Crucial Crew

Vendetta Against Vandalism…. the price you pay!

Given a chest of cash, how would you improve your neighbourhood?

Exactly how far does £50,000 go?

Year six pupils from Rochdale enrolled on a Crucial Crew workshop have been answering that very question. That is, of course, once they’ve used this ‘virtual cash’ to put right all the mindless acts of vandalism on the estates they live on. Crucial Crew, is an awareness scheme which has become a regular fixture to the school calendar delivering personal and safety education messages to Year six children (10 and 11 year olds) and seeks to encourage model behaviour and good citizenship through active participation in a range of scenarios including:

• First Aid, Rail safety, Drugs, Crime issues, Vandalism, Shoplifting, Building Site safety, Fire, Personal safety, Electrical safety, Road safety, Environmental issues, a scenario on Safe/Dangerous Medicines, Water safety, Health issues, and Bus safety.

Along with RBH, workshops – held at Bury Interchange during September and November - are facilitated by partner public sector agencies such as Greater Manchester Police, British Transport police, GMPTE, Fire Service and Ambulance and Road Safety. During the RBH workshop pupils take part in role-play and are given the responsibility of the budget allocated for estates. Initially, photographs are displayed to highlight damage
caused by vandals on some RBH estates. Pupils are then given ‘virtual cash’ to the value of £50,000, which they can spend on building a new play park with all the amenities they desire. The sting in the tale comes when it is drawn to their attention that before they can have their park they have to fork out cash to rectify all the areas destroyed by vandalism. The lesson they learn is that due to the repercussions of the thoughtless actions of a
minority £50,000 doesn’t go very far at all! Communities First Co-ordinator, Ruth Sillence said: “The children learn invaluable lessons through the Crucial Crew experience. The teachers that came to the sessions were quick
to realise this and commented on how important they believed the workshops to be. In fact, they were so impressed by the teaching methods that they will be rolling them out in the classrooms on a more frequent basis.”
Crucial Crew workshops help to deliver the important message to kids, in this particular case, that every year Councils spend thousands of pounds on cleaning up estates and this cash would otherwise be spent on more luxurious commodities to improve their communities.

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Home Information and Services Become a Tenant Current Tenants Leaseholders * * *		Crucial Crew Vendetta Against Vandalism…. the price you pay! Given a chest of cash, how would you improve your neighbourhood? Exactly how far does £50,000 go? Year six pupils from Rochdale enrolled on a Crucial Crew workshop have been answering that very question. That is, of course, once they’ve used this ‘virtual cash’ to put right all the mindless acts of vandalism on the estates they live on. Crucial Crew, is an awareness scheme which has become a regular fixture to the school calendar delivering personal and safety education messages to Year six children (10 and 11 year olds) and seeks to encourage model behaviour and good citizenship through active participation in a range of scenarios including: • First Aid, Rail safety, Drugs, Crime issues, Vandalism, Shoplifting, Building Site safety, Fire, Personal safety, Electrical safety, Road safety, Environmental issues, a scenario on Safe/Dangerous Medicines, Water safety, Health issues, and Bus safety. Along with RBH, workshops – held at Bury Interchange during September and November - are facilitated by partner public sector agencies such as Greater Manchester Police, British Transport police, GMPTE, Fire Service and Ambulance and Road Safety. During the RBH workshop pupils take part in role-play and are given the responsibility of the budget allocated for estates. Initially, photographs are displayed to highlight damage caused by vandals on some RBH estates. Pupils are then given ‘virtual cash’ to the value of £50,000, which they can spend on building a new play park with all the amenities they desire. The sting in the tale comes when it is drawn to their attention that before they can have their park they have to fork out cash to rectify all the areas destroyed by vandalism. The lesson they learn is that due to the repercussions of the thoughtless actions of a minority £50,000 doesn’t go very far at all! Communities First Co-ordinator, Ruth Sillence said: “The children learn invaluable lessons through the Crucial Crew experience. The teachers that came to the sessions were quick to realise this and commented on how important they believed the workshops to be. In fact, they were so impressed by the teaching methods that they will be rolling them out in the classrooms on a more frequent basis.” Crucial Crew workshops help to deliver the important message to kids, in this particular case, that every year Councils spend thousands of pounds on cleaning up estates and this cash would otherwise be spent on more luxurious commodities to improve their communities. Back to Communities First