We are a group of sixth formers from Cardinal Pole School and Our Lady’s Convent High School, in Hackney and we are members of the TELCO’s CitySafe Campaign. The CitySafe campaign aims to reduce crime and develop a friendlier and safer environment in London, by building relationships between neighbours. The main argument behind the campaign is “If you know your neighbours, your street is safer.”

For the past few days we have been talking to shopkeepers in Upper Clapton and Homerton to le them know about CitySafe and see how our local community could become more involved with the campaign.

“We have enjoyed building relationships with the shopkeepers, since most of them are very interested in signing up to be CitySafe shops and cooperate in making London’s streets safer.”

“It has been a really good experience building these relationships with shopkeepers in our local area and we already feel that we are making progress in making our local community a friendly environment”

“There were clearly mixed reactions from shopkeepers to the campaign, at first. Some shopkeepers were cynical because of concerns of their own views about safety or they just fiund it hard to be interested. However, when we explained that it is not just a few shops that are part of it but many in the local area they felt that they could make a difference by working as a community”

For more details about CitySafe in Hackney, get in touch with our local organiser Sebastien: sebastien.chapleau@londoncitizens.org.uk