Southern Co-op launches second round of community fund to tackle crime

Southern Co-op is to make £120,000 available for local community projects tackling the causes of crime.

A total of 15 grants up to £8,000 are available across Portsmouth, Southampton, Bristol, Bournemouth and South London.

This is the second of funding for the Safer Neighbourhood Fund which was launched in 2020 and focused on communities most impacted by crime across its trading area. It was supported by a £100,000 investment, which has led to more than 1,300 people being supported including offenders and/or those at risk of offending.

The Safer Neighbourhood Fund is currently open for expressions of interest, with applications open on Monday 5 September for six weeks. The deadline is Friday 14 October with applicants notified in November on whether they have been successful.

More than 25,000 incidents are expected to be reported across Southern Co-op’s businesses this year. In 2021, compared to 2020, there was more than a 50% increase in offences which impacted its colleagues such as violence or the threat of violence and abuse.

Mark Smith, chief executive of Southern Co-op, said: “There have been some positive steps forward in the last few years but sadly crime is still on the increase. So we need to continue to tackle business crime from every angle to protect our colleagues and customers to enable us to continue to serve local communities across the south.

“The previous round of funding was such a success that we are opening up the opportunities to even more people - this will mean a total of £220,000 donated to local causes and projects.

“Hopefully we can replicate the previous results and help more people to overcome personal barriers and move away from criminal behaviours.”

Local good causes supported by the previous round of funding were Avon Youth Club, Changing Tunes, Empire Fighting Chance, Sixty-One, The West of England Sport Trust (Wesport), Community Alcohol Partnerships, Motiv8, The Society of St James, Youth Options, Young Ealing Foundation, Dorset Reclaim, Faithworks Wessex, Hope Housing Training & Support, and The Bourne Foundation.

According to four of the projects working with offenders, their estimated reoffending rates were between 0% and 4.2% - a significant reduction from the national average of 26-32%.