Kelli Sloan ’15 and Jenna Noland ’16 giving glow sticks to children in order to increase safety during trick-o-treat time.
Binder: #87
Major: N/A and Biology
Passion: Youth, Human Rights
Organization: Bloomington Police Department
Project Title: “Cops That Care: Officer Friendly Program that Increases Safety of the West Side of Bloomington”
Project Summary: The idea of Officer Friendly is important in the West Bloomington community because currently the West Side struggles with violence. Many different behaviors may contribute to the high rates of violence in the community. First, children/adolescents may not receive a lot of guidance/attention from their parents because poverty is another issue that the West Side of Bloomington struggles with. If parents are working 1-3 part-time or full time jobs, children are often left home alone to raise themselves, raise their younger siblings, and thus have a higher chance of getting into trouble. Secondly, there is not a strong sense of community among neighborhoods on the West Side of Bloomington, which leads to violence. Having a friendly officer present in the community may help decrease rates of violence and give the community an increased sense of security.
[Our project] ended up turning into a community need because our Halloween event benefited the whole community. By handing out glow sticks to children, it allowed them to be easily seen throughout the night, which lowered the chance of them getting hit by a car or maybe even lost by their parents. We think when this project ends, there are still many more projects that can be set up so that the police officers are collaborating with and interacting with the children and just the community members in general. In the future, we would like to see our Halloween event held every year, but also the safety issue expanded upon. Ideally, we want to figure out some way in which we can help the police officers better communicate with the residents of the West Side.
Note from Kelli and Jenna: Our advice to you is start planning early. Find an idea, run with it, and start as soon as you can. It takes a great deal of time to not only find the proper contacts, but also to get them to respond.