advocating this concept with the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities in Serbia, the permanent body which brings together the key figures of local self-governments in Serbia; and by providing training to new municipalities on practical aspects of the function of MSCs for two districts (six towns) from central Serbia. The topics covered by the training included: the role and scope of work of municipal safety councils; the methodology of forming MSCs; the development of strategic and communication plans, working groups and action plans; implementation issues and progress monitoring; as well as administrative issues. In its endeavour to sustain the already established MSCs the LED organized a training session in “Project Cycle Management” for eight MSCs throughout Serbia. A recommendation from the 2004 OSCE Assessment of Police Reform in Serbia for MSCs was that in order to build sustainability for the councils, permanent funding needed to be established in order for the councils to develop and address safety concerns. In an effort to follow through on this recommendation the LED provided training to seven MSCs to develop capacities for their councils in project proposals skills which could be used in the future to acquire outside sources of funding. Additionally, from the training the participants acquired skills in action planning which they could use in conjunction with the project proposal training to implement their safety plans. To provide these MSCs with practical experience in developing and implementing action plans on safety issues, the LED awarded a fixed sum of funds to be used for specific projects the councils developed in the area of raising awareness of community concerns such as drugs, burglaries and domestic violence in their communities. The implementation of these projects continued throughout the third and fourth quarter of 2011 with the police and local stakeholders carrying out activities such as: focusing awareness on education regarding drugs in schools for different target groups (students, teachers and parents); and media campaigns on drug awareness and domestic violence. The MSCs developed capacities to create representational material; self promote the value of MSCs in their communities and raise awareness on local safety concerns in an effort to local solutions based on local resources to community concerns. The project activities were completed by November 2011. To mark the official completion of the MSC projects, the Department organized an “End-of– Year MSC Workshop” in mid-November 2011. This workshop gave an opportunity to MSC members to present their experiences in the implementation of these projects, to identify similarities in local security concerns and to discuss the lessons learned from their joint work. The participants also defined the way forward and shared ideas that can be developed into additional activities for the coming year in strengthening police-public partnership. Upon request from the MoI, the LED also developed a training curriculum and instructed 64 Community Liaison Officers (CLOs), who were going to work in the 27 police districts throughout Serbia. The CLOs are police officers who are recognized to be focal points in the districts with which citizens could communicate to address local safety concerns. The MoI, by agreeing to this training demonstrated its commitment towards building organizational capacities to develop and sustain a Serbian Community Policing Model. The training was held in late September and at the beginning of October 2011. During the training the officers were provided instruction in OSCE and community policing concepts, such as policing in a multi-ethnic environment, conflict resolution and mediation and accountability. The officers shared lessons learned in working with marginalized groups and best practices in strengthening police-public partnership. At the beginning of December, the Department and the MoI jointly organized a roundtable and certificate delivery ceremony to mark the successful completion of the “Community Policing Development Course”. The entire event raised visibility of community policing at the national level through substantial media coverage. In 2011, the LED also supported the Working Group tasked with assessing the security situation in the city of Belgrade. One of the recommendations given by the Working Group for the improvement of the security situation was the formation of the Safety Council for the City 66