The Youth Map Is Now Live!
We’re pleased to announce that The Youth Map has now been launched!
The original launch of the Youth Map, which was planned for April 2020 was just one more plan that COVID-19 put a stop to.
So now that it’s available to the public, we want to thank all the organisations involved – Including the 100’s who completed surveys and the 10+ organisations who were responsible for gathering data to create the Youth Map.
That’s over 800+ organisations across the West Midlands working to reduce violence!!
What Is The Youth Map?
The Youth Map is resource to help schools, organisations, and communities to improve their response to youth violence.
This is achieved by increasing the visibility of organisations who are tackling issues around youth violence.
ACT CIC, being one of the forerunners of the mapping youth violence project had been working towards creating a community based resources that organisations, schools and the larger community could easily use to identify organisations and support services for young people in order to have a more coordinated response the reduction of youth violence in the community.
We began the mapping in 2018, when we were successful with a small bid from The National Lottery.
Whilst working on the project, we discovered a handful of other organisations had been mapping organisations who are tackling the issues around youth violence for several years.
The Youth Map combines our efforts into a centralised tool, which is accessible to the whole community.
Early Intervention Is Key
There are many people in a community who can see when a young person is going down the wrong path. Early intervention at this stage is key, and early indicators include things like:
Changes in behaviour & attitude
Disengagement from school
Gravitating towards negative peer groups
Petty crime
Unexplained money, expensive clothing & trainers
And things that may indicate that a young person is becoming involved in criminality and could be a victim of grooming and criminal exploitation include:
Certain changes in language and body language
Carrying of weapons
Becoming withdrawn
Being in fear of their own safety
Going missing
The whole community – including parents, family members, religious leaders, teachers, social workers etc all need to play a part in helping the young people in their community when they see a young person going down the wrong path.
But this can prove very difficult when you don’t know where to find the appropriate help. And in many cases, this can mean standing by the side-line, helpless to do anything as you see someone in your community making the wrong choices.
Now, as you can see, there are different stages that a young person might go through.
For example, a young person who is beginning to follow the wrong crowd and is at risk of being exploited is different from the young person who is carrying a knife because he is in fear, wants revenge, or refuses to be victim of youth violence.
And that’s why different stages require different levels of intervention to make an impact.
The Right Level of Service
The youth map not only identifies organisations, but alto categorises them by the different levels of support that a young person may require. This means that anyone in the community who sees a young person in need of support can use the youth map to find the appropriate help.
Primary
(Universal Services)
These are open to everyone. A good example of this would be diversionary activities for young people such as youth and sports and arts based programmes that help to keep young people in organised activities. Also, awareness programmes for schools that seek to raise the awareness of young people around the risks, dangers and consequences of knife crime, gangs and child criminal exploitation.
Secondary
(Targeted Services)
Targeted at young people who are at high risk of becoming involved in gangs, crime and youth violence. This could be mentoring programmes for young people at high risk of becoming excluded from school.
Tertiary
(Specialist Services)
Services for young people who are directly involved in gangs, crime and engaged in carrying out violence within the community. These young people often need a range of services designed to address underlying root causes and help them to desist from crime over a period of time. Helping young people to exit from gangs. These highly specialised services may use a range of mentoring wrap around support for the family and individuals.
See It For Yourself...
We now have a directory that has a specific focus on young people that can assist us, as the community, to reduce youth violence in the community.
BVSC with support of the VRU built the Youth Map, which has now been launched for everyone to use.
ACT CIC are glad to see the launch of the Youth Map, and are happy that we now can all utilise this resource to improve how we respond to youth violence.
Find the youth map here: www.youthmap.uk
You can find ACT listed under a number of services within the directory:
Tertiary – Critical Intervention: https://youthmap.uk/service/18/critical-intervention
Secondary – Youth Inclusion Support Programme: https://youthmap.uk/service/18/YISP
