The Wickersley and Bramley Neighbourhood Watch have been a group for around 20 years established under the old Neighbourhood watch system and later changed to the Our Watch system, this sends alerts to all members of the watch instantly,
The group first contacted RotherFed due to dwindling membership over the last few years, the group wanted support in attracting new members and creating a new online Facebook presence in the hopes that this will entice new members from the local area. After the first meeting the group recruited a new member that would take the lead on social media, this has been a huge success attracting over 100 members to the page, the group regularly post updates on crime in the area as well as scam alerts and other useful information for community.
The group decided that to attract more new members they would need to work closer with partner agencies, to achieve this they have started working closely with both parish and RMBC councillor’s, the local PCSO’s and Neighbourhood officers getting their events and information posted in the ward bulletins, parish newsletter and even on the police alerts making the group known to more of the community.
The group didn’t want to stop there, they decided to start visiting established events in the area to promote the group even more, they have recently held their first drop in session at the Bill Chafer centre in Bramley, unfortunately this wasn’t as successful as the group would have liked but they enjoyed the experience and made new connections in the community, they are now planning on holding a monthly session there and hope that interest will grow over the next months.
Looking to the future the group would like to become RotherFed members and start applying for funding to further promote the group and make visible changes to the area, they would like to make some crime prevention goodie bags they can give away to new members containing items like shed alarms and tv simulators.