Hello there, this is a psychology report and this is Dr Allen Hedberg. Nice to have you with me today. Today I'd like to address a topic that is very important to all of us neighborhood safety. You know, we live today in a anxiety stage of life. The American psychiatric association recently conducted a survey of a large number of people in different communities and found that the level of anxiety and uncertainty and unrest is much higher today than it's ever been brought up in the last five years, and this isn't necessarily because of the political agenda that's out there today, but it's for a number of reasons. We just feel uncertainty and the uncertainty that we feel gets translated. We stayed in the house more. We drive our car into the garage, shut the garage door, and then get out of the car, make sure we're safe. We don't know our neighbors. We stay away from situations that otherwise would put us out vulnerable. We try not to be in the public very much. We try to isolate. We put fences around our house. We live in gated communities, we buy homes in gated communities. We do things that would ordinarily protect us. We, we buy instruments, we buy gadgets that will turn on lights or will reflect a light in the house that somebody's homeland and we either already not, we'll do all kinds of things we buy and we spent a considerable amount of money, Brian, to increase our sense of safety or a sense of assurance. You know, I've given some thought to this and I've come up with about six different ideas as to how a community can make itself safe. That's different than having a sanctuary city. Sanctuary city, of course, is one that is recognized by the government that if you're arrested and you're illegal, you will not be deported. And, uh, the police will minimally investigate a if you're an illegal because you're welcome in that particular city or protected in that particular city, but the citizens are not. And that's the irony of the whole situation. But to have a safe community, to have a safe city, it requires a couple of different things. Number One, a neighborhood watch program at the city level, the county level, throughout the rural areas, there needs to be the encouragement of studying up neighborhood watch programs. What that means is that the neighbor is share information, they share telephone numbers, they share email addresses and somebody is appointed as a captain to kind of just keep an eye on the neighborhood, do a walk in the middle of the night or in the evening just to see if anybody there is not to be there and neighbors are encouraged to contact with each other and to double check and to make sure that anybody that is strange in the neighborhood is either confronted or watched very closely so that nothing bad happens. So I never heard watch program is where the neighborhood comes together and they watch their own neighborhood and they do it as citizens and they do it in their best interest. Second Lane, I call what a, what I call is a neighborhood mediation program. Mediation program is, let's say the city of whatever your city is, sets up a program and um, higher as people who are mediators. It could be social workers, psychologists, counselors, or various kinds police officers that are trained in mediation skills and techniques so that if in their neighborhood there was a conflict, might be because of a barking dog or it might be because of neighbor is not keeping up the property adequately or having loud sounds coming out late at night, kids playing loud music, having a drummer in your home, whatever it might be, creating a sense of discomfort and unrest within the neighborhood. How do you address that? Will often neighbors don't want to confront neighbors. They're afraid to do that or they don't know how are they when they are afraid that it will get out of control so he can call the city mediation department and they'll bring out a mediator who will talk to the various parties, get them together and come up with a contract, come up with an understanding, come up with an agreement so that everybody has some level of acceptance and peace about it. So it's a mediation program and it's not a matter of filing charges are loving fines against anybody. That's not the way to do it. That doesn't bring peace, but it's to get people to have agreement about noise and about dog barking and about people coming and going at different hours of the night and whatever it might be. Whatever in the neighborhood is a source of conflict. A mediator is called in to help make understanding and help people come together so they can live in harmony and peace within their own neighborhood. The third issue is what I call the 47 on your side program. In our community, we have a television channel, 47 at a program for a number of years. It called 47 on your site so that if you have some kind of a dispute with a business and you weren't treated properly or they're not paying their bill or they're not reimbursing you or they haven't treated you fairly, you can call that number and they will intercede on your behalf with that business and try to rectify that program are directed by whatever the beef or the difference is for you and help you resolve that difference. Resolve that conflict. So somebody that you can go to, somebody neutral, somebody that has some clout and power, a television program does, they can put on the error what that situation was all about and expose the parties or see that he gets into the local newspaper and expose the party. So there is some power, there is some influence that a television or a has in bringing