A packed central Brixton church saw the launch of the Lambeth CitySafe campaign in late February. St Matthew’s Anglican church opened as the first CitySafe Haven, pledging support and safety for any young person in immediate danger. Ten Brixton businesses also signed up to the scheme, displaying the ‘CitySafe’ sticker dedicated to South London teenager Jimmy Mizen, attacked in Lee in 2008. Jimmy’s dad, Barry, was at the launch on Wednesday 23rd February. The event was evidence of the hard work of the Lambeth alliance in driving the campaign forward over the last six months. Both South London Citizens and the borough itself voted CitySafe as their number one priority at their October assemblies. Reverend Stephen Sichel of St Matthews said, “We have increasingly heard stories of young people in our communities who are being threatened on buses and are afraid of walking on our streets. Launching Safe Havens, is a practical response and will help to reconnect relationships in our community.”

As leaders young and old took to the stage stories were heard of the need for Safe Havens and an organised community to combat crime and anti-social behaviour. Young people from Corpus Christi church, Brixton, have been at the forefront of the campaign, building strong relationships with police and shopkeepers. Rodrigo, the manager of Traid, a local ethical fashion store commented, “It hasn’t always been easy for us in Brixton but we know we must work together to ensure things improve. We have to look after our young people.”

Deputy Borough-Commander John Corrigan and Cllr Rachel Heywood signed a concordat pledging their support for a six-month pilot of CitySafe in central Brixton. Spt Corrigan praised the scheme and agreed to integrate Safe Havens into Lambeth’s local town centre clusters. He pledged a 30 to 60-minutes response time to Safe Havens, prioritising them within the police call centre system. The police will also work with Lambeth Citizens to train staff in organisations that become Safe Havens. Cllr Rachel Heywood agreed to open the Town Hall as a Safe Haven, together with Olive Morris House, Brixton libraries and other libraries across Lambeth.

This excellent result recognises the hard work of local alliance members to build the necessary relationships through neighbourhood walks, CitySafe games and training sessions for young leaders to make the next step to Safe Havens possible. Local community leader, Peter Beaumont closed the meeting by saying, “It has to be street by street, shop by shop, organised people building positive gangs, rather than disorganised people and negative gangs.” The local alliance will now move to implement CitySafe Champions to ensure Safe Havens are well supported and linked in to local police and evaluate how progress is going in six months.