Target Hardening & Beautification of School Buildings

The 5^th Municipal Department of Piraeus is the most densely populated and degraded area of the City of Piraeus in terms of both financial and social aspects which in turn lowers significantly the social cohesion in the area.

In the framework of the Be Secure -Feel Secure (BSFS) project, a series of interventions were performed focusing on the enhancement of open spaces and in the general environment. The rationale behind the BSFS investments is multi-fold:

• Improvement of the perception of security by promoting clean, well-maintained, and well-ordered places;
• Creation of perceived areas of proprietary concern by clearly defining ownership of space using both symbolic (smart fencing) and real barriers (locks) ;
• Pioneering investment deriving and initiated by the Municipal Authority thus acting as a paradigm to follow and replicate;
• Visualisation the Municipality of Piraeus commitment to urban security.

One option that has again gained the attention of Piraeus’ project partners is beautification and target hardening of schools, which generally involves attempts to fortify schools against types of delinquency through their physical design and additional security measures.

The local parents’ and guardians’ association had also reported to the Piraeus team during an information session with local communities, regarding the need for certain schools to be hardened. In this view, six operational public schools in the 5th municipal district were located which were repeatedly vandalized because of easy access to their premises.

This type of intervention was also suggested from the Local Council for Crime Prevention (LCCP) and the Division of Education of the Municipality.

Target Hardening

Target hardening is an approach to making schools a less attractive target for anyone with “bad intent.” In this line, 3 school facilities in the 5^th Municipal District were chosen for their fencing to be reinforced as there were reports or fear of antisocial behavior and vandalism outside of school hours (evening – night). Specifically, the following securing measures were adopted:

• 13th High School of Piraeus: 30 meters of higher fencing and new entrance door both to be at least 3meters high.
• 3rd Senior High School of Piraeus: 120 meters of higher fencing and 2 new entrance doors, all to be at least 3meters high.
• 15th Senior High School of Piraeus: Higher fencing and new entrance door both to be at least 3meters high.

Beautification

Regarding the beautification of vandalized buildings it was decided that vandalized or destroyed facades of certain schools in the 5^th MD will be benefited.

The rationale in those interventions is to improve the image of the certain vandalized properties in MD5 and to consequently elevate the appearance of the area and reduce the feeling of degradation and insecurity.

The interventions include repairs of damaged coatings, removal of graffiti, new paints and anti-graffiti coatings. The schools selected are the following:

1. 3^rd Senior High School of Piraeus
2. 6^th Elementary & 1^st Κindergarten of Piraeus
3. 4^th Highschool of Piraeus