Whether it’s preventing fraud, educating young people about knives or accompanying a person to a doctors’ appointment, Neighbourhood Watch volunteers are doing incredible work to make their communities safer and stronger.

This year’s Neighbourhood Watch Week, which runs from 17 – 23 June, will celebrate our volunteers and the work they do under the theme of #MoreThanYouExpect.

Much of the public think Neighbourhood Watch is purely a crime prevention movement – we know that’s not the whole picture and we want to give people a more rounded sense of what Neighbourhood Watch is all about.

This year’s theme will allow us to highlight both the traditional work our groups do around crime prevention and reporting as well as celebrate the unexpected projects our volunteers work on.

Each day of the week will have a different focus. For example, one day will focus on our members helping to stop burglaries in their area, another day will look at how Neighbourhood Watch groups are tackling loneliness and social isolation.

John Hayward-Cripps, CEO of the Neighbourhood Watch Network, said the theme allowed the organisation to highlight the breadth and depth of its work.

“So much of the great work our members do flies under the radar”, he said.

“People assume that Neighbourhood Watch is about preventing crime and that’s it. Although that is a large part of our work, we have a bigger story to tell.

“We would love our volunteers to highlight the work they do to create safer and stronger communities and if you’re doing something that is not traditionally associated with Neighbourhood Watch, we would love to hear from you.”

Neighbourhood Watch volunteers will be encouraged to share the work they do on social media using the hashtag #MoreThanYouExpect during the week.

In preparation for the week, volunteers can also send in examples of the work they do, traditional or not, to the Central Support Team. These case studies will be used to highlight the incredible work our volunteers do day in, day out.

Email your examples to William.Murphy@OurWatch.org.uk with the subject line ‘More Than You Expect’