FACENorth (Focusing on Alternatives to Crime Edinburgh North) will be continuing with their regular service throughout the summer holidays, providing 1:1, crisis and family support and help with employment and training.
Have a look below to see the activities that’ll be offered and don’t miss the chance to participate!
A police-led partnership initiative aimed at diverting young people from criminal activity in Edinburgh is to receive Scottish Government funding.
As part of the CashBack for Communities Scheme, £19 million, which was seized from criminals, is to be shared with a range of organisations to further their work in diverting at risk youths away from potentially criminal or anti-social behaviour.
One such project receiving a share of this funding is VOW, a unique collaborative project, where police in the Capital work along a number of partners to engage and empower vulnerable young-people to make positive life choices.
This partnership helps break the cycle of offending and prevent individuals from continually entering the criminal justice system. So far 167 young people have been helped through the work of the team and the funding will ensure this vital work continues and even expands.
Also receiving Cashback support is Police Scotland’s award- winning partnership project with City of Edinburgh Council, Turn Your Life Around (TYLA).
Turn Your Life Around is a mental health and wellbeing project where local volunteers with a range of difficult childhood experiences are supported to share their stories of adversity and resilience with school pupils, families and staff.
Pupils at the schools are then given a platform to discuss the stories, reflect on risk and resilience factors and encouraged to seek help if they are experiencing similar difficulties.
The nature of these projects means that officers, peer mentors and volunteers are regularly asked to revisit, share or support childhood trauma and this funding will be used to provide trauma counselling and additional support for all those involved in delivering these services and will augment the existing skills they already have.
This in turn will increase the capacity for them to help young people turn their lives around.
Chief Superintendent Sean Scott, Divisional Commander for Edinburgh said: “This partnership and public health approach, using these inspirational peer mentors and courageous young volunteers, was a first of its kind here in Scotland.
“The proof that it works is testament to the number of young people that have managed to turn their lives around and the fact that on average the young people who engage with the peer mentors and officers manage to reduce their offending by around 80%.
“Traditionally, it has been difficult for police to identify and engage with at risk youths while working in isolation. This collaboration opens a number of doors, not only in preventing further criminal activity, but signposting those we engage with to a range of support services that can help them make positive lifestyle choices.
“With this essential funding, the excellent foundations and work that has already been commenced, will be continued and expanded to include trauma counselling, with the model being rolled out in Glasgow and other Policing Divisions looking to follow suit.
“This peer mentoring project transforms not only the lives of the young people who engage and take part, but transforms their families and communities, through working in partnership to deliver prevention and interventions that have been evaluated and proved to work at reducing harm”
Councillor Ian Perry, Education, Community and Families Convener at City of Edinburgh Council said: “This funding is fantastic news and will help the programmes continue to go from strength to strength.
“Set up in 2016 with Police Scotland, the Turn Your Life Around project delivered by the Health & Wellbeing Team was recently recognised as Education Initiative of the Year by Herald Society Awards.
“This is testimony to the feedback received from over 1000 children, young people and staff in schools last year who heard the inspiring stories from the TYLA volunteers and were involved in follow up sessions.
“It is of paramount importance that the volunteers are also appropriately supported and this funding will ensure we can continue to provide this as the project continues.”
‘Mummy’s Boy’ was premiered at the Scottish Storytelling Centre on the High Street in Edinburgh on Thursday.
The short film is a collaboration between several organisations including Creative Scotland, Transport Scotland, Screen Education Edinburgh, Police Scotland Edinburgh Division and students from Broughton, Holyrood and Drummond High Schools.
The students played a very active part in making the film which delivers a message to young people about the potential consequences of becoming involved in crime.
PC Greig Stephen hosted the event and there were speeches from Superintendent Richard Thomas, Sean Young from Screen Education Edinburgh and Louise Lothian who lost her 14-year-old nephew Brad Williamson in June 2016 after a motorbike he was riding was involved in a collision.
“We have also worked hard with third sector organisation Aid & Abet and with people personally affected by the tragic consequences of recent incidents to impress on young people the real dangers of dangerous motor cycle riding.
“We know from experience that prevention is better than cure and this very impactful film provides a hard-hitting insight into the impact and devastation that can be caused if you are involved in the theft or criminal use of a motorcycle.
“Mummy’s Boy may be a short-film, but its message is very poignant and clear and I wish to thank all of the young people involved, as well as Sean Young from Screen Education Edinburgh, for their dedication and hard work in pulling this altogether.
“The production will be of great use to not only officers in Edinburgh, but across the country, where motorcycle crime is an area of concern for local communities.”
The students were all involved in the production of the film both in front of, and behind, the camera. They hope to reach out to other young people to think twice before making a decision which could have fatal consequences.
Ben Macpherson, MSP for Edinburgh Northern and Leith said: “I have long been a supporter of the creative and collaborative approach taken by Police Scotland to address motorcycle related anti-social behaviour in the north of the city.
“By working with the local youth organisations and seeking to positively engage with the young people, we have seen significant results – not just in the crime statistics but, even more importantly, in a shift in attitudes to this kind of reckless behaviour from the young people themselves.
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