Talking West Cheshire

What is Crimebeat?

Crimebeat is a fund that gives money to young people who have a good idea about how to improve their community. In recent years, the Crimebeat charity has enabled the High Sheriff of Cheshire to play an active role in the reduction and prevention of crime in the area, particularly among young people.

Crimebeat fundraising eventWhat is it all about?

If you had up to £750 to spend to organise a project that would help make your community a better place to be, what would you do with it?

Would you concentrate on issues surrounding drug use? Crime and issues of crime among your peer group? Would you focus on the issues of helping the environment or on building links with other communities? Crimebeat gives you the opportunity to really change things, to do something for yourself and the people around you in a way that can be both challenging and rewarding.

Things we are looking for when we make grants

  • Projects which allow young people to tackle the problems of their community themselves.
  • Project groups of young people aged under 25 years old.
  • Sufficient adult and professional support for the project.
  • Projects with a significant element of crime prevention/community safety.
  • Projects that promote young people as valued members of their community.
  • Projects which include as many sections of the community as possible.

Some Crimebeat ideas to inspire you

Cheshire Brownies were the recipients of a £500 Crimebeat grant for an innovative crime reduction idea. The issue of crime has always been a thorny one - but with the clever use of attractive but prickly plants the Brownies showed that protecting your property can look good and offer great security!

Often, one piece of graffiti or vandalism is followed by another and another. One simple way of tackling this problem was thought up by the residents of a housing estate in Halton. With the help of Crimebeat funding they bought equipment to keep their estate clean and tidy, starting with clearing over-grown gardens. A complete transformation has taken place, all due to a little money and a lot of will-power and effort.

Problems on their school buses including vandalism, bad language and smoking stimulated pupils at Christleton High School to introduce a bus pass scheme. £440 from the Crimebeat fund enabled 1,200 passes to be made and issued. Pupils seen misbehaving can now be easily identified and punished by withdrawal of their pass. The idea has been hailed as a positive step towards improving relationships between young people and the travelling public, as well as comprising an important addition to road safety by making bus drivers less likely to be distracted by rowdy behaviour.

Making sure crime prevention and crime reduction messages successfully reach their audience is usually half the battle in today's multi-media world. Thanks to a £500 Crimebeat grant Widnes-based Lighthouse Theatre went back to basics with a hugely successful puppet show. The show addressed various crime issues in a way that ensured success by careful audience targeting and helped put the Crimebeat message across in an attention-grabbing way.

Any project that links the younger and older generations has the potential for a very positive result and provides examples of how the young can take action to transform the negative opinion of youth held by many older people. Such is the case with Wilmslow Air Cadets who received Crimebeat funding for crime prevention information packs to be handed out to local vulnerable elderly.

How can you help?

You can download a Crimebeat Grant Application form here (PDF 62kb) or if you would like any further information about Crimebeat and how you can turn your ideas into reality or simply want some advice, you can contact:

Frank Harding - Crimebeat Co-ordinator
Crimebeat Office,
Cheshire Constabulary HQ,
Clemonds Hey,
Oakmere Road,
Winsford, Cheshire
CW7 2UA

Telephone: 01606 364559

More Crimebeat links