about a resolution to a problem that otherwise would go unaddressed. And then the fourth thing is what I call a special day in the neighborhood. A special day in the neighborhood, maybe two or three or four times a year. The neighborhood gets together for maybe an ice cream social or for, uh, some games out in the street. And, and the, all the neighborhoods come together. The kids played together in the neighborhood, get a chance to talk to each other, get to know each other in an informal way. In about an hour, the neighborhood comes together and has a very special event as a way for people to come to know each other and come to, uh, begin to trust each other and began to talk with each other. And share information with each other and increase the sense of safety within your own neighborhood. But having a special day, I was not a bit to be a beer party. That's not the issue because it's a family time, it's family time that brings children together with each other and parents together and older people and younger people and so on. So that there is this special bond that is built within the neighborhood and that will spread itself to becoming more a known. And obviously I have a sense of safety, you know, to each other within the neighborhood. So the other point is, the fifth point is that, um, you gotta have your own system to protect your own property. You have to have lights that turn on at night. You have to have systems that will turn on. And if somebody walked by your house or somebody approaches your house, a light will turn on. And you have to have systems inside your house that might have lights even though you're not home. But lights will show and suggest or give the appearance that somebody is at home. So you have a cab, a light system, and the neighborhood is encouraged to have that and so that there's more light and the street, not just the streetlights, it might be there, but that the houses have lights and you turn them on at night and turn them on different times at night or you share the responsibility so that certain neighbors have my one night, another neighborhood and have another night and the cross won't be that, you know, considerable, but it's an attempt to at least reduce the unsafety feeling unsafe feeling on the part of the neighbors. And then lastly, you have to know your neighbors. You have to know them, know their telephone numbers, their email numbers, their addresses during the day, where they work. How are you going to approach them, how you can contact them during the day, um, how you can at least be in touch. So it should there be a problem, even a fire if that matters or should there be something that goes on in the neighborhood, you can call your neighbor and alert them. And if they're out of town, if you know where they're going, you know how to reach them, you can at least alert them of have a problem should arise within the neighborhood. So having emails and telephone numbers and things like that are very important. And then to your neighbor needs to know, you need to trust your neighbors. You need to develop that sense of trust so that if you were to go away for a week, you're tell your neighbors you're going to be gone. So they watch your house and there's a kind of a trusting relationship. You watch their home, they watch your home when you're gone for whether it's a day or two or a week or a month or whatever it might be. Some kind of a, an agreement or some kind of a system whereby you alert your neighbors to the fact that you're going to be gone. It might be the person to cross the street next door to you in back of you or wherever it might be. And, um, build that sense of confidence and your neighbors and then have a sense of trust. And then of course, you might feel safer if you were to leave your home for a couple days on attended. Well, you see we can have a safe neighborhood, we can have a safe community, we can have a safe place in which we live and our children live and play in the streets and play outside. And we know that the community has come together and knows each other and feel secure with each other and will be protective of each other. So that's what's important in a neighborhood. That's what makes us safe. Neighborhood, they'll get on with it. You don't need a community or a mayor or a government to tell you to do this. Do this on your own. Begin to organize that within your own community. Somebody take responsibility, two or three people take responsibility and then build it within the neighborhood or on the block in which you live. Even a block neighborhood. We'd be big enough for some. So get on it and feel safe. Be Safe and help others feel safe. Also, this has been the psychology report with Dr Hedberg and I reframe it in my book, uh, which is I'm gay, which is in my website and my website is books by Hedberg.com. They have a book there on parent, have book on healthcare, you know, have a book on a learning from the past, from our fathers or the past from historical father's, a number of books there that might be helpful to you to Kinda just get a sense that you're not alone and you have some skills and that you can develop those skills and get a sense of community within the area in which you live. Work with teachers, work with your neighbors, help your kids succeed. So pick up a book and all these are coming. Christmas is coming. A couple of those books would be very important in Vr. Helpful as a Christmas gift. So I refer to you, you know, to them books by Hedberg.com has been the psychology report. And thanks for joining me and see you again. Bye for now.