Grassroots Schemes

"A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region, or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at the local, regional, national, or international level. Grassroots movements are associated with bottom-up, rather than top-down decision making, and are sometimes considered more natural or spontaneous than more traditional power structures." (Wikipedia)

Grassroots schemes encourage their members to watch out for themselves and their neighbours in their residential areas and to report suspicious persons and other observations to the police. Such schemes also distribute information on crime hot spots provided by the police, on new burglary methods, fraud schemes and confidence tricks, and disseminate advice about how to behave during holiday absences and in dangerous situations, also how to install or reinforce physical obstacles, electronic alarms or monitoring devices to prevent burglaries. In general, they keep close contacts with their members, organize meetings and mediate between citizens and authorities. Some grassroots schemes concentrate on prevention of burglaries and safer homes, others focus their attention on street work seeking to assist the aged, the homeless, the jobless, addicts, schoolchildren and other fringe groups, or dispensing food and clothing to the needy. 

Grassroots Schemes by Country

Austria

Belgium