SafeGrowth® is a philosophy of neighborhood living as well as a model for neighborhood development and crime prevention.
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SafeGrowth® envisions 21st Century neighborhoods of imagination, livability and safety. It is a people-based program that creates new relationships between city government and residents in order to prevent crime and plan for the future. While technology and evidence-based practice plays an important role, SafeGrowth® builds community capacity with precise and measurable SafeGrowth® plans and permanent, problem-solving teams networked together throughout the city.
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HISTORY
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SafeGrowth® was launched in 2007. Since then the SafeGrowth® method has been adopted in Canada, United States, New Zealand, Australia and Europe. |
SafeGrowth was developed by Gregory Saville based on decades of criminological research and consulting work in crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED), urban safety and policing, including the formation of the International CPTED Association in Calgary in 1996.
SafeGrowth was launched at the June, 2007 Canadian Institute of Planners annual convention in Quebec City, Canada. Three months later it was presented to the International Conference on the State of Safety in World Cities 2007, Monterrey Forum of Cultures, Monterrey, Mexico, in September. In November, as a result of pioneering work by the Latin American chapter of the ICA, SafeGrowth was unveiled to the United Nations Habitat program in Santiago, Chile in the International IberoAmerican Forum on Experiences of Neighborhood Recovery. The first SafeGrowth training was held in Seattle back in 2007 (see images above).
Since its launch in Canada SafeGrowth has now been adopted across a number of neighborhoods in North America and was in 2014 also first introduced in New Zealand and Australia, and in 2019 in Europe.
SafeGrowth was launched at the June, 2007 Canadian Institute of Planners annual convention in Quebec City, Canada. Three months later it was presented to the International Conference on the State of Safety in World Cities 2007, Monterrey Forum of Cultures, Monterrey, Mexico, in September. In November, as a result of pioneering work by the Latin American chapter of the ICA, SafeGrowth was unveiled to the United Nations Habitat program in Santiago, Chile in the International IberoAmerican Forum on Experiences of Neighborhood Recovery. The first SafeGrowth training was held in Seattle back in 2007 (see images above).
Since its launch in Canada SafeGrowth has now been adopted across a number of neighborhoods in North America and was in 2014 also first introduced in New Zealand and Australia, and in 2019 in Europe.
METHOD & PHILOSOPHY
SafeGrowth is a philosophy built on the belief that healthy and functioning small neighborhoods provide the most sane, healthy, and safest way to build cities in the 21st Century. It is based on the premise that crime is best tackled within small neighborhoods by harnessing the creative energy of functioning neighborhood groups, by employing the latest crime prevention methods, and by adopting an annual SafeGrowth Plan to control, and mitigate, crime and fear.
The TO-FOR-WITH is the underlying principle of SafeGrowth® philosophy.
SafeGrowth® neighborhood teams are organized in SafeGrowth Panels.
The TO-FOR-WITH is the underlying principle of SafeGrowth® philosophy.
SafeGrowth® neighborhood teams are organized in SafeGrowth Panels.
THE TO-FOR-WITH PRINCIPLE |
Unlike programs like CPTED, which are typically run by crime prevention practitioners or the police to or for a community, the SafeGrowth method seeks to embed the skills of tactics like CPTED, among others, within the community by working directly with neighborhood associations, groups, and local change agents. Many of the programs will also be initiated and implemented by the members of community themselves. This approach ensures higher levels of neighborhood social cohesion which in turn helps sustain community-building and crime prevention strategies in the long-term. The methods of SafeGrowth include training programs, and establishing local, democratic, non-profits. It also builds or enhances existing networks between city services like police and neighborhood groups using social and electronic and networking tools.
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SAFEGROWTH® PANELS
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Prior to the formation of non-profit neighborhood associations with formal ties to city government, each neighborhood establishes SafeGrowth Panels (see diagram below) who begin the process by learning how to diagnose and respond to problems. They also learn how to create annual SafeGrowth neighborhood plans with vision statements, measurable outcomes, and action plans for moving forward.
SafeGrowth® Panel Structure
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The composition of each SafeGrowth Panel comprises three different layers represented by a core group of up to 8 participants (Core Members), a Support Team of up to 20 professionals such as police, and a Resource Team from the wider community and beyond such as government officials (see diagram below).
SafeGrowth® Panel Membership
(click to enlarge)
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To ensure sustainability of the initiative and ongoing pool of neighborhood leaders, ideally, each year the municipality will sponsor a series of free Citizenship Academies, sometimes called Community Livability Academies, comprising a few hours of presentations and workshop one night a week. Topics of workshops include civic affairs and skills training especially regarding the SafeGrowth method. The Academy typically runs eight weeks after which graduates are asked to sit on SafeGrowth Panels in their neighborhood.
