ROGER Hirst, the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex, is holding his annual conference at Colchester Stadium on Friday, June 7. At the conference, which will be showcasing how the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner has been delivering through partnerships, Mr Hirst will be unveiling the winners and runners up for this year’s Community Safety Hero Awards.

Fifty people and organisations were nominated for the awards by members of the public.

These have been shortlisted by a judging panel to a small number of finalists who have been invited to the conference.

The overall award winner, selected by the judging panel, will receive £500 to go towards their work in the community and two highly commended winners will receive £300 each.

To vote for Harlow’s Jason click the link below.https://www.essex.pfcc.police.uk/csha-vote/

Jason Shaves – Workshop Supervisor – Rainbow Services in Harlow

FOR five years, Jason has single handedly supported hundreds of offenders to develop new and useful skills and connect with their community through woodworking. In the past 18 months, he has taken this to a new level through Rainbow Services by developing a new community fundraising initiative with a local hospice. He has also pioneered a new youth crime and gang prevention programme using the wood workshop as a focal point. Offenders use their wood working skills to upcycle donated furniture, making them suitable for sale in the St Clare Hospice Shop, raising hundreds of pounds in just six months for the hospice.

Over the past 12 months, Jason has opened up the workshop to more than 30 young people aged between 13 and 16 who are at risk of or have committed crimes, joined gangs, been involved with drugs or associated with causing anti-social behaviour. The young people attend the workshop for seven to eight weeks and Jason helps them to learn woodwork skills and apply these positively to build items for the community such as bird and bat boxes or things for themselves or their family. He is described as going above and beyond the expectations of his role by taking each young person under his wing and mentoring them, finding out about their fears, hopes and in many cases finding out that they are in fact isolated, lonely and disenfranchised. Jason uses his connections and strong personality to build them up again and connect them to positive activities after the workshop, including apprenticeships, work placements, volunteering and leisure activities.