Civic Commons

The most recent Civic Commons events have taken place over the past couple of months in Peterborough. They've brought together a specially chosen group of local citizens with public service, third sector and private sector representatives in order to plan anti-social behaviour interventions using the widest pool of knowledge and skills possible. Their work has focused on a specific area of Peterborough – Century Square – which experiences particularly high levels of ASB. The group has developed three main interventions which will be trialled in Century Square later this year:

1. Community guardians: this involves members of the local community having a positive and visible presence on the streets. It builds on the work of schemes such as Streetwatch but focuses on reinvigorating a sense of community in neighbourhoods rather than directly tackling crime.
2. The Woolwich Model: this idea was developed by an RSA Fellow, Ben Rogers, and citizens in Peterborough are keen to trial it. The Model involves training key local figures and citizens with basic conflict resolution skills, enabling them (where appropriate) to defuse difficult situations in a confident and safe manner.  
3. Police/youth events: the final idea involved bringing police and young people together in informal settings to build understanding and find areas of common ground on ASB issues.