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Step Together

Step Together

What the programme aims are: 

Step Together is a Home Office funded national pilot programme with local implementation led by the VRU. It seeks to connect Education, Police and Community Partners in a collaborative project designed to increase safety and reduce violent crime towards young people along designated school routes at the start and end of the school day. Using the VRU Strategic Needs Assessment along with intelligence and data from Neighbourhood Policing Units, key impact routes have been identified to focus this specific detached youth work activity. This programme aims to create frequent points of safety for young people in areas where we see an increased level of antisocial and violent activity at the end of the school day. An evaluation will be conducted by an independent evaluation partner to explore whether the programme can achieve its aims. 

 

Tasks we oversee include: 

  • Chaperones (adults along identified school routes, will support safety of young people from school, and, in doing so, may reduce crime around schools)   
  • Chaperones will be strategically placed along these routes at the close of the school day, where we see higher levels of student footfall.   
  • Chaperones will seek to develop relationships with young people, offer a point of safety, diffuse, and de-escalate in the event of incident or rising community tensions.  
  • Commissioned providers will need to work collaboratively with school colleagues and partner agencies through regular updates and be active members of the steering group around the project. Providers will also need to work collaboratively with the independent evaluation partner.  

 

Providing Activities on route which can draw the young peope away from areas which they may be causing disruption or preventing public footfall eg, shops. The young people can be moved away from such areas to any available grassland to partake in football-based games to build and improve positive relations between the young people and chaperones. 

By successfully achieving the above we aim to reduce/increase the following: 

  •  Reduce Anti-Social Behaviour.
  • Reduce Rate of Gang related crime.
  • Improve community relations between young people & Members of Public .
  • Young people feeling safer overall on their route home.  
  • Build a positive relationship between two schools in the area (Grace Academy & Cardinal Wiseman).
  • Getting the young people involved in more constructive activities after school.

 

An image of two participants at Active Sky Blues. One person is wearing a black and white striped jumper with black leggings, they are wearing glasses and pink boxing pads on their hands. The other participant has their back to the camera wearing a short sleeved pink top, pink boxing gloves and a pink hijab.