How it began
In the winter of 1990 Dag Halgard and Gudmund Johnsen from Oslo Politikammers Forebyggende tjeneste (Oslo Police Preventive Service) went on a fieldtrip to the city of Karlstad in Sweden. There they were presented with a project called the Night Owls. The project aimed at having passive, sober adults in the streets of the town in the evening and nights at weekends. The aim was to reduce the drug/alcohol induced violence and damage in the centre of Karlstad. Dag and Gudmund brought this idea back to Norway and initiated the 'supportgroup for Night Raven Project'. The project was initially funded by the Norwegian police.
The first walk in Oslo happened the night on 1st of May 1990 from Oslo City Hall with 300 people participating.
Following the initial success of the Oslo project, the first organisers decided to re-launch the 'Supportgroup for Night Raven project' as an independent, political and non-religious neutral organization and renamed the project: The Night Ravens (Natteravnene).
One of the primary reasons for this change was to reduce the burden on the Norwegian police service both economically and administratively. At the same time Night Raven groups were created around the country. The groups worked to the same principles, but otherwise had no direct connection amongst themselves. The police were still actively involved in the organization, with Police department Chief Dag Halgard being appointed deputy leader for the organization in Oslo until 1995.
The Norwegian police department is still actively involved in the organization around the country and in many towns and cities are establishing new Night Ravens groups.
Logo
In 1993 'Natteravnene' (Night Ravens) name and logo trademark were protected in Norway to ensure that all groups were adopting the same basis principles.
Furthermore the trademark prevents The Night Ravens from exploiting the name for commercial businesses.
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