Executive Summary:
In April 2022 Cleveland was informed that it was to receive home Office funding over 3 years for a Violence Reduction Unit. Titled the Cleveland Unit for the Reduction of Violence (CURV), the funding enabled a partnership to be developed that sought to reduce serious violence across the whole of Cleveland through a collaborative approach and in accordance with set objectives as outlined in its published Response Strategy.
Activities or interventions funded from CURV’s core budget are to align with the Youth Endowment Fund Toolkit, especially those deemed ‘high impact’ in order to contribute to the continued development of the local, regional, and national evidence base that demonstrates ‘what works’ when addressing serious violence.
CURV commissioned a Strategic Needs Assessment (SNA) that provided an in-depth analysis of the causes and drivers of crime across Cleveland, which allowed CURV’s partners to refine the cohorts and localities it wished to prioritise.
In December 2023, in support of this approach, CURV launched a community funding opportunity for interventions to reduce violent crime in the target areas of the Ropner Ward of Stockton (formerly Oxbridge and Parkfield ward) and the Burn Valley and Manor House wards of Hartlepool – Community fund launched to tackle violent crime – Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner (pcc.police.uk)
In accordance with the application deadline, 13 applications for funding were received and reviewed.
All successful bids will deliver interventions between January 2024 – March 2024.
The conditions for funding and expected performance frameworks will be outlined in formal grant agreements for each funded intervention.
The successful bids and a brief outline of delivery are outlined below:
Liberty Programme, A Way Out, Stockton – £10,000
A Way Out is an outreach and prevention charity which aims to engage, empower, and equip vulnerable and excluded women, families, and young people to live lives free from harm, abuse and exploitation.
The Liberty Programme, is an outreach, engagement and recovery service for adult women involved in on street sex work and through working with Cleveland Police and Stockton Council A Way Out are aware of increasing tensions between women (sex workers), the community and local businesses in the Ropner area (Ropner) due to anti-social behaviour and fears of violence. The Liberty Programme will:
- Engage women through Liberty (including street-based outreach) and the wider community / local businesses through Stockton Council, partners (including Cleveland Police) and local community organisations explore their experiences of serious violence, wider issues / concerns (including criminal behaviour) and possible solutions through interviews and/or questionnaires and one to one and/or group discussions.
- Invite participants (women, wider community, and local businesses) to work together and with partners (including Stockton Council and Cleveland Police) to develop and implement solutions to increasing tensions (and fears of violent crime).
- Conduct monitoring and evaluation to capture wider learning and identify opportunities to share /scale / replicate solutions.
2. Gamechanger, Challenge Academy CIC, Stockton – £10,000
The Gamechanger project, develops a programme of interventions known as IMPACT, INTERVENTION and INFORM. The programmes are developed to specifically raise awareness, inform, and facilitate behaviour change particularly in relation to issues connected to serious violence, particularly in the context of Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE), organised gang crime and county lines.
The programmes delivered by this intervention are primarily focused on:
- Direct delivery to young people (primary target is currently 10-15+ years)
- Delivery of awareness raising to parents and guardians and professional development of those working across education and youth services
The gamechanger team will be defining a tailored programme of services with the core aim of diverting young people from serious violence.
3. Corner Houser Youth Project (CHYP), Stockton – £9,897.50
CHYP is an organisation delivering a wide range of services to suit the needs of individual children and young people. The work is embedded within local communities, across Stockton-on- Tees. They carry out open access and targeted work for ages 8-19 years, focussing on a trauma informed approach that includes a therapeutic element in all work they do with children and young people.
- CHYP will deliver their project in the Ropner Ward aligning with the Clear Hold Build target area. The project will include11 x weekly music creating, producing & recording sessions with a targeted group of young people who we know have been exposed to or been involved in-incidents serious violence.
- 12 x weekly sessions with Barnardo’s exploitation specialist-providing trauma informed youth voice work for those with lived experience of Child Criminal Exploitation and Child Sexual. The ‘voice’ from this intervention will be used to create a narrative that will be represented at a ‘Celebration Event’ but, will also feed into a bigger project that they are currently developing with Teesside University Research Team.
- 2 x Open access Youth café events-to be delivered in Jan & Feb (in partnership with multiple trusted partner organisations). These events will be hosted at Arlington Park and will be a means to engage those taking part in the targeted sessions, in some open access provision (which they are currently not engaging with).
- 1 x Celebration Event-to be hosted at the Arc in Feb half term. They already have a celebration event planned at Arc-for their Cleveland Fire Brigade/Catalyst funded Street Dance Project. They will use the funding to enhance this event to include the music project & capture of the youth voice.
4. Belle Vue Community Sports Centre & Youth Centre, Hartlepool – £8,330
The Belle Vue community centre is a charity which provides facilities for community engagement, sport, youth clubs and nursery. The centre’s mains areas of work, include an extensive range of activities for children and young people, work to alleviate poverty and engaging residents to promote involvement in tackling local issues relating to housing, community safety, health, education, and employment.
The centre operates a Youth Club which opens for sessions each week for age groups aged 5 -11 and 11 -19. They provide sport, games, crafts, opportunities for discussion, socialising, trips and support for homework, problems, and concerns. The Belle Vue community centre have sought funding for outreach work withing the Burn Valley Ward Area.
