Reducing crime and improving health in NW Kilmarnock using community assets

Objectives

The assets-based approach provides a means for previously connected and unconnected people and organisations to work in collaboration with residents and communities in order to improve their quality of life. This approach is based on identifying existing assets within communities and empowering residents to make a significant change to their environment, health and wellbeing. By creating the right conditions, people and community groups, previously marginalised, are encouraged to apply their own inherent or learned skills and talents to various projects and initiatives. The transformative change and outcomes which follow, not only empowers and strengthens individuals, it also converts them from passive recipients of services into participating agents in their neighbourhoods.

Such talent and skills were discovered in abundance in North-West Kilmarnock in Scotland. In the neighbourhoods of Onthank and Knockinlaw, residents and community groups readily embraced this new approach. Being led by Strathclyde Police and the national Violence Reduction Unit the overarching aim was to explore ways in which residents could take greater control and ownership in their neighbourhood in order to reduce violence and the fear of crime.