Haringey’s Early Help Service has teamed up with Project Future to co-produce a pilot programme with local schools tackling the issue of young people carrying knives.
The programme offers a whole school approach which will involve working with staff, young people and parents, listening to what they think the factors are that contribute to this issue. In partnership with schools, the programme aims to co-produce solutions, recognising the existing knowledge and expertise unique to each school. Interventions could include interactive workshops with young people and parents, presentations, assemblies, staff training and clinical thinking spaces, ensuring that delivery meets the unique needs of each school setting in relation to knife crime concerns.
Project Future is a community based, youth-led mental health project that seeks to transform mental health delivery with young men aged 16-25 involved in ‘gangs’, offending and serious youth violence in Haringey. The objectives are to improve well-being, reduce offending, increase access to education, employment and training and bridge young people into local services.
The service is led by a team of clinical psychologists and young people employed as ‘community consultants’. These are young people from the local area who are seen as the experts in their own lives and in the community and best placed to understand the challenges young people face and how services can meet their needs. Community consultants will work alongside mental health practitioners to develop and deliver accessible and effective interventions, taking a lead on engaging young people, sharing their lived experiences, promoting the objectives of the programme and supporting young people to have a sense of ownership of the project. The skills and expertise of the team will enable Project Future to get to the heart of what causes young people to feel they have to carry a knife and work towards finding shared solutions to bring about change.
The team would initially like to pilot this programme in one primary and one secondary school and are inviting you to respond with an expressions of interest to host this exciting project in your setting by Tuesday 31 October. They would be happy to offer you a visit or telephone discussion to explore the benefits of the programme for your school in more detail if that would be helpful.
Please contact meeta.mahtani@haringey.gov.uk or telephone 020 8489 1510.