| Homepage |  | News | | Senior staff of the "City without Violence" program walk the streets of Netanya |
|
|
| Senior staff of the "City without Violence" program walk the streets of Netanya |
|
|
|
| 21/8/08 |
|
The professional staff of the "City without Violence" program (CWV) toured the streets of Netanya and examined first hand the summer programs "City without Violence" run in the city.
The tour started at 9 pm and continued through the wee hours of the morning. The Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Public Security took part in the tour, along with the head of the program's professional staff, the Deputy Commander of the Netanya police station, representatives of the IFCJ, the city of Netanya and coordinators in the CWV program.
Twelve cities across Israel enjoy CWV summer programs which were designed to keep the youth of the city busy and out of trouble during the summer vacation. This is the second year that CWV summer program were held in Netanya, which after drawing conclusions from the first year, now focuses on specific areas in the city which has a larger presence of youth.
The night programs are open three nights a week between 9 pm and 2 am, with three main activities:
- Night courts: sport compounds are lit throughout the night, which various sporting activities led by professional sports counselors. In Netanya there are five courts lit as part of the program, which 35-40 children and teenagers taking part in the activities.
- The Mat Project: a professional team leads different activities for youth on different large straw maps scattered across the city. Activities include drum circles, social games, cooking workshops and open discussions. 20-25 youngsters take part on every mat.
- Community centers: centers throughout the city open their doors to the youngsters offering activities such as bonfires, movie night and live music.
Alcohol is prohibited in the areas of all CWV programs.
The city's youth council is an active partner in all of the youth programs in the city and run different activities such as stand up shows, live performances of new and upcoming artists, movie screenings and games.
The representatives visited the different areas and activities, including the most problematic areas which were defined by the Israel Police. They heard surveys from local counselors and learned about the extreme success of the program – almost zero violence occurrences among the youngsters that partake in the activities.
In addition to the summer programs, the enforcement activities of the local police was also intensified during the summer in order to minimize the violence and vandalism on the streets:
- Pre-defined problematic areas were pinpointed, renovated and lit up
- Closed circuit cameras were installed in order to locate vandalism
- A city wide patrol is active 24 hours a day in order to identify loitering and public disturbance.
Dani Shahar, Director of Operations in the City of Netanya showed the visitors around the city and pointed out the advanced network of closed circuit cameras installed in specific areas which provide the residents with a strong sense of security, pointing out that the system has drastically minimized the vandalism in the areas which saved the city 300,000 shekel in repair fees.
Since the "City without Violence" program got involved in the city of Netanya in 2007, violence and crime which involves juveniles decreased by 7%.
The Deputy Director of the Ministry of Public Security, Eliezer Rosenbaum, thanked the hosts and congratulated everyone involved in the CWV program over the past year, and stated the Netanya is an example city for other cities when it comes to fighting violence and crime.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| The "Mat Project" in full swing |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|