Know the score

What is anti-social behaviour?

Everyone is entitled to live in a safe, clean place free of fear whatever their age.

Anti-social behaviour is when someone acts in a way that can cause alarm or distress to other people.

It can include vandalism, graffiti and intimidation but it’s not just limited to these things.

• Shouting and swearing at passers-by is anti-social.
• Drinking in the street and rowdy behaviour is anti-social
• Creating noise nuisance, for example playing loud music, is anti-social
• Littering and fly-tipping is anti-social
• Cycling on crowded pavements or riding mopeds and creating vehicle nuisance is anti-social.

People of all ages become involved in anti-social behaviour. It’s certainly not just young people.

How to get help

Have you seen some anti-social behaviour? Has someone done something to you? Are you involved and don’t know how to stop? You can get help.

It’s not always a good idea to confront people who are behaving anti-socially. Go and find a responsible adult first – someone you know well and trust – and let them decide the best action to take:

• Speak to a friend or brother or sister about what’s worrying you – talking will help you decide what to do
• Tell your parents or guardian – ask a friend to come with you if you’re worried about how your parents might react
• If you don’t want to speak to your parents or guardian, talk to your teachers – they can help you think through what’s happening and find a solution
• If you’re a member of a youth group, talk to your youth group leader and ask for advice
• Sometimes your family doctor is a good person to speak to – they won’t tell anyone else what you’ve said
• If you prefer to sort out the problem yourself, you can always call Arun District Council and speak to someone there who deals with anti-social behaviour.

Together we can stand up to anti-social behaviour.

Could you make a difference?

There are lots of youth projects run by the Safer Arun Partnership and we always want to hear your good ideas.

Junior Wardens

12 young people at Laburnum Grove Junior School in Bognor Regis are the area’s first Junior Wardens.

They make their local environment a cleaner and safer place and encourage young people to take ownership of their surroundings, respect and look after them.

They are always on the look out for things to report, like littering, dog fouling, graffiti, broken street lights and fly-tipping which is then dealt with by the Safer Arun Partnership. If you think you’d like to set up a similar project in your school we’d like to hear from you.

Keep Britain Tidy

Young people from across the community regularly involve themselves with our campaign to keep the area clean and free of litter.

We regularly hold litter picking and clean up events. Get in touch if you know of a grotty spot that could do with a bit of attention or if you want to get involved in the next event.

Street football initiatives

We hear the cry that there’s not enough for young people to do, but is that really true?

Through the summer months we hold street football tournaments for young people as well as lots of other events.

Don’t forget about the Arun Play Rangers. They are a small team who run regular fun and challenging afterschool activities and events in the school holidays for young people.

Arun Youth Council

AYC, as the youth council is known, has been going since 1998 and gives the young people of Arun a voice with decision makers.

There are currently 25 enthusiastic members, all aged between 11 and 19, who all live, work or attend schools, colleges and youth centres in the district.

The AYC has three main aims:

1. To increase young people’s awareness and understanding of local decision making.
2. To give its views to the people who make the decisions.
3. To make a difference within the community.

It does lots of fun things throughout the year, including hosting conferences and special awards.

Arun Youth Council’s Sussex Police Facebook Page

A couple of members of Arun’s Youth Council have worked with Sussex Police to create a Facebook page as another way of bringing all the latest community safety and crime news to young people. This is the first Facebook page of its kind, designed by young people with the police, in the country. Check it out.

We want to hear your views about anti-social behaviour

• Have you started a youth club or other activity to keep out of trouble? Do you go to a good one that you think other people should know about?
• Have you seen or reported anti-social behaviour?
• Or have you been a victim?
• Maybe you were the one doing it?
• Or perhaps you’re always being accused of things you haven’t done?

Click here to tell us you your views. We want to hear from you.