RTG initiatives

Non-RTG literacy activity

Burnley's RIF project started in September 2004. They plan to tie their project into player / club staff interviews to find out about their reading habits.

Burnley Community Safety Partnership - Burnley Football Club Player Card Scheme

During several events with young people throughout 2003, Burnley Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership became aware that knowledge of strategy key themes and associated community safety messages was low. Young people showed little interest or no interest in the topics.

Better communication of the work being done in the Borough was a recommendation of the Taskforce Report, produced as a result of the summer disturbances of 2001.

The Partnership recognised that the messages needed to be communicated in an Innovative and appealing way so that they would be taken on board and the information kept for future reference. Endorsement of the messages by players encouraged acceptance and widespread distribution ensured that the information reached wider communities in the Borough.

Messages were themed around the core elements of the Crime and Disorder Reduction Strategy i.e.

• drugs misuse
• alcohol misuse
• property crime
• violent and hate crime
• anti-social behaviour
• road safety

Community cohesion was an underlying theme throughout the Strategy. Working in conjunction with Burnley Football Club and What Now? Services, key achievements of the Player Card Scheme included the following:

• partner agencies and young people produced 25 different community safety messages
• 9,000 wall charts were produced on which to collect the cards
• 10,000 copies of each player card were printed (25,000 in total)
• 3 cards were released during the first Saturday home game of each month oreleases were themed to highlight local/ national initiatives e.g. launch of FRANK
• it was agreed with the club that players would be made available to personally re enforce 'their message' as and when necessary
• regular events were held on match days e.g. 'collect a card day' and 'swapsie day.'

These events led to increased demand and the opportunity to further promote the messages and Partnership.

The project proved to be extremely successful. Each month 10 000 cards were widely distributed by Burnley Football Club, police, fire and rescue service, community wardens, youth and community offices and local paper.

Evaluation of the scheme so far;

• distributors report constant interest in the cards and increased interaction between themselves and young people
• local schools are using the cards as part of a reward scheme for good behaviour
• direct feedback from youngsters shows anticipation of future releases
• youngsters are able to remember topics covered which shows increased understanding
• the project has attracted widespread national interest and has been featured in the Home Office Crime Reduction Centre Digest
• the scheme has demonstrated Value for Money. The total cost of the project was £8,000 and the Partnership has measured the positive impact the cards have had using various indicators.

Reading Champions: Ade Akinbiyi (pdf),
Steven Caldwell (pdf).