Commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), The NYA provides support to the 15 local authority areas involved in the extended PAYP programme during 2008/9. Positive Activities and Youth Justice Update will feature examples of impact case studies from a number of the projects which have received additional investment for positive activities for young people. Case studies will be published on The NYA website at www.nya.org.uk/justiceandsafety

The Mobile Gangs Intervention Team (MIT) is a specialist service run by The London Borough of Hackney Youth Offending Team (YOT). The programme aims to prevent criminal activity arising out of gang membership throughout the borough and is funded through extended PAYP funding.

The MIT receives referrals and supports young people that are at risk of or involved in offending through a number of interventions. They may be new entrants to the youth justice system on statutory orders, or referrals from other agencies such as the police, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), schools or the youth service.

The team engages with approximately 40 young people through key worker led programmes. It is also responsive and flexible using a range of activities to engage with young people in the borough such as: group and individual counselling; preventative work in schools and youth clubs; intelligence gathering; developing gang exit strategies and victim support. The project also works with young people through outreach work in local communities and supports young people in prison through the YOTs ‘Rise Above’ programme

The work of the team is commissioned through a Quality Assurance Framework in Hackney. This process includes representation by Hackney Youth Parliament and the youth board at the YOT feeds into this. Work in the borough is commissioned in response to need based on both locality and provision.

As a relatively new team and area of work, learning to date has been drawn from the work delivered in 2007/8, and has informed changes in the commissioning process. The planned and ongoing evaluation of the team’s work will enable further appraisal of the effectiveness of the MIT.

Managers at the Mobile Gangs Intervention Team feel it is an innovative project. This is evidenced in the way it was formed by both the YOT and police coming together as a response to an increasing gang problem in Hackney. This partnership has driven issues like the creation of Hackney’s gang strategy. Good practice is being developed within this project and the team - which is only in its second year - will, with good resources, continue to evolve.

Contact: Paul Olaitan - Operations Manager

Tackling knives, saving lives - increased action to tackle knife crime

• West Midlands Police is holding a series of knife crime events for 1,200 young people
  to bring home to them the true impact of knife crime and encourage them to sign up to a peace pledge. When a young person is arrested for knife crime, it is also sending letters to the parents of the peer group of that young person, telling them that a friend of their child has been arrested for a knife crime and asking them to look for warning signs and report any concerns.
• Essex Police is establishing 14 youth crime forums – one in every district. Their first task will be to run a series of '2 smart 4 knives' events at youth clubs and leisure centres, aimed at getting young people involved in the solutions to knife crime. They will also be using Home Office funding to train all of their schools’ police officers and PCSOs to roll out knife education workshops to every secondary school in the county.
  
  Further information and practice examples >>

Independent article which describes the work of the Grassmarket Project, a theatre programme which successfully works with marginalised and socially excluded young people and has been particularly effective at working with young people around gangs and knife crime. Independent article >>
Grassmarket Project website >>

A commentary piece on Kickz, a community football programme for young people delivered through the police and professional football clubs. In its first year the programme has worked with 7,000 young people (against a target of 4,000), 2,300 of whom have moved onto positive outcomes, including employment and volunteering.
Guardian article>>
Football Foundation Kickz webpage

We hope to feature examples of practice from innovative projects working with young people around youth justice and community safety issues. If you would like to contribute we would like to hear from you - please email Roger Morford >>

Anti-bullying charity Beatbullying has launched a new website for young people, with social networking and video features. The site will let young people share videos and photos, download music and blog about their thoughts on bullying issues. The new site follows a new adult and professionals' website, which was launched earlier in 2008, and was developed after consultation with young people. Beatbullying website >>

NCVYS has published a new ‘Speaking Out’ briefing paper on gang, gun and knife crime on its website. The paper examines the government’s response to the issue and the role that the children and young people’s voluntary and community sector can play in finding sustainable solutions. It builds on a previous briefing on knife, gun and gang crime published in October 2007. Download briefing paper >>

The Guardian reports that Clubs for Young People (CYP) has commissioned research, conducted with Sheffield University's social and spatial inequalities research group, to analyse youth provision by collecting data from youth clubs across the UK. Findings indicate that there are more ASBOs issued in places where fewer youth clubs exist. CYP is launching a blueprint for a ‘modern and effective’ youth work agenda across the UK. A panel of youth workers, architects, designers and funders are running sessions and talking to young people about future youth club provision. A series of recommendations and findings are expected in November. For more information on the sessions contact email Tracie Trimmer Head of Policy at CYP,
Guardian article >>

The Metropolitan Police has launched an advertising campaign aimed at young people as part of its drive to tackle knife crime in the capital. Adverts pushing the message ‘carry a knife and the consequences will follow’ will be played on youth-orientated TV channels, radio stations and online. The adverts will show how the decision to carry a knife can have lasting consequences. A new anti-weapons website for young people, http://www.droptheweapons.org/, has been launched to support the campaign.
Children and Young People Now article>>

Battlefront is a new Channel 4 project about campaigning which aims to help young people aged 14 to 21 to get their voices heard as they campaign about the issues they really care about. So far the project has chosen 19 campaigners and has launched a competition to find one more. Campaigns include environmental issues, knife and gun crime, homophobia, cyber-bullying, tuition fees, the minimum wage and binge drinking. http://www.battlefront.co.uk/