Cleveland Police Authority Youth Proofing Project
In 2007 Cleveland Police Authority ran a pilot project to ‘youth proof’ the policing plan summary using a group of disadvantaged young people from Middlesbrough. The resulting document received national acclaim both from the Communities and Local Government Association and the Association of Police Authorities.
In 2008 the project was repeated, but was expanded to include young people from all four of Cleveland’s districts (Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Stockton and Redcar and Cleveland. The young people were supported by Just4Youth, a social enterprise owned by West Middlesbrough Neighbourhood Trust. They worked with Police Authority staff to produce four local versions of the policing plan summary specifically for young people in the Cleveland area.
Each of the young people involved received an ASDAN , ‘Activities with Peer Tutoring Award’, and the document was launched at a joint Force and Authority event held at Middlesbrough College in September 2008.
During Autumn 2008 the summaries were distributed to 38,000 people between the ages of 11 and 19 across the whole Cleveland area.
During the summer of 2009 Cleveland Police Authority decided to repeat the programme, this time using staff from the Neighbourhood Policing Teams to work with the young people on the documents. The final documents were presented at a celebratory launch event at Cleveland Police Headquarters in September 2009. 54,000 copies of the young persons policing summaries were produced and distributed to schools and colleges across Cleveland.
The 2008/9 Cleveland Police "Youth Proofed" Policing Plans were launched by the Chair of the Police Authority and Chief Constable on 16 September 2009. Why not have a look at the video below showing the launch:
Crucial Crew
Crucial Crew is an initiative for Year 6 pupils (last year of primary school). The event involves numerous agencies including the Police, Police Authority, Fire Service, Road Safety Team and Coastguard and aims to give the children the chance to learn how to cope with a wide range of safety issues. Cleveland Police Authority run an interactive session using 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' software to get the children's opinions on crime, disorder and policing issues. These are then fed back to the local neighbourhood policing teams together with being input into the police priority setting process.
Tag Rugby
Cleveland Police Authority has organised the introduction of a tag rugby scheme into schools in Cleveland in conjunction with the charity Child Victims Of Crime. CVOC is a national charity supported by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), so as such is the only official police childrens’ charity.
Tag rugby is a non contact version of rugby which can be played by males and females. The tag rugby scheme is aimed at primary school years 5 and 6 (9 to 11 year olds). The Rugby Football Union undertakes a one day accredited training course for police officers and Police Community Support Officers from neighbourhood policing teams which allows them to go into their local schools and coach tag rugby whilst delivering a community safety message.