Team PCC Scoops Prestigious Partnership Award

Lord Willy Bach, Leicestershire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, has praised the work of his Office after it scooped a prestigious award from The Prince’s Trust.

At an inspiring ceremony held at The Marriott Renaissance Hotel, London, the team was revealed as the overall winner of the Community Impact Award for its work with the Prince’s Trust to develop, fund and support the provision of innovative services for young people in Leicestershire.

The Prince's Trust Partnership Awards celebrate their partners who have gone above and beyond to support The Prince's Trust.   The PCC’s funding enabled The Prince’s Trust to deliver three initiatives designed to improve opportunity for young people.

• The Achieve programme, delivered in the PCC’s People Zone area on the Bell Foundry Estate in Loughborough, provides an opportunity for young people aged 11 to 19 to try out new activities, boost their confidence and gain a recognised Prince's Trust qualification.
• The Mosaic Secondary School Mentoring Programme works with young people aged 11-18 to improve confidence levels and raise career aspirations with mentors from the business world, local communities and BAME backgrounds.  This was carried out in the Evington and Highfields area of Leicester.
• The Trust has also used the funding to set up an East Midlands Leadership Group with the aim of expanding delivery of Mosaic in the region.

Willy Bach said today: “This award illustrates that our funding has been put to good use for the benefit of young people in Leicestershire.  I’m proud to see that our support has been recognised and I am pleased for my team who deserved this accolade.

“It’s so important that we support young people to achieve their potential and these tailored programmes have delivered positive leadership in areas where it is most needed.  I’m grateful to The Prince’s Trust for the work they have done to support young people away from criminality, as an offender or victim, in our area.”

The Prince’s Trust said that the OPCC have supported a major priority for The Prince’s Trust, tackling youth violence. Supporting an early intervention approach through education programmes, the OPCC has collaborated to support young people at risk of being drawn into criminality. This innovative collaboration allowed new networks and local leadership to be developed to engage across the community to provide local solutions.

Ends

About the Grant

In 2018 The Prince’s Trust was awarded a £25,000 grant from the Leicestershire Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) to develop a pilot project as part of PCC Willy Bach’s crime prevention strategy among young people. The grant supported the development of The Trust’s Achieve and Mosaic programmes in Leicester and Leicestershire during the 2018/19 academic year.

The pilot project has helped to grow the already highly successful in-school Achieveprogramme within the Commissioner’s People Zone in Bell Foundry (Loughborough). The Achieve programme focused on developing positive outcomes for 21young people who were at risk of being drawn into criminal behaviours outlined in the OPCC’s Police and Crime Plan, including:

• Current and ex-offenders;
• Young people at risk of offending and antisocial behaviour;
• Young people at risk of becoming a victim of crime.

The Trust also used the OPCC funding to launch the innovative in-school Mosaic mentoring initiative in Leicester and Leicestershire. It recruited 20 new city-based volunteer mentors to work with 59 young people from diverse communities in order help raise their confidence levels and improve their career aspirations and outcomes. The Trust also established a new East Midlands-based Mosaic Leadership Group.

• This pilot project supported 80 young people from deprived areas located within the Leicester and Leicestershire area, supporting 95% of Achieve participants and 100% of Mosaic participants into positive outcomes.

• The pilot supported young people statistically most at risk of offending behaviour to raise aspirations, improve behaviour, increase confidence levels, work on skills gaps and address employability issues.

• Course participants, including school staff, developed a better understanding of mental health issues and avoidance of possible criminal behaviour through mental health and wellbeing enrichment workshops.

• The partnership has enabled The Trust to set up a new Mosaic East Midlands Leadership Group, which will be instrumental in recruiting a more diverse mix of young people onto Trust programmes. The Leadership Group will also provide a more connected, united and targeted approach to outreach activities.

• This partnership has improved awareness of The Trust’s work within the education sector, working with Leicester and Leicestershire based schools to better engage with the most at-risk young people.

 

Media enquiries:  Sallie Blair 01283 821012