Keep Safe project hits Lincolnshire

A new project is set to launch in Lincolnshire which aims to help people with learning difficulties when out and about.   

Called the “Keep Safe” project, the main focus of the scheme is orange stickers in shop windows which people recognise as a place they can go for help if needed.

The project also features cards in their wallets with photos of various problems, that they can use to tell people about if they have difficulty enunciating their speech. The reverse of the card features their emergency contact numbers, and that of their local doctor.

Keep Safe also hands out free personal alarms and provides training for people with learning difficulties by helping them to recognise how they can keep safe and well in various situations.  

The project has already had some successes in Hertfordshire and even in areas where the card has not been launched it has helped people with learning difficulties.

Jane Dello, one of the organisers of the project told me about one particular case. “A young lady from Hertfordshire had suddenly decided to get up one day and get on a train to London. Obviously this was very upsetting for her carers; they called the police and began a massive local search for her.”

Meanwhile, the lady got lost in London and decided she wanted to go home. “Because of the training she had with Keep Safe, she found the courage to approach an officer from the British Transport Police to show her card.” Despite the fact that the British Transport Police had never been told about the Keep Safe project, or had received any training from Keep Safe, they rang her local Police Community Support Officer on the card. “He immediately drove down to London to pick her up and brought her back safe and sound.”

One of the representatives from Hertfordshire, Carol Lee MBE told me how the project had a positive effect on her life too. “I was assaulted by my neighbour, and I used to have abuse thrown at me in the street all because of my learning difficulty.”

Despite her carers’ wishes to ignore it and carry on, Carol knew that because of what Keep Safe had told her, that she was a credible witness to the hate crimes against her and had a right to report it to the police.

In the current financial climate, funding for such projects can be increasingly difficult to fine, however Jane was resolute that because of the ‘Big Society’ idea, more funding will be coming her way soon. She also stressed that it was very low cost to the government: “the Keep Safe project is more about awareness. It costs the shops and businesses nothing to put a sticker in their window.”

The project will be rolled out in towns across Lincolnshire in March.