Want to help reduce crime in your neighbourhood? Throw a party!
Better yet, contact St. Albert’s Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) and they’ll help you get everything you need, from free hamburgers, hotdogs and buns to getting the streets on your block closed to traffic to even borrowing a few fun games to help break the ice.
June is block party month, as declared by the mayor and Colleen Lamble, the community development co-ordinator for FCSS, who wants to surpass last summer’s total of 68 block parties and hopefully hit the 100 mark.
“The reason we are having block parties to begin with is to encourage people to know their neighbours,” Lamble said. “The easiest and best way to have a friendly neighbourhood is to know your neighbours.”
That’s why the city has beefed up its block party program this year. Where in years past FCSS mainly helped get some food, it partnered with the department of recreation this year for access to some equipment, such as tug-of-war ropes, face paint, ladder golf and all sorts of other outdoor activities.
“With our lifestyle now, we don’t see people as often as we used to,” Lamble said. “I think that need is there, the social need to connect with one another. The relationship is no different than it was before and people can do it. They want to do it.”
Const. Janice Schoepp of the St. Albert RCMP, which partners with FCSS, along with Citizens’ Patrol and Neighbourhood Watch to sponsor the block parties, said they are a great crime reduction tool.
“From our standpoint, because as a police force we encourage people to get to know each other, it builds a sense of community and it’s a great crime prevention tool,” Schoepp said. “People watch out for each other and build relationships. They like to know who it is who lives around them and help look out for the kids.”
Schoepp says people might not know their neighbours as well as residents did 20 or 30 years ago, but that can change.
“There are some areas where people really do know their neighbours and especially where people have small children because they tend to be out more playing.”
Anyone wishing to host a party can visit www.stalbert.ca/block-party-information or call FCSS at 780-459-1756 to find out how to go about it. Food supplies are provided by Citizens’ Patrol and Neighbourhood Watch. The RCMP also makes an effort to show up at every party, whether it’s the bike patrol or an officer in a cruiser.
“It gives people an opportunity to ask questions of the police. They might not always make the effort otherwise and it’s important for them to know who we are,” Schoepp said.
But a block party doesn’t have to be limited to hot dogs, burgers and sack races, Lamble said. She’s heard of garden tours and potlucks. One neighbourhood even held a party in the winter, hosted a street hockey game and got a fire permit to have a fire pit. Some neighbourhoods are even holding block parties more frequently.
“Some parties are really elaborate and some are low-key,” said Lamble. “We’re talking on your street. We’re only there to help if they need ideas.”
