Axed anti-crime project given emergency help by Westminster Labour councillors

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Axed anti-crime project given emergency help by Westminster Labour councillors

By Westminster Labour ⋅ September 14, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment
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Labour Councillors step in after Conservative Council refuses to help threatened project.

Labour’s Church Street and Queen’s Park Councillors have given emergency help to the Young Men’s Outreach Project axed by the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government following the government’s decision to axe funding for the Church Street and Queen’s Park Neighbourhood Forums. The Councillors will use £9,000 from their Ward Budgets to finance the project from mid September to the end of December. The plan is that this funding will sustain the project while Working with Men, who run the project, work to secure external funding. The Director of Working with Men is already in constructive talks with a number of funders.

The Young Men’s Outreach Project work’s with young men aged 13 – 25 who are at risk of, or engaged in anti-social behaviour or criminal activity, and to encourage them to make changes to their lives. A key part of the working model is that the young men are engaged through streetwork. In the last 18 months the project has engaged with over 110 young men in this target group. The following outcomes have been achieved by Queens Park young men, for example:

* 26 young men entering college or taking up training.

* 23 young men participating in positive activies.

* 17 young men prevented from being NEET (not in Employment, education or training) through the intervention of the project.

* 26 units of employability skills being developed [i.e. CV completed, job application prepared etc].

The Councillors have decided to use the Ward budget to save this project because there are heightened tensions in the Church Street and Queen’s Park areas and there have been increases in crime and anti-social behaviour.

Councillor Barbara Grahame, Church Street Labour Councillor said: “It is vital that the Young Men’s Outreach Project continues to help vulnerable young men so that they can be guided into employment and training rather than lured into crime and anti-social behaviour. If the Council will not help, then Labour Councillors will do everything we can to support this successful project”

Councillor Patricia McAllister, Queen’s Park Labour Councillor said: “Tackling crime and anti-social behaviour is a high priority for Church Street and Queen’s Park residents. The Government decision to axe funding for this project and the Council’s refusal to help means that this project was threatened with closure without Labour’s help. We do not have enough money to help all the projects under threat but this project is so important that we felt that we had to step in with the necessary finance to enable the project to continue.”

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