They propose to use their staff to engage young people on the streets in the allocated area to attend group activities and sessions framed to educate young people on the causes and effects of violence, how to avoid violent situations and build positive and health relationships, which will run over a 10-week period, two evening a week for around 2 hours per session.
At the end of the 10-week programme the programme will provide a 2-night residential event provided by specialists which will feature activities such as indoor / outdoor climbing, orienteering, team building, coastal and forest activities, and walking.
5. Kilmarnock Road Children & Young People Centre, Hartlepool – £2,908.33
This programme is delivered as part of a community centre based on the Owton Manor Estate in Hartlepool; an area identified as one of high social deprivation. The centre works with the local community and support services to make a positive impact on the lives of individuals and the community. The team at the centre is committed to delivering high quality community services or offering a first-class signposting service to ensure that centre users receive the most effective response when required.
The centre has proposed to enrol young people on key initiatives in the community and develop social action projects, with a specific focus on the victims of anti-social behaviour or violence providing a social contact group. Individuals will be encouraged to come to the centre to share a cup of tea and have a chat with the young people, reducing loneliness for the older members of the community. In addition, the young people will ensure that the people who were within walking distance of the centre were escorted home, thus reducing the fear of being on the street late evening.
The centre will work with the local PCSO, who begins holding a ward surgery in the centre from January, to focus on issues such as county lines and discuss topics such as internet grooming. The centre would also work with the outreach teams to provide support.
By involving the young people in project-based initiatives within the local community the centre believe they can build in identified issues such as the effects of violence and crime on the people within their community. If the young people are involved in a youth centre, working on social projects in their local community then they begin to own the community and identify with the people in it.
The centre seeks to prevent individuals from engaging in on-street gang-style culture behaviours.
6. The Wharton Trust, Hartlepool – £8,450
The Wharton Trust support’s people with access to employment and training advice, promoting healthier lifestyles, engaging young people in positive activities, improving literacy, and developing IT skills.
The Wharton Trust has a social action leader who has extensive lived experience of criminal justice system and the effects of violent crime. The Wharton Trust have requested funding to use his lived experience and the impact of his behaviours as a mechanism for engaging with young people.
The trust will identify young people through partnership work with Youth Offending, Probation and Police. They will engage with local schools, youth clubs and Pupil Referral unit supporting them to refer young people with behaviours causing concern. They will use existing relationship with parents of young people showing violent behaviours from ongoing work based in the Burn Valley Ward.
Workshops will be held to give young people the opportunity to listen to the real experiences of someone who has been involved in violent crime and lifestyles that can lead to or include violence. The social action leader will share with them his experience and the long-term consequences of them.
He will also use the barbering to offer to cut hair, creating an opportunity for 1:1 in depth discussions with the young people. With the support and presence of highly skilled youth workers they will then be able to complete follow up work with the young people or signpost them appropriately.
7. The Big League CIC, Burbank Community Centre, Hartlepool – £9,000
The Big League exists to provide Hartlepool residents with crisis support followed by a range of other development, volunteering, training, and employment opportunities.
They have requested funding to support establishing Burbank Community Centre as a Community “Report and Support Centre” for local residents in the Burn Valley Ward in conjunction with local councillors and PCSOs.
They propose to mobilise the Burbank/Burn Valley Ward Community to speak up, be heard, be confident and be supported to report both concerns and incidents as well as receive support if they have been the victims of serious crime.
They will do this by having, Daily Drop Ins, Weekly surgeries to discuss and agree actions and priorities, Community Group Meetings, Newsletters and Social Media engagement, providing information and positive stories about what is happening across the Ward. The Centre will offer 1:1 and supported group meetings five days a week with a significant marketing campaign to raise awareness and provide information about what is going on, changes and the impact it is having.
It will also act as a practical conduit between the community, local councillors and the police ensuring common understanding, able to challenge both communities and the statutory organisations to do more. They aim to work with the community and police shared knowledge to understand the patterns behind violent crime and work effectively to anticipate and prevent occurrences.
8. No More Knives campaign, Orb Community Centre, Hartlepool – £8,500
The ORB Community Hub exists to serve the Oxford Road, Burn Valley, and Rift House areas of Hartlepool. It seeks to provide a warm safe space where local people can meet in a social and non-threatening environment. Through offering services such as help with form filling, job applications, CV construction and free computer and Wi-Fi access to help visitors improve their employment prospects. The ORB hub work in partnership with the ‘The Message Trust’ and have requested funding to deliver a knife awareness campaign to targeted secondary schools within the Serious Violence hotspots as identified by CURV within the funding application.
The ORB Centre will facilitate delivery of the scheme ‘No More Knives.’ The project will be delivered in three Hartlepool Secondary schools: 1) Manor, 2) High Tunstall and 3) English Martyrs, which each have attendees from within the Burn Valley and Manor wards. This project is based on the assumptions that early intervention and education will lead to a reduction in violent crime.
Decision 2023/24 – 0028: CURV Small Grant Funded Interventions (application, 243kB)