October is Crime Prevention Month: Celebrating Safe Communities
Each year, law enforcement agencies, citizens, community groups, and government agencies join together in October for Crime Prevention Month. Whether your community has been hit by a new crime trend or mortgage foreclosure, or your block club or neighborhood watch program needs revitalizing, planning a safety event this October for Crime Prevention Month is a great way to keep your community safe, meet new partners, and make a difference in your community.
Crime prevention is everybody’s business and whether you have an event planned in October, November or next spring, you are invited to join with others nationally to Celebrate Your Safe Community. Since its 2008 launch by agency partners—the National Crime Prevention Council, the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA)--the Celebrate Safe Communities Initiative has reached over 250 sites in 36 states.
Celebrate Safe Communities is a national initiative to provide free resources and support for local crime prevention efforts, a time to spotlight local initiatives, and a time to motivate, inspire, and join others locally and nationally to create year-round support for prevention activities that help keep communities safe from crime.
Celebrate Safe Communities is FREE! Whether you are cleaning up a park, planning a youth violence prevention march, sharing tips on internet safety, bullying or sexting, or have not yet planned an event, Celebrate Safe Communities is for you. Go to www.celebratesafecommunities.org to get ideas or to register your event. When you register your event, you will receive items, such as radio PSA’s to promote your event, a neighborhood watch manual, reproducible brochures, as well as some specialty items for children and adults to hand-out at your event, while supplies last. New this year, Celebrate Safe Communities has a chat forum where you can share your ideas or ask questions from staff or other registered sites, and a catalog where you can localize and order your own CSC specialty items.
Safe communities are no accident. The time to act is now. Join the founding partners of Celebrate Safe Communities to help Americans of all ages know that crime prevention is everyone’s business every day of the year.
October is Crime Prevention Month: Help Seniors Keep Their Federal Benefits Safe
Urge them to switch from paper checks to electronic payments for federal benefits
Just last year alone, an estimated $69 million in checks issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury fell prey to endorsement fraud. Getting federal benefit payments electronically eliminates the risk of lost or stolen checks and helps protect against financial crimes. It’s also more convenient since there’s no need to make a special trip to cash or deposit a check. The Treasury Department recommends two options:
Direct Deposit. The Treasury Department’s Go Direct® campaign provides a fast, easy way for people to sign up for direct deposit by phone or online. To sign up, people can visit their local bank or credit union, go to www.GoDirect.org , or call (800) 333-1795.
Direct Express® Debit MasterCard® card. This prepaid debit is recommended by the Treasury Department as another safe, convenient alternative to paper checks for Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefit payments. No bank account is required. To sign up for the card, or to learn about its fees and features, people can visit their local Social Security Office, go to www.USDirectExpress.com , or call toll-free (877) 212-9991.
How Can You Help?
Sharing this important message is easy:
- Distribute and display campaign materials in your lobby.
- Include information about direct deposit and the Direct Express® card in your meetings, workshops or public speaking engagements geared toward senior citizens.
- Post campaign information on your website and social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, linking back to www.GoDirect.org .
- Visit the Go Direct campaign’s Crime Prevention Month electronic tool kit for more.
Free materials are available at www.GoDirect.org . To learn more, call a campaign representative at (952) 346-6055 or email GoDirect@webershandwick.com . Get involved today!
Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury, Financial Management Service