4.5 Mission to Serbia on gender-based violence, and providing developmental opportunities for women and children. The project also contributed to sensitising the local community and local authorities to the needs of women migrants/refugees. The Mission organized around 20 events, including workshops, cultural initiatives and the women friendship festival “I am you”, with focus on migrant women. This activity contributed to the Mission’s wider efforts to facilitate the implementation of the Serbian National Action Plan for the Implementation of UNSCR 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. Community Policing, Police-Public Relations and Crime Prevention On 8 May, the Mission, in co-operation with the MoI, released the Manual on Community Policing. The manual will assist in the implementation of the community policing concept nationwide. Police officers across the country received 1,000 copies of the manual, which offers step-bystep practical instructions on how to create partnerships between police officers and community members. The manual also illustrates the use of problem-solving methods in community policing and outlines the key supporting roles played by police supervisors and community liaison officers. From 20 September to 22 November1, the Mission, in cooperation with the MoI, organized five two-day training events to improve the communication skills of some 150 uniformed police officers at operational and supervisory levels. Police officers from all 27 police districts in Serbia learned how to create opportunities for meetings with citizens through public debates, visits to schools, visits of community groups to police stations, and public information campaigns, thus fostering a preventive approach. These activities contributed to a more sustainable implementation of the national community policing strategy, and the Mission continues to support police in enhancing their professional competencies to increase public trust in the police. To enhance partnership between police and the community they serve and strengthen crime prevention, the Mission organized the following activities: • On 2 February, the Mission supported eight civil society organizations from local level to participate in a meeting organized by the Government’s Office for Cooperation with Civil Society and the Office for Combatting Drugs. The meeting informed civil society organizations on current activities and plans in preventing drugs abuse, in line with the National Strategy for Prevention of Drugs Abuse 2014-2021. Around 40 participants, including CSOs from central and local level, had the opportunity 1 82 The events were organized on 20-21 September, 27-28 September, 23-24 October, 25-26 October and 21-22 November in Belgrade, Srebrno jezero and Novi Sad. to explore models of co-operation between governmental and civil society actors regarding prevention of drugs abuse, in line with the activities envisaged by the new Strategy. This Government initiative contributes to the Mission’s overall effort to enhance partnership between police and the community. • On 17 August, the Mission supported action on promoting safe bicycle rides at night in Belgrade, through distribution of adequate bicycle equipment and information material. The activities were implemented by civic initiative “Bajs Baza”, in close co-operation with the Belgrade Police Directorate, fostering the crime prevention approach. • On 16 and 30 September, the Mission supported the Belgrade Police District in organizing activities aimed at promoting greater safety at rivers, providing citizens with the opportunity to talk to police about the issue. From February to December, the Mission co-operated with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development and Ministry of Youth and Sports, to develop the pilot project “Prevention of risky behaviour among children through sports and education”. The project aims to create an environment that provides positive alternatives, for school pupils to resist social pressures that can result in delinquency, violent extremism, drug abuse, and peer violence. This project is an example of the crossdimensional approach to security that the Mission applies to all its initiatives, jointly with counterparts. The project idea is based on the Israeli project “Equalizer”. The following activities were implemented within that process: • From 27 February to 3 March, the Mission, together with the above mentioned stakeholders organized a training course for 20 trainers on the prevention of substance abuse among children. The objective was to improve the trainers’ knowledge of substance abuse issues and increase their skills in cultivating a climate of mutual respect and tolerance to prevent violent and racist behaviours. • From 23 to 26 May, the Mission supported a threemember delegation from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development and Ministry of Youth and Sports to visit Israel. The purpose of the visit was to show the representatives from the three ministries how the Israeli project “Equalizer” was implemented in practice. This experience helped them fine-tune their inter-sector pilot project to be implemented in four elementary schools in Serbia. • On 21 June, the Mission, the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development