Part of the Problem
Research from the Youth Justice Service and the Met Police, shows 3pm to 7pm is the key spike period for the rise in youth crime. Typically criminals target vulnerable young people in this critical period and thus increase the risk of YP becoming victims or perpetrators of crime, immediately after school, on their way home.
Part of the Solution
Our Outreach Street Mentors engage and support CYP between 3pm and 5pm and work with Schools and the Police to identify hotspot areas such as Cafes and Parks, target and engage with some of the most at risk young people – both as victims of crime and perpetrators and divert them into positive activities. These include Boxing, Football, Music and the Arts to mention a few.
Our whole approach is based around listening to children and young people. This is what our Street Mentors do. Then in supervision and team supervisions, we start to collate this information and adapt our approach and our service to better meet young people’s expressed needs. As part of this project, we anonymously capture and record youth voices on what the challenges, risks and gaps in the current provision are for them growing up and attending school in their locality.
We then present these to the wider service commissioners and providers, including Schools and Youth Services and the Youth Justice PMB. We also liaise with wider Youth Forums across the borough including the Youth Service and the YEF Youth Forum.
