Unloc, Artswork & Youth Options win regional contract for youth violence social action programme

A consortium of three Hampshire based youth organisations have been awarded the South East contract to deliver a youth violence social action programme as part of a national scheme funded by the Youth Endowment Fund.

The Peer Action Collective project aims to bring young people together, particularly those with some lived experience of violence, in order to research, explore and take action on the root causes of youth violence through a series of creative approaches.

The three consortium partners, Unloc, Artswork and Youth Options, will deliver the programme in partnership with young people from across the Portsmouth, Southampton, Totton and Eastleigh areas.

This will include twelve paid young researchers undertaking a research project, supported by Artswork and Youth Options, to better understand youth violence in the region.

The programme will allow them to gather invaluable insight and data directly from young people themselves, engaging with their real life experiences, challenges and finding out how these were overcome.

This will be followed by a ‘Changemakers’ social action programme in which young people will use creative approaches to build on the evidence garnered by the young researchers – to design, develop and deliver their own social action projects.

The programme truly puts young people in the lead, designing and conducting research into their peer’s experiences of violence, and working together to take action and shape impactful solutions.

Along the way, young people taking part will develop their employability and leadership skills, enabling them to thrive as changemakers beyond the programme, putting all they have learnt during the programme to good use in their usual daily lives, and improving their future prospects.

All three organisations have an immense wealth of knowledge and experience when it comes to working with young people, empowering and developing them to have a voice, meet their full potential, and become active and engaged young adults in their local community.

This consortium project will allow all three to come together and reinforce the live changing work on offer, strengthening the support and offer available to young people in the South East.

Hayden Taylor, Managing Director of Unloc, said:

“We are absolutely delighted to receive this funding from the Youth Endowment Fund. Youth violence is a complex problem, with a multitude of factors that need to be taken into account when seeking solutions to tackle the problem head on. At Unloc we know more than anything that young people themselves are the ones with the answers, it’s their lives, they live these situations every day.”

“We’re thrilled to be working with such proactive and supportive partners to deliver this programme, together we can really delve into the heart of this problem and talk directly with young people on their experience with this issue. Together I believe we can really support them to create lasting and impactful change.”

Madeleine Durie, Chief Executive of Youth Options said:

“Youth Options is delighted to be partnering with Unloc and Artswork to deliver this programme. We know that violence can be a major issue to vulnerable young people who don’t have the support network of family or friends to fall back on for support.  This funding will give young people a voice in identifying the issues that lead to violence and, importantly what the solutions might be is critical if society is going to address this issue.”

“Working together with other key youth charities means that we are bringing the best of our skills and experience to support young people in tackling these really challenging issues. This will allow us to deliver a programme together which really researches and examines all the root causes of youth violence, and the wider impact it has upon the young people we work with. Programmes such as this make such a long-lasting change on the lives of young people and we are really excited about the impact this programme can have.

Chief Executive of Artwork Louise Govier said:

“Thanks to the Youth Endowment Fund we’ll now be able to deliver an extensive and in-depth programme that will enable young people to design the changes that they think will really make a difference.  Both Unloc and Youth Options are great organisations and we couldn’t be happier to be working alongside them to tackle such an important issue.”

“The Artswork team will be bringing to the partnership our experience in working with creativity and the arts as a way for young people involved to build connections, explore ideas and express what’s most important to them. We know that creativity unlocks potential, and we’re really interested to see what the Peer Action Collective come up with!”

The Youth Endowment Fund was established in March 2019 by children’s charity Impetus, with a £200m endowment and ten year mandate from the Home Office.

The Fund exists to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence, and is part of the What Works Network – an initiative to improve the way government and other public sector organisations create, share and use high quality evidence in decision-making.

By bringing multiple organisations together who share a common goal it strengthens the broader impact on the young people they work with.

To keep up to date with how the programme develops and the outcomes of the programme be sure to follow Unloc on our Twitter, LinkedIn and website news page at www.unloc.org/news

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Youth Endowment Fund