Adina Bozga

Community Safety Coordinator, London Borough of Lambeth

As Community Safety Communities Coordinator my role is to work with statutory and voluntary partners to minimise the impact of crime and disorder on the diversity and wellbeing of local communities, and to promote community cohesion. I cover a wide range of areas: from tackling hate crime through preventative awareness raising programmes, better support services and appropriate reporting options, to community reassurance activities after critical incidents, communication initiatives aligned to crime reduction activities and public perception; work to prevent violent extremism; and grant schemes to enable communities to reduce the impact of substance misuse. Examples include the work with communities and local partners in Brixton market following the murder of an Afghan student, which led to the formation of the first Lambeth Afghan Cultural Association and the introduction of tension monitoring arrangements, allowing better preventative measures to be put in place before conflicts escalate, work with Eritrean communities after a critical incident to rebuild community relations and trust in the statutory agencies; work with Somali groups to reduce the impact of khat misuse; work with local mosques and marginalised Muslim communities to tackle violent extremism; work with LGBT communities to encourage reporting of hate crime incidents.