Peer Action Collective South East – September 2022 Conference

On Tuesday, 13th September, young people from across the Solent region took to the stage at Portsmouth Guildhall to share the initial findings from their research into youth violence in Portsmouth, Southampton and the surrounding areas at the South East Peer Action Collective Conference. 

The group of young people speaking are part of the Peer Action Collective, a national network of more than 120 young people investigating the causes of youth violence through 10 regional Collectives. The 13 Peer Researchers in the South East focused on youth violence in the Solent region, and were guided by a consortium of three regional youth organisations – Artswork, Unloc, and Youth Options.

Over the past few months, they have interviewed many young people aged 10 – 20 from a range of different backgrounds to discover their experiences of youth violence, and what change they want to see in their communities. The hope is that this research will help organisations and policy makers to better understand the phenomenon and feed into a programme of social action, and the conference was attended by representatives from Hampshire Constabulary, local councils and community groups. 

The conference began with an overview of what the young people interviewed have said about violence in their lives and local areas, including findings from a survey which was filled out by over 180. The Peer Researchers then split into three groups to present their findings on specific topics: 

1.. The impacts of youth violence 

2. Its potential links with social media 

3. How youth offending can be prevented or reduced.  

When looking at the causes of youth violence, it was interesting to see how this differs between the research areas. For Southampton, environment is reported as the leading cause, whilst in Portsmouth it’s boredom, and in all areas stereotypes and the influence of adults play a part. This cascades and ultimately causes impact on mental health, with one 20-year-old interviewee from an SO15 postcode sharing “I’ve seen a lot of people try to commit suicide. Instead of getting proper help they get arrested and spend the night in a police cell”.  

There was concrete evidence around the extent to which online safety mechanisms are failing and how violence across social media has become so normalised, with 68.5% of respondents saying there is not enough safeguarding online, and 66.7% saying companies don’t take violent content seriously. A stand out quote around this normalisation was:

“I also think that young people are slightly desensitised to [violence] because of the amount that is online”. 

The overall understanding of youth violence within young people across the South East was concerning, with data showing that they don’t recognise sexual violence as violence at all, and they also don’t necessarily think of bullying or hate crime as violence. 

As part of their research, the Peer Researchers made a number of initial suggestions for changes that can be made at a community level. These covered a wide range of topics, from the need for better training around mental health, to sessions where police and young people can find common ground and understand that we’re all human beings.  

After initial findings from the research were presented we were introduced to the Changemakers. Based on evidence from the Peer Research phase, this group of young people have been designing and developing social action projects and community interventions aimed at reducing the impact of violence on young lives. Details of four projects were shared at the Conference: 

• Gosport Peer Action collective – Improving relationships between the police and young people. 
• Shield Southampton – improving youth harassment as a whole, whether that’s an adult being harassed by a young person, or a young person being harassed by a peer 
• Free Yourself Portsmouth – Tackling the root causes of youth violence 
• See The Difference Project – raising awareness of the subtle forms of bullying. 

Many of these are now beginning the delivery phase, due to be complete by December 2022, and we look forward to seeing these in action over the next few months.  

Following the young people’s presentations, a number of community partners came forwards to offer help and support, and it was clear that the data shared, and the social action being scoped, will really have an impact. The findings provided stakeholders and changemakers alike the first-hand evidence they need to take forward and turn into positive actions. 

Quote from Louise Govier, Artswork CEO:

“The peer researchers developed the skills and confidence to present their findings to a room full of community leaders and stakeholders from policing and violence reduction organisations. They spoke with great passion, and their audience was gripped – it was so powerful to hear young people saying how it was from their perspective, and to hear their suggestions for what might make a difference.”

Quote from Annabel Cook, Artswork Deputy CEO:

“The young people’s research shines a light on current issues – and the scale of the problem.  The process has been really interesting and it is brilliant that the young people now have the opportunity to act on that research to make real change in their communities”

To catch up on all things Peer Action Collective so far, please click here.

The Peer Action Collective (PAC) is a national network of young people, funded by the #iwill Fund, Youth Endowment Fund, and the Co-op, and from this we have partnered with Unloc and Youth Options. There are more than 120 peer researchers across England and Wales, and a total of 10 regional Peer Action Collectives. In the South East, Artswork have brought together young people from Portsmouth, Southampton and Eastleigh areas as part of consortium with Unloc and Youth Options. 

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Peer Action Collective Solent Unloc young people Youth Justice youth violence