Mission: To prevent youth crime by involving the community in projects
Funding: 310,000 from Norwich Union
Solving recruitment problems by training volunteers to become full-time staff is not new to the voluntary sector, but Crime Concern's Youth Apprentice Scheme was unusual in its intensity.
Four young people, aged between 18 and 24, were signed up to the pilot programme in November 2004. They were given classroom training and helped on two Crime Concern projects in Leicester and Nottingham.
Hasan Ahmad, now aged 22 (pictured below with fellow apprentices Anthony Adams in the centre, and Michael Teago on the right), came through the scheme and is working for Crime Concern in Leicester. Before starting the scheme he was already volunteering for his local youth offending team, and on play schemes, but he says the apprenticeship was on a different level.
"A lot more responsibility was given," he says. "It has only just finished, and the amount of work that we were doing and what we were achieving still hasn't sunk in. It was amazing that we were given the chance to do so much."
The Youth Apprentice Scheme was run as a pilot, initially for a year, although it was then extended for another four months. The theory was that helping young people to do community work benefits them and the wider community.
The Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion did an independent assessment of the programme. It concluded that the approach was successful and has potential for wider use.
Crime Concern and Norwich Union are in discussions with the Department for Communities and Local Government about extending the scheme, or running further pilots.
