SUMMER SALE

Federation Seeks
Safety Volunteers
••••,1 11 11,
T
SH MRIM

he Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit has
created a community vol-
unteer program to help ensure the
safety of the Jewish community.
Called Shomrim, Hebrew for "pro-
tectors" or "guards:' the program
will serve as an early warning system
that will assist in identifying suspi-
cious persons and activity on various
community campuses and during key
community events.
The creation of this program was
not in response to any specific inci-
dent, but rather an opportunity to
engage the community in a type of
"neighborhood watch" program.
Citizens and residents locally
and around the country are playing
an increased role in the safety and
protection of their neighborhoods
and communities primarily because
budget and staff cuts have led to fewer
safety and security professionals.
Earlier this year, Lathrup Village
introduced Operation Watch Lathrup,
seeking volunteers to be "feet on the
street" and part of its neighborhood
watch. Research has shown that these
types of programs help to mitigate
criminal activity and reduce overall
crime rates.
The catalyst of Shomrim came
out of a Jewish Federation Security
Committee meeting and was modeled
on programs started in Baltimore and
New York. The intent of Shomrim, and
any neighborhood watch program,
is to be a "first alert" system that
will assist in identifying suspicious
persons and activity on various com-
munity campuses and during key
community events.
"Given challenging budgets and
world events and how they affect us
locally, it became apparent that we,
as Jews, need to be more aware of
what's going on around us:' said Brad
"Bubba" Urdan, Federation Security
Committee member. "With the
Shomrim program, we will ask vol-
unteers to act as our eyes and ears at
community events and continue our
efforts to maintain a safe and secure
environment for all who participate."
During the summer 2008 JCC
Maccabi Games hosted in Detroit,
volunteers were recruited to play a
security role and were very successful
in handling any related issues.

Stuart Rich, security director for
those Games said, "The community
responded wonderfully; people were
willing to help and, regardless of
abilities, we were able to utilize them
in a capacity to observe and report.
The great community response
enabled us to reduce the cost of the
Maccabi games."
"In these challenging economic
times, nobody cares more and will do
a better job of protecting our insti-
tutions than our own Jewish com-
munity," said Alan Hayman, chair,
Federation Security Committee. "The
obvious solution, as in other commu-
nities, is to tap our own resources to
participate in security for our events.
With our new security department
providing adequate trainings, it will
help us do a more effective job. It
works in Israel and in other parts
of the world that utilize similar pro-
grams!'
All Shomrim volunteers will be
screened by Jewish Federation secu-
rity personnel; appropriate orienta-
tion and training will be provided.
Trainings will entail recognizing,
recording and reporting suspicious
activities; protective strategies;
handling aggressive or challeng-
ing behavior; behavior indicators;
responding under stress; potential
emergencies; and objective-based
trainings.
Training methods will include
scenarios, lecture and real-world
security incident "News You Can Use"
via a newsletter, bulletins and alerts
to keep the volunteers focused, edu-
cated and interested. This informa-
tion and training will be unavailable
anywhere else.
Volunteers may work as little or
often as they choose during the year
and will be assigned shifts at sum-
mer camps, events, programs, meet-
ings and other community activities.
Interested volunteers may call
Federation at (248) 642-4260 or com-
plete a volunteer form online at www.
jewishdetroit.org/shomrim .

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July 8 • 2010

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