IN SUMMARY, THE FOUR MAIN ACTIVITIES IN SAFEGROWTH® ARE:
These activities crate inclusive and livable neighborhoods that are safe and offer opportunities for creativity, diversity and mobility as described below. |
Further reading: 
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THE NEIGHBORHOOD IS WHERE IT'S AT
SafeGrowth® operates at a NEIGHBORHOOD level.
Residents deserve to live in safe & livable - great neighborhoods.
Great neighborhoods are not great by coincidence.
They are great because they are safe and they offer opportunities for creativity, diversity & mobility.
Neighborhoods become great because people there care for one another & participate in community life.
Wondering what makes great neighborhoods? See below.
Residents deserve to live in safe & livable - great neighborhoods.
Great neighborhoods are not great by coincidence.
They are great because they are safe and they offer opportunities for creativity, diversity & mobility.
Neighborhoods become great because people there care for one another & participate in community life.
Wondering what makes great neighborhoods? See below.
WHAT THEY ARE NOT!
SHOPPING OR WORK?Neighborhoods are NOT a commercial strip, a box store, shopping mall, or an industrial park, no matter how many times they are called “shopping village” or “green acres estates”. These are places to buy things or to work. A neighborhood might require shops nearby, but only because we use those things to make our neighborhood great.
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WALKABILITYGreat neighborhoods are NOT hostile to walking. If we must drive to local amenities like grocery and simple conveniences, that puts us into a vehicle away from visiting or interacting with those neighbors who actually comprise the lifeblood of a neighborhood, which is, actually, people. Neighborhoods MUST be walkable.
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BARE MINIMUMS?A neighborhood is NOT place that provides a bare minimum of satisfactory living conditions. That is not a satisfactory goal of 21st Century habitat. It is not enough to provide basic utilities like clean water, garbage pickup, snow removal, or street cleaning, adequate car parking areas, a few sidewalks, and so forth. Those are the bare minimums for decent habitat. They are far from enough for a great neighborhood.
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WHAT THEY ARE!
COMMERCIAL FACILITIESThere may have been a time long ago when a cluster of commercial areas did represent a communal gathering place where people socialized in the neighborhood. Box stores and regional malls ended that. Great neighborhoods have access to well used, locally-relevant, and walkable commercial areas. Local coffee shops, grocers, pharmacies, hair salons and barber shops, bookstores/music stores, neighborhood pubs, and other neighborhood-oriented commercial activities provide an important service to great neighborhoods.
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WALKABLEA great neighborhood must be a place where people have an opportunity to walk safely, with meaningful destinations.
DIVERSITYTo be really great, if at all possible, great neighborhoods will benefit from different kinds of people, ages, incomes, and ethnicities to give it cultural flavor. Such diversity will provide opportunities not available elsewhere. It helps neighbors learn about, interact with, teach and be taught by, different kinds of people from different walks of life.
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...OTHER CHARACTERISTICS OF GREAT NEIGHBORHOODS INCLUDE...
AMENITIESGreat neighborhoods also need nearby amenities for those residents to meet, recreate or learn. They might include a memorial or monument of symbolic value. They might also include a quality school, a local park, or a walking or biking trail. If seniors, teens or toddlers are nearby, great neighborhoods should contain easily accessible playgrounds for children, teens and adults alike. If people with physical or mental challenges reside nearby, amenities should include such things as ramps and at-grade crossings, signage, and other features that create an inclusive public realm.
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NETWORKED LAND USESOne of the opportunities available in great neighborhoods is a land use balance with a range of amenities and activities. However that depends on whether we mean the street, the block or the cluster of connected blocks. It is unlikely a street alone will have the space to contain more than one of two amenities. So in a great neighborhood an inventory of amenities and activities emerges from a) when it is collaboratively decided with residents, and b) on a block and in a connected cluster of immediate blocks creating a complex network of neighborhood relationships.
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MOBILITYGreat neighborhoods have access to a safe, efficient network of transportation options. Those options should include walkability, through sidewalks and paths, bicycle trails, sheltered, clean and interesting public transit stops within a 10 minute walk of anywhere in that neighborhood, and vehicle roadways narrow enough to slow traffic and give way to pedestrians.
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NEIGHBORHOOD HUBSGreat neighborhoods have ample land use for the public realm - sometimes called community spaces. Traditionally these include community centers, but too many such places are underused by most residents. Thus, great neighborhoods have a geographical center, or nexus, for shared cultural and social activities, for the whole neighborhood. A great neighborhood will have city support to sponsor such events regularly through the annual Safety and Development Plan. These events include farmers markets, music events, cultural festivals, social gatherings, and so forth. A great neighborhood will have such events in the common hub area regularly throughout the year.
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BOUNDARIES
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... AND ABOVE ALL, GREAT NEIGHBORHOODS HAVE SAFEGROWTH® ELEMENTS SUCH AS...
