It’s your Chestermere. Have your say.
…about community safety
Safety is the foundation on which community quality of life is built. Without it, people can’t experience a high quality of life, no matter how beautifully a community is built or how many amenities a community has.
The 2012 Chestermere Town Survey, now open, asks residents about their feelings of safety in the community, as one of the measures of community quality of life. Residents are also being given the opportunity to say what they think the policing priorities should be during the next three years, information that will be used in the Town’s planning process.
Questions are also being asked about residents’ sense of community, because of the strong relationship between sense of community and community safety. When residents were interviewed for the Town’s Social Plan a few years back, a frequent comment was that residents’ feelings of safety were greatly enhanced by knowing others in the community, and others knowing them. They also said that when you recognize your neighbours, you are more aware of who doesn’t belong in your neighbourhood, which helps with crime prevention.
Advantages to having a sense of community that were cited by parents in Chestermere, were that they have a greater sense of their children’s whereabouts and activities when they know other parents in the community, and that the sharing of information between parents also increases parental awareness of potential risks to their children. Another advantage is that in communities where residents feel part of a community, they often feel more responsibility to intervene when they see something happening that could endanger other people’s children.
Knowing that you care about your household’s safety, the safety of the community, and community quality of life, the Town encourages you to have a say by completing the Town Survey, available on-line at www.chestermere.ca/Survey2012 during the month of September.
