Safer Leeds
local partnership making things happend
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Weapons Awareness Programme
Keeping knives out of Leeds' schools
Safer Leeds, in partnership with CASAC (Community Action and Support Against Crime) is running the knife awareness programme with support from a whole range of relevant organisations in Leeds.
The programme involves recruiting and training volunteers to deliver the weapons awareness sessions to young people in Leeds. The programme involves a 45 minute presentation which includes information and facts about weapons and the consequences of using them.
The programme will be delivered to:
All High Schools in Leeds (Year 7 and all others years, schools permitting).
All voluntary sector youth organisations.
The Youth Offending Service will refer any young person whom they feel will benefit from the scheme.
Victim Support will offer support to victims’ families.
The main target group for the programme is all Year 7 (11-12 years) pupils within Leeds, as research showed that this group was more susceptible to peer pressure, having recently made the transition from primary education.
Other target groups include young offenders, young people excluded from school, and disaffected and disengaged young people.
All training is being managed by Community Action and Support Against Crime (CASAC), one of our partners. The training of trainers commenced in September and by March 2005 a total of 80 trainers had completed the course.
The training courses are provided by a company called 'Be Safe' which has delivered successful pilots in various London Boroughs, including Newham where the feedback is rated as extremely positive.
There is separate work being carried out within primary schools by Yorkshire Women’s Theatre group which is seen as key to the initiative and complements the ‘Be Safe’ programme for older children.
This work is focused on younger children (9 - 11 years) in primary schools around the consequences of carrying weapons in general and helping them avoid becoming from becoming victims of violent crime.
The Initiative involves referrals of young people at risk to try and help them avoid becoming hardened offenders.
There are also specialist teams involved in the programme to provide professional support to victims and their families, and also to encourage witnesses to step forward and testify in court.