Serious Youth Crime and Prevention Project

Kent County Council (KCC), in partnership with Kent Police and Medway Council, have been successful in receiving funding from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). This funding is to target children and young people (CYP) between the ages of 10 - 17 years, at risk of being, or already involved in serious youth violence.

The strategic aims of the Supporting Families Against Youth Crime Fund are to: • Add capacity to local authorities to help them respond to gang and youth crime issues • Test and learn from interventions and place-based initiatives • Drive improved local, multi-agency partnership working with the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) • Develop CYP's personal resilience to withstand peer pressure and make positive choices, particularly at primary to secondary school transition • Intervene early and raise awareness of the dangers of gangs, youth violence and knife crime • Challenge a culture of acceptable knife carrying Kent County Council secured £1,362,645 over two years, in a collaborative bid with Medway Council, Metropolitan Police and Kent Police to deliver across North Kent (Dartford, Gravesham, Sevenoaks and Swale) and Medway. A portion of this funding has secured coordination, Police and analyst time to support the strategic aims of the project. The commissioned element of the project will focus on the operational delivery of services to CYP, their families and their communities, to both tackle and to prevent serious youth violence.

This will be done by: • Preventing people from engaging with gangs and youth violence, including through raising awareness for CYP, their communities, families and professionals who support them • Protecting vulnerable CYP by increasing community inclusion, safeguarding activity and providing intensive support