A new community scheme aiming to help people feel safer in the town centre was launched in Brentwood on Friday 10th October.
Katherine Washbrook Partnership Support Officer, CAVS Be Safer Essex; Vice Chair of Safer Brentwood, Councillor John Newberry; Inspector Tom Mitchell; Dan Cannon, Brentwood Borough Council’s Community Safety Assistant; Jo Rayment from Frontline Partnership; PCSO Matt Grimwood; Leah Lambert from Home Instead; Tracey Lilley, the Council’s Community Safety Manager; and Abbie Hodgson, the Council’s Emergency Communications Officer in housing
Keep Safe aims to provide help and support to vulnerable people when they are out and about in Brentwood’s town centre. The scheme, which is aimed at people with learning disabilities, mental ill health and people over 60 is FREE to sign up for. Each new member will receive a welcome pack containing cards, key fobs, information leaflets and more. These items can be filled in with essential contact numbers which can be used in situations if they are feeling unwell or unsafe.
Seventeen venues have signed up to support the scheme and will display the Keep Safe sticker in their windows. Any venue with the Keep Safe sticker will allow members the use of a telephone or opportunity to ask for someone to make a call on their behalf in an emergency.
All of the partners involved in the scheme were present at the launch event and were on hand to sign new members up and issue information packs.
A map of the Keep Safe venues
Vice Chair of Safer Brentwood, Councillor John Newberry, said: “Our business community have shown their commitment to our High street and our residents by supporting those who sign up to the scheme by displaying a Keep Safe sticker in their window.
Keep Safe gives residents the reassurance that if something happens when they are out and they feel unsafe or unwell that there are venues that they can go to and where staff are guaranteed to help them.”
Katherine Washbrook, Partnership Support Officer, CAVS Be Safer Essex, said: “Keep Safe is about giving vulnerable people in our community the confidence to go out and about in Essex town centres and to know there will always be someone to help them if they are in difficulty.
The positive and dedicated support from everyone involved, whether as a Keep Safe venue, or in setting up the scheme, is amazing and has been crucial to the success of Keep Safe in Essex. We are all very proud to be part of the Keep Safe network.”
Natasha and Jim Radford, from Chicken and Frog in Ongar Road, one of the venues signed up to the scheme, said: “There was no hesitation at all for us when we were asked to be part of the Keep Safe scheme. Being a part of the community and being here for our community has always been a priority.
The initiative is a fantastic idea and we are very proud to be involved.”
Wayne Banks, a committee member for the Essex Mental Health Community, said: “It felt really significant for us to launch Keep Safe on World Mental Health Day and it was a great platform to increase the awareness of vulnerable people and to signpost them to the array of community groups in and around Brentwood.”
Do you think that you or someone you know could benefit from the scheme? if so, contact the Keep Safe Team by emailing brentwood@keepsafeessex.org.uk or calling 01277 312500.
The Keep Safe leaflet
