Hundreds of people make their own Southwark Promise to improve community
Published 16 September 2011
Hundreds of people have made their own "Southwark promise" setting out how they can improve their local community following the disorder in Southwark last month.
Southwark Council is currently holding a series of Community Conversations to listen to people's views on the disturbances, what some of the causes may have been and how best to move forward.
To date close to 200 people have made a promise, which range from "try to encourage others to do the right thing" to "make more effort to talk and communicate with young people locally."
On Saturday (17 September), the council will hold its third Community Conversation on The Walworth Road outside Morrisons supermarket between 10am and 3pm.
The conversations were inspired by Peckham's "Wall of Love" which saw hundreds of people stick Post-it notes with goodwill messages on a boarded-up shopfront in Rye Lane.
Kam Hong Leung, founder and manager of the Rotherhithe Community Safety Forum, praised last week's Community Conversation outside Surrey Quays Shopping Centre.
He said: "It is my sincere hope that our collective goodwill and actions have helped send out a loud and clear public message that we care and we will continue to work tirelessly and positively to help build a safer, more caring and more giving Rotherhithe community where people will want to live, visit and work."
Councillor Peter John, Leader of Southwark Council, said: "The feedback we've had from our first two community conversations has been very positive.
"Many people in our local community have lots of good ideas on how we can learn and move forward from last month's disorder.
"We are using these events as an opportunity to strengthen our local communities so we can help prevent an outbreak of these disturbances from ever happening again on our streets."
Residents can also add their own Southwark promise online.
