NHW and Social Media guidelines

The National Neighbourhood Watch Network has written some useful guidelines on social media, especially with it being such a great communication tool for many Neighbourhood Watch groups. We wanted to share these with you, see below:

Social media can be used to increase awareness of Neighbourhood Watch locally, reach a wider audience (including younger members), promote Neighbourhood Watch as a means to tackle crime and build community cohesion, engage current members with actions they can take, increase awareness on safety, signpost people to accurate information, share national Neighbourhood Watch campaigns and messages and those of partner organisations.

Because social media is instant, it can be a very useful crime prevention tool, warning residents in a timely manner and making them more vigilant. It can be used to alert residents to suspicious activity in your neighbourhood, spread the word about Neighbourhood Watch events and personnel changes, communicate on recent crimes in the area and successes in apprehending offenders, alert residents to personnel changes of local police/ community safety teams, provide warnings about new types of scams and reminders on how to report scams.

In terms of increasing community cohesion social media is a great tool in emergency response situations (e.g COVID-19, flooding), and arranging events in the area such as street clean ups, street parties, community lunches or book hides.

It is vital when representing Neighbourhood Watch on social media we aspire to achieve our vision and mission and all posts are aligned with our core values.

With this in mind we have put together guidelines to help you whilst using social media to promote your scheme, highlight crime and discussing issues affecting your community.

Social Media guidelines