CoPcards 2010

School children across Buckinghamshire are taking part in an exciting sticker-collecting scheme to encourage them to become more involved in their community. Bucks CoPCards is a youth engagement, sticker-collecting scheme for Year 6 pupils (aged 11) which launched on 22nd March 2010. Thames Valley Police in conjunction with South Bucks District Council and other partner agencies are launching the scheme following a successful pilot in Chiltern District last year.
CoPCards is an abbreviation for “Community and Police Cards” and aims to encourage children to be safe, get involved in community activities, care for their local area and engage with their neighbourhood policing team. They will earn rewards in the form of stickers to be placed in a collector’s card. The stickers will relate to a number of topics including healthy eating, sports activities, recycling, personal safety, substance misuse, first aid and attendance. There will also be a number of stickers to collect for meeting with officers on their local neighbourhood policing team.

Police neighbourhood teams are currently distributing the CoPCard packs to middle schools across the district. The scheme will run until 30th June 2010 and the class who collect the most stickers will win one of a number of prizes. First prize is a class trip to ‘Legoland’ Windsor in July but there are also a number of runners-up prizes such as mobile climbing wall sessions and exclusive cinema screenings as well as extra prizes for the best individual team player and best innovator.

South Bucks District Councillor, Shorne Tilbey, Portfolio Holder for Community says “The CoPCards scheme is an excellent example of us working together to engage with young people to make them feel a real part of the community in which they live.”

The scheme will also show young people how their behaviour could impact on others in the community and be seen as anti-social. An evaluation from the pilot scheme last year found that after taking part in the project 88% of the young people involved understood how to moderate their behaviour so as not to appear anti-social. The children will also be taught what to do if they discover that someone they know carries a knife. This forms part of the national ‘Tackling Knives Action Plan’. Information will also be given on internet and mobile phone safety, including text and cyber bullying.

For more information on the scheme contact South Bucks District Council’s Community Safety Team on 01895 837234 or go to www.thamesvalley.police.uk