On Wednesday 9th September 2021 the Academy for Social Justice delivered an online seminar which explored the problem of Youth Violence and posed the question: Can Collective Impact lead to Transformational Change?
The seminar was hosted by the Academy for Social Justice and had four guest speakers from Agencia – an advisory board made up of industry experts with over 25yrs experience of working in the Justice, Policing and Security arenas.
The Keynote speakers for the seminar were:
Helen Gibson – Managing Director, Agencia
Keith Hunter – Agencia Director of Justice, Policing and Security and former Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner
Marcus Isman-Egal – Agencia Advisory Board Member and Manager at Doncaster Children’s Service Trust
Robin Lockhart – Agencia Advisory Board Member, CEO of Through Unity and 2016 Commonwealth Youth Worker of the Year
Key findings and Recommendations:
The main argument posited by the seminar is that youth violence is endemic across society, whether that’s on the streets, within schools or in the family home, and only the only effective approach to tackling the issue is one of ‘Collective Impact’.
Keith Hunter – who was a police officer for over 30 years and has been a Police & Crime Commissioner for the past 5 years – argued that the “…problem of youth violence can only be resolved over a period of time measured in generations, not months or years”. The impact the Covid pandemic has had on youth violence cannot be underestimated, and whereas the initial headline figures may indicate a reduction in the problem, we should all be “…alert to the possibility that the changed circumstances of that period could have suppressed the number of instances (of violent crime) most commonly recorded … (and) multiplied those incidences that don’t get readily reported”. Statistics show that there has been a rise in domestic violence since March 2020, and Keith Hunter explained that increased exposure to domestic violence often makes young people more susceptible to becoming initiated into gangs.
All speakers advocated for a ‘Collective Impact’ approach to tackle the issue of Youth Violence, essentially a national strategy planned for and delivered at a governmental level that aims to shape the way young people think and alter their reaction to circumstances that may lead them towards violence, whilst, at the same time, reducing their exposure to those circumstances because ultimately “Youth violence is a product of circumstance”. As Keith Hunter explained, “… Individual choice extends from the impact of circumstance, as well as their reaction to circumstance. An individual’s thoughts regulate impact (and) thoughts precipitate action / reaction”. Because thought processes can be learned and conditioned, argues Hunter, they can also be changed – and this is the key to addressing the issue.
Recommendations:
Helen Gibson, the managing director of Agencia with experience of delivering work nationally and internationally on behalf of the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Equality and Human Rights Commission, explained that – across the world – “…people are struggling to live lives that are productive, healthy and happy” due to a variety of societal and environmental factors, and these challenges can only be addressed by taking a collective impact approach which requires “…. moving away from the traditional, more isolated ways that service organisations attempt to solve problems within communities…”. Helen argues that the impact of covid has accelerated this move away from these traditionally held methods of working and forced us to confront restrictive bureaucratic processes and adapt to more innovative ways of working.
She outlined the 5 key principles of collective impact as:
Next steps:
Marcus Isman-Egal – who heads Youth Crime Prevention in Doncaster and also runs a tri-borough initiative across South Yorkshire tackling organised crime. He works with Young People and communities to raise awareness of and increase people’s understanding of child criminal exploitation. He advised that there are 50 organised crime groups in South Yorkshire, 5 of which use the County Lines model to move drugs across neighbouring counties. In South Yorkshire there is one police force covering Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster and Sheffield. With such a large area of jurisdiction, Marcus advises, it soon became clear that local authorities needed to work together and share information and ideas to ‘…move forward and have a common approach to dealing with the threat facing communities and young people’. This collective input approach resulted in the creation of EPIC – Encouraging Potential Inspiring Change – a support service for vulnerable young people who are at risk of becoming exploited by criminal gangs and/or becoming involved in offending behaviour.
The crime prosecutions service (CPS) estimates that, in the UK, the cost of organised crime is £24bn a year, whilst the cost of youth violence is £11bn a year. If we’re to have any impact on reducing this figure, argues Robin Lockhart – founder and Director of Catalyst In Communities and Commonwealth Youth Worker of the Year 2016 – then the only valid approach is a public health approach, with projects designed and developed by the young people they aim to support.
Collective impact is not just about cohesion between governmental departments and local authorities – it must involve everyone that has a part to play in safeguarding young people. The EPIC initiative has worked with over 30,000 young people since its inception, and during that time they have seen the importance of involving parents and also retail centres, inviting them to “…join the collaborative, collective space to scale up solutions to safeguard young people”. Such collaborative working has resulted in some improved ways of working – across South Yorkshire local safeguarding teams now routinely use a ‘Vulnerability Tracker’ across the 4 local authorities as they recognise that the problem of organised crime and exposure to child criminal exploitation (CCE) is not confined to a specific region. Equally, through this collective approach, VR technology has been introduced into schools in a way to teach children about the risks of CCE in a more interactive way.
ILLY Systems work with a variety of services across multiple disciplines. As such, we are aware of some fantastic, innovative approaches that our partners within the ILLY Community are delivering to address the urgent issue of Youth Violence.
We would love to hear your thoughts about the ‘Collective Impact’ approach, and would especially welcome any offers from services willing to share their experiences of tackling Youth Violence.