Regional award for youth offending project
An innovative project aimed at getting Blackburn with Darwen’s young people who have offended into employment, education and training (EET) has scooped a prestigious award.
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council’s youth offending team received the coveted North West Regional Equality and Diversity Award for its successful work at an awards ceremony held at The Lowry Hotel in Manchester.
The North West Regional Equality and Diversity Awards is an annual ceremony which celebrates examples of good practice of equality and diversity employed by authorities in the region.
Blackburn with Darwen’s winning entry was among 12 successful projects, chosen from 41 submissions overall.
Its successful project uses a number of innovative ways to engage young offenders in education and training, including:
* Developing an accredited process for consulting with young people, as part of the Investors in Children Award. Blackburn with Darwen YOT was the first to receive the award last year.
* Ensuring that each of the borough’s secondary schools has a single point of contact for professionals working with young offenders, and enlisting the support of a school improvement officer around prevention and support for young offenders in schools.
* Establishing a new training course for young people supported by the YOT called COGS (Choices, Opportunities, Goals and Support) to ensure young people are more prepared for the world of work, teaching them new skills and building confidence.
* Expanding the borough’s Public Sector Apprenticeship scheme to take on young people involved with the YOT.
* Introducing the Exceed awards ceremony which recognises the progress made by individual young people.
To gain the awards, entry submissions had to demonstrate how the projects promoted equality and diversity, challenged the status quo, promoted positive outcomes and led to fundamental changes in existing practices.
By asking young people who offend their views and adapting interventions accordingly the YOT were able to determine what individual young people required and map gaps in services.
Blackburn with Darwen Council’s executive member for children’s services, Councillor Chris Thayne, said: “This is an outstanding achievement by all the partners involved in the project.
“The award is testament to effective,hard work showing the commitment of Blackburn with Darwen Council in promoting equality and diversity.”
Blackburn with Darwen YOT’s efforts to engage more young people who have offended in education, employment and training has seen the levels of EET amongst young offenders rise from 50.7% in 2008-09 to 75.6% by the first quarter of this year, against a national average of 73.9%.
Feedback from the young people involved in the project has been very positive, below are some quotes from some of the winners of the Exceed awards:
“I changed school and my behaviour changed, I try harder now and my mum is proud of me.”
“I was hanging around with the wrong crowd, drinking on the streets and was constantly running from the police. I’ve changed my friends now and my life has changed. The awards ceremony has been amazing; I have never been to anything like this and have never had an award for anything because people like me don’t get awards. To hear people clapping and cheering for you makes you feel really good.”