Christina completed her time at Hope in Haringey after serving as the charity’s Police Engagement Manager for three years. Her tenure is marked as “excellent”, vastly expanding its effectiveness across the borough. As she completes her time with the charity, colleagues remember her work and outline her legacy they look to uphold.

 

Christina’s sessions encouraged a personal touch between officers and students, allowing both sides to build personal perspectives.

Hope in Haringey’s Police Engagement Programme has grown into a nationally recognised project in recent years, influencing community policing beyond London and creating a legacy for years to come. This achievement can largely be attributed to Christina Davis who scaled Hope in Haringey’s police engagement programme into what it is today.

As a learning resource, some sessions would tackle difficult topics so young people would have a full understanding of their actions and from a law enforcement perspectives – keeping them out of potential trouble.

Christina joined Hope in Haringey after serving as a volunteer in police communications. Recognising a weakness in both police messaging and community outreach, she joined the charity hoping to benefit our existing police engagement programme.

 

Christina’s final year with Hope in Haringey saw her work recognised for its impact in the wider community.

With aims of bringing young people and police officers together in neutral spaces for the purpose of learning and challenging stereotypes, Christina fit right in. Using her experience and building on earlier engagement work, she quickly built new bridges between police teams and our existing community partners.

 

Under Christina’s tenure, the project grew to work with over 765 different students every eight months across 9 different schools, engaging more than 1,000 young people a year. Working closely with the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), the programme now makes more conscious efforts to track the opinions of young people attending the sessions, using their feedback to make the workshops better for their peers.

Police Engagement took on many forms such as the ‘Hoops’ sessions which had officers play basketball as a diversionary sport activity.

This feedback has also been a fantastic source of learning for Hope in Haringey. With the borough always changing and new voices being added to the borough’s discussions each year, Christina’s commitment to community learning means Hope in Haringey is today, far better connected with the voice of young people than we were in 2014.

Currently, 87% of students attending a Hope in Haringey police engagement session respond positively, with future sessions being drafted which incorporate Haringey’s ever-evolving perspectives on community, policing values, knowledge and experiences.

Christina’s time can also be remembered for kick-starting Hope in Haringey’s support of future police recruits.

Recognising the role community policing plays in reducing police violence – a policy which Haringey residents have wanted long before the 2011 Tottenham protests; HiH has come to recognise the importance of recruiting police officers from the local area.

Working closely with Public Service students from CONEL, Haringey Sixth Form College and Waltham Forest College, Christina has been pivotal in connecting classes with current officers as a learning resource.

Some police engagement sessions focused on training and up skilling public service students – young people who would make the next generation of police recruits.

Colleagues poured in to share tribute.  Speaking to Mentoring and Development Manager, Hannah Whitehead; “Christina was an exceptional colleague at Hope in Haringey.” She continued “Christina is clearly admired and respected by the police and students alike.

Every police visit has been a joy to witness. She had a manner that meant students respected her and thought she was a teacher [and was also] able to have a laugh with them.”

Of all the tributes attributed to Christina from across the charity, it was her former Director, Rev. John Wood MBE who had the highest of praise. “Before Christina joined, I was in charge of police engagement as well as being Director. To see Christina, take on such an important piece of work for us in such an excellent way was a great relief. That relief transformed to gratitude when I watched Christina take Hope in Haringey’s entire police engagement portfolio to a completely different level. It is with a heavy heart to see her leave, but she has left Hope in Haringey with a legacy of excellent police engagement work. It is now our job now is to sustain that new level.”

 

The responsibility of continuing this legacy will fall on the shoulders of Sheryl Yeboah. Currently Hope in Haringey’s Community Manager, Sheryls work will shift from liaising and learning from HiH’s community partners to engaging them with our Police Engagement programme.