Bulwell Forest councillor backs new £800,000 plan to tackle youth violence and gangs in Nottingham

The money, totaling £831,675, has been secured from the Youth Endowment Fund and was formally accepted at a meeting of Nottingham City Council’s executive board.

The three-year programme will be called Another Chance and will work with youngsters aged between 14 and 25, targeting the areas of Basford, the Meadows, Radford and Top Valley.

Another Chance is based on the successful Focused Deterrence project, which was developed in Boston in the USA in the mid-1990s and it will run until May of 2026.

It recognises that the majority of serious violence is associated with a small group of people who are themselves very likely to be victims of violence, trauma and extremely challenging circumstances.

Their involvement is often driven by exploitation, victimisation and self-protection.

Another Chance will be sponsored by the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner Caroline Henry (Con) and the grant funding will pay for three new targeted youth support workers, a researcher, a specialist mental health practitioner, business support and a hub manager.

The project has a number of aims over the three-year period, including, reducing weapon-enabled offences in Nottingham where victims and/or know offenders are under 25 years old, increasing community confidence in policing in target neighbourhoods, significantly reducing violent offending by children and young people included in the project and increasing the proportion of children and young people included in the project registered with a GP and dentist, in education (and attending), training or employment and registered as unemployed with the Department for Work and Pensions.

Coun Cheryl Barnard, portfolio holder for children, young people and education, who represents Bulwell Forest, said: “We’re delighted to have successfully bid for this funding.

“It will allow us to recruit more targeted youth support workers who already carrying out work to protect young people from harm, along with a psychiatric nurse and a business support worker, for the next three years.

"This will build on the existing Exploitation and Violence Reduction Hub which aims to prevent young people entering the criminal justice system, along with Home Office funded work that will run on a similar timeframe to support girls and young women at risk of violence.”