A new project to prevent knife crime across Leicestershire through research and re-education has received vital funding to support its work.
Leicestershire Police and Crime Commissioner Lord Willy Bach today presented a two-year funding award to Leicester-based training provider E2 for its Drop the Knife and Live Your Life.
The organisation, which will deliver the project in three stages consisting of youth consultation and research, analysis and educational intervention, will receive £12,500 for the first year of the scheme followed by £12,499.80 in 2018-19 from Willy Bach’s Prevention Fund.
The PCC today had the opportunity of meeting project leaders involved with the scheme and young people currently benefitting from its educational work.
He said: “This funding will tackle one of the greatest risks to young people in a positive and proactive way.
“I’ve made it clear that I feel we need to provide tangible solutions to problems rather than simply mopping up the damage. This means changing attitudes and negative behavioural patterns before they have the change of inflicting harm. Nowhere is this more urgent than with knife crime.
“The chances of anyone in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland becoming a victim of knife crime thankfully remain low but, like other parts of the country, rising knife crime remains a serious threat. With this vital source of income, the specialists behind Drop Your Knife and Live Your Life can really get to work on identifying the social factors that increase risk and use that knowledge to guide vulnerable young people to a safer future.”
Martin Buchanan, chief executive of E2, said: “Our experience of working with young people involved in knife assaults as perpetrators or victims gives us an ideal starting place to develop new techniques and ways of reducing this type of crime.
“Our project is unique as it gives us a chance to explore some of the themes around knife crime with young people and to develop an evidence-base on which we can create new tools and educational resources.
“We will ensure that our resources are freely available to practitioners that work with young people across Leicester and Leicestershire as well as publish them on our website for practitioners from other areas. This is an exciting project funded by the PCC which could make a huge difference in how we tackle this kind of crime and more importantly could save young people’s lives.”
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Posted on Thursday 14th December 2017