Young people speaking out about knife, gun and gang crime - Barnardo’s North East

Barnardo’s Young People’s Regional Advisory Group (YPRAG), which applied for the Speaking Out SGP funding and carried out the whole project, is made up of 10 former and current Barnardo’s service-users, aged 12 to 24 years, from its projects across the North East region. Members of the YPRAG come from some of the most marginalised, vulnerable and socially excluded groups of society including young carers, teenage mothers, homeless young people, those with disabilities or learning difficulties, care leavers, those who have been sexually exploited or harmed.

The YPRAG used the funding from the Speaking Out SGP to run a creative arts competition and conduct a survey of over 100 excluded young people in the region, seeking views on knife, gun and gang crime, how this impacts on their lives and what they think should be done to tackle it. They also conducted face-to-face interviews with their peers from social networks, schools and other youth work projects.

The research showed that while a lot of the young people are worried about crime, only 2% of those questioned had been victims themselves. A lot of people felt that they could use a higher police presence on the streets, this included CCTV and increased “beat” areas. 8% of young people wanted tougher punishments for violent crime and 92% felt that there should be more creative solutions, such as prevention in schools, and more positive images of young people.

The recommendations included that young people should be more involved through school debates around violent crime and its consequences. In addition, they suggested that a programme should be set up where Youth Workers identify and select young leaders or ‘influencers’ in schools, even if they are anti-social. These young people influence others but need a lot of support and leadership training to make sure that this influence is positive and
against violent crime.