History Redeeming Our Communities had it's official launch in Bolton, in September 2004. This launch was the culmination of a lot of prayer and preparation that had been taken place over 15 years. Debra Green had been co-ordinating inter-church prayer meetings across the Greater Manchester region for a number of years, and had also been developing friendships with members of the police force. In 1998 a meeting was gathered to pray for and thank the members of Greater Manchester Police. In conjunction with this meeting, 'Thank You' posters were placed in every police station across Greater Manchester. The fruit of this meeting was significant- relationships between the church and police in the city began to develop in a way hitherto unseen. The develoments were such that in 2000 and 2003 Manchester was able to hold large-scale outreach festivals that brought together people from across all denominations and were backed by the police. During these festivals the prayer for the city was increased, but there was also the practical outworking of faith in some of the poorest communities- Christians coming together to clean up neighbourhoods, serving the local people, and being a presence for good. Following Festival Manchester in 2003, many people began to consult with Debra on how they could see prayer and action impact their own communities in a similar way. With the recent establishment of City Links, and Debra's heart to see the church work with and support the police, it seemed the time was right to establish the Redeeming Our Communities initiative. The launch saw thousands of Christians from the North West join together to thank the police, and also to pledge to see violent crime reduced in the region over the next 12 months through prayer and action. The pledge was met: 11 months after that meeting the Metro newspaper reported that violent crime in the region had fallen by 11%, bucking national trends. You can read a full report from the North West launch here. In the months following this, interest in the initiative began to grow. People from around the country were beginning to get the vision of Redeeming Our Communities, and demand was such that a National Launch was held in 2006 at the NEC Arena. A full report of the day can be read here; in summary over 7000 people attended, including VIP guests from the police, local governments, and Parliament. After the National Launch, the initiative grew, with Area Co-ordinators being established in regions throughout the UK. We began to hear stories of community transformation across the nation, some of which were collected together for Debra's 2008 book 'Redeeming Our Communities: 21st Century Miracles of Social Transformation'. We were also able to host 2 'Nuts and Bolts' Conferences, training and equipping those who wanted to bring the Redeeming Our Communities model to their  towns and cities. In June 2008, we held a second national event. The Prayer Event proved to be a powerful gathering of Christians committed to seeing crime reduced in our cities- we felt specifically the focus this time would be gang culture and gun and knife crime. During the event it was prayed and proclaimed that Manchester would no longer be known as 'Gunchester'- we were blessed to read less than a year later a headline in the M.E.N. newspaper  asking 'Is this the end og Gunchester?', as there had been a 38% drop in gun related incidents, and not a single killing in 12 months. Several representatives of police forces around the UK were present at the event in 2008, and began to recognise the value of working with the church. We were approached by the Deputy Chief Constable of Merseyside Police to hold a launch in Liverpool, and following his appointment as Chief Constable of GMP, Peter Fahy also asked us to launch in Manchester. These requests, amongst others, prompted us to consider the best strategy in taking Redeeming Our Communities forward. We felt strongly that it would be best to commit to a strategy of working closely with police forces in 10 cities or regions over the next 3 years, and developed a new strategic plan along those lines. It was agreed that Manchester and Merseyside would be the first of these regions to launch, with their events taking place in June 2009. We are continuing to work closely with GMP and Merseyside police, and are also developing our links in Leicestershire, London and Birmingham. You can read more about this in our '10 Cities Strategy' section.