In practice: The Bike Scheme

Project: The Bike Scheme, Gateshead Youth Offending Team Mission: To help young offenders benefit their communities Funding: Minimal, met through the youth offending team budget

Getting young offenders to make amends for their crimes in a way that helps the local community has a number of benefits. The young people get a sense of doing something worthwhile. The community can see some good is being done. And if the young people can learn a useful skill at the same time, the rewards are even greater.

Gateshead Youth Offending Team has managed all this by getting young people in its charge to repair old bicycles. Local people donate some of the bikes; others are unclaimed stolen ones that have been collected by the police. The young people do them up, and they are then donated to groups that need them, or raffled to make money for charity.