Leicestershire charity supports young adults to turn their backs on a life of violence

• Leicestershire Cares is part of a project that aims to reduce incidents of youth violence across the region

• In the first year of the project, more than half of participants went into education, employment or training

ACTION

Young people affected by violent crime or at risk of involvement in criminal behaviour are being helped to turn their lives around by a partnership project in Leicestershire.

The Violence Intervention Project (VIP) has been commissioned by the county’s Violence Reduction Network (VRN), one of 21 violence reduction units (VRUs) across the UK committed to tackling the root causes of violence.

The project is funded through the Home Office’s Reach Custody initiative which aims to support young people up to the age of 25 who have been in custody or have a recent history of a violent offence or carrying a weapon.

Delivered in partnership with charity Leicestershire Cares, the project incorporates its practice model, called Power to Change, which seeks to ensure every young person is supported to reach their full potential.

Kieran Breen, the charity’s chief executive, says VIP developed from its Unlocking Potential project, which was shortlisted for a CYP Now Award in 2021, and was also commissioned by the VRN as part of a local response to preventing serious youth violence.

“We’ve been working on youth justice for about three years and VIP grew out of that,” explains Breen.

“The difference this time is that it’s more squarely targeted on people who are at risk and strongly focused on violent crime.”

The project aims to work with 60 young people a year with most referrals involving young males aged 18 to 22.

The VIP team, which comprises one full-time and one part-time member of staff, sits within the charity’s 10-strong youth team allowing young people access to their knowledge and expertise.

The project has a formal partnership with social enterprise Turning Point, which places its trained VIP workers at Leicester Royal Infirmary’s emergency department to support young people admitted after sustaining stab wounds or other violent injuries.

“The [VIP] staff can approach these young people and try to build a relationship with them – they can have that conversation about it being a good time to think about what they are doing with their life,” says Breen.

In addition, recent links have been made with neighbourhood youth workers co-ordinated by the Chance 2 Change programme and delivered by the YMCA.

Referrals are made into VIP through the programme’s street-based engagement work but also via those staff based in the hospital setting.

Breen says none of the work supporting young people that fit the eligibility criteria for VIP ever happens in isolation.

“It’s a partnership of detached workers picking up these young people and then feeding them into us,” he explains.

“At the point at which these young people signal their intention to do something about their situation, we then focus on the employment, education and training part of the process.

“When these young people come to us, they often have other issues that we help them deal with,” Breen says.

Typically, young people are leading “complex, chaotic” lifestyles that do not conform to conventional 9-5 life, he explains. They have adverse childhood experiences, but also live in neighbourhoods where opportunities are limited and support services have been cut.

This has made the charity more “creative and agile” in its approach to working with the young people that it aims to support.

“Their lifestyles are one of the reasons why they are more likely to get into trouble,” explains Breen.

“They live with high levels of stress and the way they cope with that sometimes is to lash out and commit acts of violence.”

While only a few of the young people referred to VIP have served custodial sentences, many might have received a caution or come to the attention of the police.

“These are young people at the beginning of violent criminal behaviours and we want to intervene early before it gets out of control,” Breen adds.

The charity takes a “starting from strengths” approach to each young person referred to VIP, exploring their interests as well as barriers to them finding employment, education and training.

He says: “We have very strong links with the business sector which means we can get young people work experience, to go on a work tour or receive coaching and mentoring from professionals.

“But we’ve also got our staff who can guide young people into employment and training.”

On average, young people will be supported by VIP for three to six months but no specific time limit is placed on the support offered to them.

The majority of the work is one-to-one sessions but group activities are also offered including CV workshops or work tours.

Historically, many young people referred to the project “yo-yo up and down” and may enjoy periods where their lives are on track only for the situation to be quickly reversed, explains Breen.

“This is why we don’t exclude – we don’t lock doors,” he adds.

IMPACT

The charity says in the last year it supported 63 young people through VIP, of which 32 went into education, employment or training.

Of these, 80 per cent shared that their experience of being helped by the project had increased their confidence.

One young person that gave feedback about VIP said: “Your sessions have really motivated me to look ahead and I feel like this has boosted my self-confidence in what I really want to achieve later in life. The books that you let me borrow and read really inspired me and also taught life lessons on how to move forward and be grateful for what you have.”

Another said: “It’s been amazing and honestly opened my eyes to take up every opportunity that’s given and never give up. The sessions helped me with my personal development and looking after my mental health which supported me throughout my time being at home.”

Breen says VIP adheres to a results-based management framework which sets out “clear goals”, with outcomes assessed at quarterly meetings with the VRN.

“We look at who we are working with but also at very concrete outcomes such as whether the young person has got into education, employment or training as well as reoffending rates,” he says.

“Also, there are benefits that young people get from participating in our work and we try to capture those soft skills as well.”

Breen cites the VRN’s ability to work creatively and in partnership as a key factor to the project’s ongoing success.

“They really want to build and develop on voice and lived experience and their commitment to partnership makes a huge difference,” he adds.

• Read more in CYP Now's Youth Offending Special Report