Executive Summary:
The Home Office told Cleveland OPCC in April 2022 that it would receive funding over three years for a Violence Reduction Unit.
Cleveland Unit for the Reduction of Violence (CURV) develops partnerships. They seek to reduce serious violence across Cleveland.
It does this via a collaborative approach and in accordance with the objectives outlined in its Response Strategy.
Activities or interventions funded from CURV’s core budget align with the Youth Endowment Fund Toolkit
There is a focus on Interventions deemed ‘high impact.’ They contribute to the continued development of a local, regional, and national evidence base. It demonstrates ‘what works’ when addressing serious violence.
CURV commissioned a Strategic Needs Assessment (SNA.) It provides an in-depth analysis of the causes and drivers of crime across Cleveland.
The SNA allowed CURV’s partners to refine the cohorts and localities, which they wish to prioritise.
In December 2023, in support of this approach, CURV launched a community funding opportunity.
This opportunity was for interventions to reduce violent crime in specific target areas. They were:
- Ropner Ward of Stockton (formerly Oxbridge and Parkfield ward)
- Burn Valley and Manor House wards of Hartlepool.
The applications
CURV has received and reviewed 13 applications for funding in accordance with the application deadline.
All successful bids will deliver interventions between January and March 2024.
Formal grant agreements will outline the conditions for funding and expected performance frameworks.
The following are the successful bids:
Liberty Programme, A Way Out, Stockton – £10,000
A Way Out is an outreach and prevention charity. It 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. It aims to engage adult women involved in street sex work.
By working with Cleveland Police and Stockton Council, A Way Out is aware of increasing tensions between women (sex workers), the community and local businesses.
This is due to antisocial behavour and fears of violence in the Ropner area (Ropner.)
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. In addition, they will be asked to work with partners (including Stockton Council and Cleveland Police) to develop and implement solutions to the 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.
Programmes specifically raise awareness, inform, and facilitate behaviour change. This is particularly in relation to issues connected to serious violence especially 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 delivers 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.
Staff include a therapeutic element in all of the work, which 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 include 11 weekly music sessions creating, producing & recording sessions. They will take place with a targeted group of young people who staff know have been exposed to – or been involved in -incidents of 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 Expliotation. The ‘voice’ from this intervention will create a narrative that will be represented at a ‘Celebration Event. ’ However, it will also feed into a bigger project that they are currently developing with Teesside University Research Team.
- Two, open access youth café events-to be delivered in January and February (in partnership with multiple trusted partner organisations). These events will take place in Arlington Park. They 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).
- A 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 provides an extensive range of activities for children and young people. In addition, it works to alleviate poverty. It also engages with residents.
Staff at the centre encourage residents to get involved and help tackle local issues related to housing, community safety, health, education, and employment.
The centre operates a Youth Club. It is open for sessions each week for the age groups aged 5 -11 and 11 -19.
Sessions provide sport, games, crafts, opportunities for discussion, socialising and trips. They also provide support for homework, problems, and concerns.
The Belle Vue community centre has sought funding for outreach work within the Burn Valley Ward Area.
The centre proposes that its staff will engage with 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.
The centre works with the local community and support services to make a positive impact on the lives of individuals and the community.
It has proposed to enrol young people on key initiatives in the community and develop social action projects.
This is with a specific focus on the victims of antisocial behaviour or violence and 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 supports people with access to employment and training advice.
It also promotes healthier lifestyles, engages young people in positive activities, helps to improve literacy, and develop participants’ IT skills.
The Trust has a social action leader, who has extensive lived experience of criminal justice system and the effects of violent crime.
It has requested funding to use his lived experience and the impact of his behaviours as a mechanism to engage with young people.
The trust will identify young people through partnership work with Youth Offending, Probation and Police.
Staff will engage with local schools, youth clubs and Pupil Referral units to support them to refer young people with behaviours causing concern.
They will use existing relationships with parents of young people showing violent behaviours from ongoing work based in the Burn Valley Ward.
Young people will have the opportunity to listen to the real experiences of someone, who has been involved in violent crime. They will also hear about the lifestyles which can lead to – or include – violence. The social action leader will share with them his experience and its long-term consequences.
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 provides Hartlepool residents with crisis support.
In addition, it provides a range of other development, volunteering, training, and employment opportunities.
Big League has asked for funding to help set up the Burbank Community Centre as a Community “Report and Support Centre” for local residents. The initiative is for residents in the Burn Valley Ward in conjunction with local councillors and PCSOs.
Staff 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 in sessions and Weekly surgeries to discuss and agree actions and priorities.
In addition, there will be Community Group Meetings, Newsletters and Social Media engagement. They will provide 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. There will be a significant marketing campaign to raise awareness and provide information about what is going on, changes and the impact, which they are 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 serves 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.
The ORB does this by offering services such as help with form filling, job applications, CV construction and free computer and Wi-Fi access. These services help visitors to improve their employment prospects.
The hub works in partnership with the ‘The Message Trust.’ It has asked for funding to deliver a knife awareness campaign to targeted secondary schools. The schools are in the Serious Violence hotspots 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 the following three Hartlepool Secondary schools:
- Manor
- High Tunstall
- English Martyrs
Each of the schools have pupils from the Burn Valley and Manor wards. This project is based on the assumption that early intervention and education will lead to a reduction in violent crime.
Decision 2023/24 – 0028: CURV Small Grant Funded Interventions (application, 243kB)