A NEIGHBORHOOD VISIONA great neighborhood will have an opportunity to co-create a safety and development vision for what it wants to achieve. Those goals should be measurable and realistic. For example the Safety and Development plan may aim for a 25% reduction in vehicle related crime. It may also aim for a 20% increase in neighborhood social activities and a 50% decrease in vehicle collisions. Having input on such a plan provides everyone in the neighborhood with an opportunity to create their own community destiny with, and by, other neighbors, rather than having those things imposed by others.
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AN ANNUAL NEIGHBORHOOD SAFETY AND DEVELOPMENT PLANTypically neighborhood goals, services, and safety is handled by outsiders - police, city hall, and utility companies. A great neighborhood will have in place a process to create its own annual safety and development plan. A group of resident volunteers, along with professionals like police and planners, will assist with the development of that plan. Those volunteers will receive adequate training and resources from the municipal government to establish their plan. They will also be solicited or selected by a random and democratic process so that anyone in the neighborhood can participate. The entire neighborhood will have an opportunity to provide feedback on that annual plan.
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CO-OPERATIVE DECISIONSMany decisions of neighborhood life - what amenities make a neighborhood work, what problems need addressing, or what social activities to schedule - will require some way to organize, plan, and get things done. Decisions need to be made. In great neighborhoods there are opportunities for all in the decision-making process. Not everyone wishes to, or is able to, participate regularly. But a great neighborhood will have a well-understood collaborative process for residents to gather in common cause and make choices with effective decision-making methods, such as sociocracy. In SafeGrowth that is done through the SafeGrowth Leadership Teams and steps within the Safety and Development Plan.
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SOCIAL COHESION
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Above all, in great neighborhoods residents have a sense of place and social cohesion with each other. They may be proud of some local event, sports team or local hero. They feel safe from crime because they are relatively free from crime. They willingly participate in local events or volunteer for resolving some local need or problem. They know that their neighborhood is inclusive, not exclusive, and their life is enriched by living in that place.
Read more about the importance of social cohesion here. |
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THEORY
SafeGrowth® theory is built around the 4 principles (tenets) that are the foundation for
SafeGrowth® method and practice:
ACTION BASED PRACTICE
SOCIAL ECOLOGY
NEIGHBORHOOD ACTIVATION
SOCIO-TECHNICAL SYSTEMS
Only when these principles work synergistically can they contribute towards creating a
vision of livable neighborhoods and cities in 21st Century.
SafeGrowth® method and practice:
ACTION BASED PRACTICE
SOCIAL ECOLOGY
NEIGHBORHOOD ACTIVATION
SOCIO-TECHNICAL SYSTEMS
Only when these principles work synergistically can they contribute towards creating a
vision of livable neighborhoods and cities in 21st Century.
1. ACTION BASED PRACTICE
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SafeGrowth® uses a philosophy of ABP – action-based practice and participatory co-design – in all things urban. This includes practices such as action research, action science, participatory action research, action learning, double-loop learning, and appreciative inquiry. It also includes problem-based learning for training and activating neighbors. ABP is the rationale driving all planning, community visioning, and neighborhood development. It is also the criteria through which all neighborhoods adopt or reject evidence-based methods, evaluations, or applied research for evaluating progress or assessing the viability of new programs. If research does not specifically a) include locals in the process of analyzing research, collecting data, and assessing results, and b) adopt approaches that specifically help solve local problems to move forward, then it does not satisfy ABP criteria and should be rejected.
Further reading:
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2. SOCIAL ECOLOGY
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Small neighborhoods are the prime method for 21st Century city development. As Schumacher said so long ago, small truly is beautiful. The city of the 21st Century should become a networked system of strong and cohesive neighborhoods, as in a networked ecosystem. This social ecology is the basis for neighborhood governance where all needs and goals for municipal services emerge in a democratic fashion from the bottom-up. This means setting up local non-profits, training programs that are student-led, interactive and real-life, and establishing formal partnerships and networks between service providers (police) and the local groups who work in neighborhoods.
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3. NEIGHBORHOOD ACTIVATION
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Because local services and planning are currently delivered to or for neighbors, the goal of SafeGrowth is to move this forward into service delivery and planning that is co-developed with and by neighbors themselves. This can be established in a number of ways such as Livability Academies, Jim Rough’s “Wisdom Councils” or Jim Diers “Neighbourhood Power”. There may be other methods of activation but, in all cases, the goal of this activation is to build a network of cohesive neighborhoods where SafeGrowth planning becomes the norm.
Further reading:
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Levels of social cohesion (click to enlarge)
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4. SOCIO-TECHNICAL SYSTEMS
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In SafeGrowth the process of co-development, redevelopment or local activation is the key to success. Therefore, SafeGrowth focuses on teaching and empowering locals how to solve their own problems. It does this by transferring the socio-technical systems that permit action. Socio-technical systems are technologies, programs, and projects that provide neighbors with tools to solve problems and envision new models for living harmoniously. They constantly evolve and at present they include:
Further reading:
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