Letterbox
A message from Jim Madden, National Chair of NHW. Whilst NHW is included, the move toward the branding of Our Watch demonstrates that the family of Watch schemes continues to grow, so this facility is also open to members of othe Watch types such as Rural Watch.
Please note that the National Website and messaging is separate to the Ringmaster system therefore if you wish to register onto the national site you need to do so directly on the site, information is not transferred automatically. Ringmaster messages will still be generated and sent.
Our Watch.
There’s been much work on designing, building and testing our new website and we’d like to share with you the latest on what has been happening. The new website www.ourwatch.org.uk is now officially live for our members and the wider Watch community to use, and we would like to encourage you to explore it.
The website has taken over from the www.mynhw.co.uk site which now redirects to the new site. This website is the only national website for Neighbourhood Watch recognised and supported by the Home Office and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).
We need your help to make it great
One of the best new features is the ability to find schemes quickly and easily. Registering your scheme is a quick process and it means that anyone interested in joining a scheme, or just to find out more, can get in touch with the right person. By registering your scheme, new members can send you a message to request to join your scheme without having your contact details in the public domain.
There is also much more local information available now, such as police contacts and your local area crime mapping drawn down directly from the Police.UK website. Scheme coordinators can also post news or promote local community events for everyone to see within your local area if they are a member or not as it will be promoted on the website for all interested people to view.
What else is new?
As well as the Your local area feature for finding out about your local area and schemes, we’ve simplified our website into fewer sections to make it easier to find your way around.
We have a dedicated section with advice on making us safer in our neighbourhoods, our homes, and when out and about.
This section is our call to action and is all about different ways people can get involved. From taking more active roles like becoming a coordinator and setting up a scheme, down to the easy option of just registering to follow what’s going on in your area, there are now more ways than ever to get involved.
This section is full of information about our work at a national level and in the different regions across England and Wales. This is also the section where you will find news, events, links and resources specific to your region.
There are lots of useful tools in our new resource centre, from our toolkits through to case studies. One new feature we’re particularly excited to tell you about is the publicity materials section, where registered coordinators can create their own customised letters, posters, newsletters and much more, all in our new branding.
There is a new single place for us to share news and events and keep informed. At the moment, if you want to post any news or events in this section please email your item to enquiries@ourwatch.org.uk and head your email ‘News (or Event) for website’.
What’s next?
We are working with Regional Representatives to roll out training for regional volunteer webmasters to manage the website for your region.
Contact us
In line with the new website we are also changing our email addresses. Please note that existing email addresses will still be in use and there will be no need to resend messages if sent to the @nationalnhw.org address. However, please update your address book with the following:
Enquiries@ourwatch.org.uk– Enquiry Line 0116 229 3118
James.Maddan@ourwatch.org.uk– Chairman
Lynn.Farrar@ourwatch.org.uk– Vice-Chair
Kate.Daisley@ourwatch.org.uk– Operations Director
Sundeep.Gill@ourwatch.org.uk– Development Manager
Catherine.Dunn@ourwatch.org.uk– Information and Database Officer
You can also follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/N_Watch and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ourwatch.