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A project in Conwy County Borough that has received funding to provide activities and opportunities for young people in the area was the subject of two recent visits by Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for North Wales Andy Dunbobbin.
The Community Outreach initiative is run by Conwy Youth Engagement and Belonging and received funding as part of the North Wales Serious Violence Response Strategy. The aim of this key new strategy is to work with communities to prevent and reduce serious violence across the region. It focuses on bringing partners, including the police, local authorities, fire, and rescue services, and specified health and criminal justice agencies together to tackle serious violence and its root causes. The PCC and his office act as the convenor for these various stakeholders.
The project from Conwy Youth Engagement and Belonging is being run across a number of towns in the county, including Colwyn Bay, Llandudno, Kinmel Bay, Llanrwst, and Llandudno Junction. Various activities are laid on for young people in the area to drop in to, where they can get active, socialise with friends and learn more about the services on offer locally and to encourage them to access safe, warm and supporting youth provisions.
The outreach programme can also help identify any gaps that exist in services aimed and, more importantly, possible areas of concern such as county lines and other forms of exploitation.
On 14 October Andy Dunbobbin visited the Barn at Parc Eirias, where a group of young people were playing football after school under the leadership of Senior Youth Work Practitioner, Chris Gledhill and colleagues Jim Walters and Andy Jones. The after-school sessions enable the young people to get off the street and get active in a fun and supervised way. Chris and his colleagues also do outreach work in anti-social behaviour hotspots in the centre of Colwyn Bay. This is to encourage the young people to attend the club and join in the other activities on offer and to give them other outlets for their energy other than possibly causing trouble.
A day later, on 15 October, the PCC and colleagues Diane Jones, Serious Violence Programme Lead and Catrin Jones, Serious Violence Programme Support Officer, joined a ‘Tea and Toast’ session at Tŷ Hapus on Ffordd Penrhyn in Llandudno. The visitors met a group of local young people benefiting from the sessions, where they are able to drop-in after school to get some food and drink, enjoy the company of friends. They also have the chance to talk about any problems they might be experiencing with the youth workers present and support from Ruth Davies, a Family Worker from Eryl Wen family centre, Llandudno.
One of the young people attending the session at Tŷ Hapus, Liam aged 15, said: “I like coming to the club as it helps mentally and physically. It also helps with schoolwork and revision. It’s also a safe space to come and make friends and just to be you.
“The club also involves mentor work and if we’re struggling with certain things we can come here and talk to the youth workers and they will help us through it.”
Chris Gledhill, Senior Youth Work Practitioner, Conwy Youth Engagement and Belonging commented: “I believe our role as Youth workers is vital to help provide young people with alternative ways to be active and engage in positive and structured activities with us. We feel privileged to be in a position where we can offer support and guidance to young people that are struggling or need a safe space to talk and be themselves. Our partnership work with the local family centre team is also invaluable in being able to strengthen our supportive youth work offer, to help empower young people to become positive members of their communities.”
Andy Dunbobbin, Police and Crime Commissioner for North Wales said: “Serious violence has a profound impact on individuals and communities across North Wales. During 2022-23 over 30,000 offences of violence against the person were recorded by the police across the region. While this was a welcome decrease from the year before – and shows the hard work of North Wales Police and partners in the community – I am determined to see this figure drop even further.
“That’s why projects such as this in Conwy County are so important. They provide opportunities not only for young people to keep active, but also to discuss any problems they might be facing at home, school, or elsewhere in the community. It was a pleasure to see the hard work of the Conwy Youth Service team and to see the commitment and dedication of the young people. Together, through projects like this, we can help reduce violence and ASB across North Wales.”
Diane Jones, Serious Violence Programme Lead, Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, added: “Seeing this project in action has convinced me that investing in our young people is critical, and a key part of the Serious Violence Strategy. The team’s commitment to this work is making a real difference. By giving young people these opportunities, we are helping to create a safer community for everyone. I am interested to see how this work progresses in partnership and the further positive impact it has on our community.”
The key priorities of the North Wales Serious Violence Response Strategy are:
- Supporting and enhancing prevention and early intervention around violence against women and girls, domestic abuse, and sexual violence (VAWDASV).
- Promoting contextual safeguarding to work with children and young people vulnerable to exploitation and/or modern slavery.
- Identifying and implementing improvements, best practices, and innovation as a partnership to respond to serious violence.
- Building a preventative approach in North Wales, through an understanding of risk, adverse childhood experiences, and trauma.
To learn more about the strategy and its purpose, visit: www.northwales-pcc.gov.uk/serious-violence-duty