POLICE-RELATED ACTIVITIES OF FIELD OPERATIONS SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE and in Albania together with their local beneficiaries in this area, delegates from Croatia, Serbia, UK, and Norway, and members of Kosovo community safety forums, international organizations and NGOs operating in this area. From 27-28 June, the Mission supported the annual Mini Olympics for People with Disabilities, which was organized by the Parents Organization of Children with Disabilities and the Kosovo Paralympics Committee and held at the KAPS quarters. Approximately 500 people with disabilities and their parents, and more than one hundred volunteers from different communities, participated in different sporting activities held during this event, which aims to promote a better integration of people with disabilities in to society, and to increase their co-operation with public safety providers. The event was also attended by international and national organizations/institutions, and various embassies in Kosovo. Local Public Safety Committees (LPSC) related activities Community safety forums, such as the Local Public Safety Councils (LPSCs)7, still fail to secure effective co-operation with relevant municipal and central level institutions. Too often, the institutions do not seem to be properly involved or made aware of LPSC initiatives at the grassroots level8. Communities, particularly in the northern municipalities, lack awareness on the benefits of safety forums in regard to improving safety, security, and quality of life in their respective communities. Although the CSCO has achieved progress in supporting community safety forums since its inception, the Office is still not self-reliant due to its dependency on external financial support and its personnel’s limited skills to autonomously deliver training for safety forums. To date, the CSCO counts only two officers, seconded by the MoIA and KP, which are often requested to perform regular duties within the MoIA and KP. With the assistance of the Mission, during the reporting period, nine additional LPSCs were established. From 1723 March, the Mission facilitated four half-day awareness raising workshops for around 60 representatives of local communities, civil society, and municipality and police officials of northern municipalities. The workshops aimed to familiarize the participants with the community safety infrastructure and to identify possible locations for establishing LPSCs. As a result of the overall awareness 7 8 Local Public Safety Committees have been established in a number of smaller areas within municipalities, such as remote and multi-ethnic villages, in the interest of effective policing and good relations with all communities. They are composed of local community representatives whose selection is in the hands of the local community. Kosovo Police consult these committees on safety and security matters in the areas they cover. Findings and actions, taken from the OSCE Internal Assessment of the Community Policing and Public Safety Development Programme in 2015. raising activities, four new LPSCs9 were established in the northern municipalities. In April, the staff of the Mission, alongside its trained community safety trainers and the KP Directorate of Community Policing and Crime Prevention, provided training on community policing to 40 Serbian and Albanian members of the four new LPSCs in the northern municipalities. The two trainings, consisting of modules on partnership building and problem solving, focused primarily on equipping the new LPSC members with knowledge and skills to analyse problems related to safety, security, and quality of life. In addition, the LPSC members learned about project management by developing project proposals based on prioritised concerns within their respective communities, which were then implemented by the Mission in its capacitybuilding support to community safety infrastructure in Kosovo between June and December. On 19 May, the Mission, in close co-operation with CSCO, facilitated a roundtable for the four new LPSCs and NGOs operating in the northern municipalities to establish an effective communication network between them. The roundtable provided an opportunity to identify new roles and partnerships between civil society and the LPSCs as well as to present and discuss local initiatives aimed at improving safety in this area. Sixty participants, consisting of members of the LPSCs and civil society, senior KP officers, and members of the MoIA and EULEX, attended the roundtable. On 2 October, the Mission completed the facilitation of the orientation session series for members of five new LPSCs in different regions throughout Kosovo, including a northern municipality10, raising the total number of LPSCs in Kosovo to 52. Participants were familiarized with the Mission-led capacity-building programme for community safety forums and were also provided with basic information on community safety and community policing as well as with the composition, functionality, and activities of LPSCs throughout Kosovo to address issues of safety, security, and quality of life. Later in October, the Mission provided two additional trainings on community policing to 40 members of these five new LPSCs, consisting of females and males from the Kosovo Albanian and Kosovo Ashkali communities. The Mission will implement the project proposals of these LPSCs in the fourth phase of its joint project with the Norwegian Embassy to support such initiatives in 2016. 9 The four established Committees include two from Mitrovica/Mitrovicë North and two from Leposavić/Leposaviq municipalities. 10 Two new Committees from the municipality of Podujevë/Podujevo and one from each: Malishevë/Mališevo, Mitrovicë/Mitrovica South and Leposavić/Leposaviq municipalities. 53