Ballin’ with a Bobby
Improving perceptions of law enforcement
In an exciting effort to bring the community together and strengthen the ties between young people and the local police, the University of Essex and Essex Rebels, hosted multiple ‘Ballin’ with a Bobby’ sessions.
The initiative was entirely free of charge, thanks to the support of Active Essex, and the Active Essex Foundation team. It welcomed children and young people from primary and secondary schools across Essex to participate in a day of sporting activities, whilst engaging with local police officers in a positive and supportive environment.
The sessions consisted of a range of basketball activities, crime prevention sessions and guidance from the Essex Rebels. Not only did this provide a fantastic opportunity for the Essex Rebel players to become role models, but it also helped build positive relationships with local police officers in a personable way.
When designing these sessions, a lot of thought went in to what the children and young people may need, and the partners involved reflected on the type of learning environment they wanted to create to ensure the young people could gain as much from the opportunity as possible. The community safety activities were engaging and topics which are usually delivered in a “classroom” style session were adapted into games where children had to listen to a scenario and run to an area of the facility to reflect on their answer. Similarly, the Police spoke about topics such as anti-social behaviour and hate crime, but also made sure they listened to young people about their concerns and issues they face within the community, which in turn helped the individuals feel valued and encouraged them to take pride in their local community.
It was important that this initiative changed behaviours of young people towards local law enforcement, but also ensured they had the outlet to continue to be active.
The sessions concluded with a tournament and family day, where the young people could understand what other local opportunities were available to them through Essex Sport, including basketball, climbing, tennis and more. In turn this helped ensure sustainable behaviour change among the young people towards local police, and in their own active lifestyle.
