children on the impact of vandalism has proved so popular with schools and local authorities that Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) has re-packaged the session for other housing providers, emergency services, local authorities and education providers to use.

Crucial Crew provides interactive learning sessions for year 6 children and seeks to encourage good behaviour and responsible citizenship. This nationwide scheme is a regular fixutre in the school calendar and in Rochdale, a session about the real cost of vandalism has provem a big hit not just with the Crucial Crew but also with other partners.

Ruth Sillence, Communities First Co-ordinator for ALMO RBH said: “Petty vandalism on our estates can be expensive to eradicate and we wanted to ensure that 10 and 11 year old children had a real grasp of what that means to their local community.

“Children were given £50,000 in virtual cash and asked to design a play area with all the amenities they wanted. The children were really pleased with their fabulous new park – but not so pleased when we explained that the £50,000 also had to pay to repair and replace items on the estate caused by vandalism.

“Once we had taken that money out of the park budget – they owed us £4,000!”

With just ten minutes with the children, Ruth and her team had to devise a programme that encaspuslated all the key messages but also held their attention and kept them engaged. Ruth used photographic images of vandalism that the children could relate to and wrote a series of quick fire questions about vandalism in the local community.

The RBH vandalism session has been so well received that some local schools are using it in assemblies to highlight the impact of school vandalism and other local authorities have been in touch with RBH to take the session.

The vandalism package which includes a concept, script and list of equipment is available to purchase for £50. Contact Ruth Sillence, Communities First Co-ordinator, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, Kirkholt Drop in Centre, 10 The Strand, Kirkholt, Rochdale OL11 2JG. Tel 01706 651425 or 07975231666.

To read other news from Rochdale Boroughwide Housing click here.

Posted at 15^th February 2011