Children and young people
Winner: Rally Round, South Tyneside Youth Offending Service
‘Rally Round’ is a community reparation project. It was designed and named by three of the young people who took part in the project and involves taking unwanted bicycles from the community, re-conditioning them and sending them to Africa. 47 other young people have taken part in the project, with tasks including; collecting bikes from donors, stripping them down and working on leaflets and project logo designs.
The project works in partnership with the local police force, which provides bikes from their lost and stolen store and Re-Cycle Bike Aid for Africa who ship the bikes to Africa. The Youth Offending Service has also worked in partnership with the local paper to advertise for bike donations, to promote the work of the project but also to ensure that a positive image of young people is established.
The project has received positive feedback from the community as well as from partnership organisations.
For more information about this award winning scheme, please contact:
Marc Hodges, Unit Co-Ordinator
South Tyneside YOS
30 Commercial Road
South Shields
Tyne and Wear
NE33 1RW
Tel: 01914 272850
Email: marc.hodges@southtyneside.gov.uk
Runner-up: LINX, The Hampton Trust
LINX is a 12 week programme targeted at young people aged 12-18, involved in the criminal justice system or at risk of offending who are living with or have lived with domestic abuse. It is currently delivered across Hampshire, The Isle of Wight, Gloucester and Devon.
Young people are encouraged to make links with to their own experience of violence and abuse and to consider how this may have had a negative impact on them. The project prevents re-offending by ‘challenging’ young people to look at the consequences of their offending behaviour with emphasis on their capacity to demonstrate empathy for those directly affected by their crimes. It also encourages the young people to make a link between their feelings and offending behaviour.
LINX is specifically targeted at working in partnership with youth offending teams. Currently, the project is being delivered widely across secure units, youth offending teams, schools, pupil referral units and other community projects.
For more information about this scheme, please contact:
Debbie Willis, LINX Manager
The Hampton Trust
Fairways House
Mount Pleasant Road
Southampton
SO14 0QB
Tel: 023 8021 3520
Email: debbie.willis@hamptontrust.org.uk
The children and young people category was sponsored by the Persula Foundation.
