Sharrow Kickz
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Project Name: Sharrow Kickz Location: Sharrow Safer Neighbourhood Team, Sheffield Summary Sharrow Safer Neighbourhood Area is located adjacent to Sheffield City Centre and covers 4 sq kilometres, has a population of 29612 and, according to the most recent census data is arguably the most diverse community in Sheffield. Research identified many young people within the community were at risk of involvement in anti social behaviour and crime. In addition, the findings also found many members of the community personally witnessed youth related ASB and crime however were reluctant to formally report the incidents. This created the perception that Police and partners were not equipped to deal with the situation. Community surveys highlighted rubbish and litter, criminal damage and teenagers hanging around streets were the main factor on quality of life in Sharrow. Analysis was subsequently commissioned from South Yorkshire Police to assess figures relating to ASB/Crime in addition to identifying problematical locations and times. Partnership consultation provided qualitative data from the community. Common to both quantitative and qualitative data sets was the perception and reality of youth related ASB/Crime and lack of resources. Previous responses were disjointed and all stakeholders showed a willingness to deliver an effective sustainable solution to the concerns. In July 2007, the Sheffield United Kickz project was piloted in Sharrow to analyse if the proposed intervention would be effective. Partners joined to formulate a steering group to oversee strategic direction and delivery. Kickz, an avenue to provide young people with constructive and diversionary activities, was piloted on Wednesday nights. The project was based at Sheffield United Ground and involved members of the community to become coaches, mentors and conflict resolution point of contacts. This encouraged local involvement of members of the community delivering a local solution. The partnership sought to address a reduction of youth related ASB/Crime by 25% within the Sharrow Neighbourhood and increase the satisfaction and confidence amongst the public by 10% with regards to how well the police deal effectively with locally identified priorities. The final outcome clearly evidences that the partnership focus in consulting with the community, identifying their concerns and then delivering a sustainable solution to reduce ASB/Crime and improve their satisfaction was a success. The wider impact of the project has provided young people, with a variety of ethnic backgrounds to share recreational space without fear. Word Count: 375 Scanning Sharrow Safer Neighbourhhod Area (SNA) is located adjacent to Sheffield City Centre and covers 4 sq kilometers, has a population of 29612 and according to the most recent census data is arguably the most diverse community in Sheffield. Demographics Geographical demographics can be are located Appendix A. Within the SNA is the Sharrow Neighbourhood Action Group (NAG) comprising both statutory and voluntary agencies who share a vision to deliver sustainable solutions to locally identfied priorities. Each agency, both individually and collectively accesses a wide range of community contacts through a variety of means which include formal surveys, focus groups, ad hoc public access meetings, community meetings, surgeries and focussed personal contact. Furthermore, the partnership has developed a plan to ensure engagement with the community is not duplicated but also ensures representative consultation. At a planning meeting of the NAG to determine forthcoming priorities, all partners identified a whole range of local groups indicating concerns amongst the community relating to young people. A variety of data sources were used, both quantitative and qualitative to identify the problem which included SYP Your Voice Counts Survey, SYP analysis, Sharrow Youth Forum Youth Research 2006, Sharrow Overview of Youth Strategies 2007, Sharrow Neighbourhood Management Consulttaion 2007 in addition to meeting with a wide range of Key Individual Networks (KINs) on a regular informal basis. A summary of the key points from the qualitative research is summarised below, all of which is available for further reading, whilst the quantitative data is documented in the proceeding section. Research identified many young people within the community were at risk of involvement in anti social behaviour (ASB) and crime (Sharrow Youth Forum-2006). In addition, the findings also found many members of the community had personally witnessed youth related ASB and crime however were reluctant to formally report the incidents given a perception amongst them that the Police and partners were not equipped to adequately deal with it. This was evidenced in year 1 of the YVC survey in 2007 when only 48.2% of respondents strongly agreed that the police were dealing with things that matter. Further, given the diversity of the neighbourhood in terms of ethicity and other demographic indicators, the community were also concerned of the risk to community cohesion should these concerns not be addressed (Sharrow Neighbourhood Management Consultation 2007). Areas within the neighbourhood had been identified by groups of young people as their ‘territory’ with established boundaries easily identified to rival groups (Peer Research Project 2006). A number of partners were providing detached and centre based work, aiming to engage young people and deliver diversionary activities however few were coordinated with agencies often competing for the same resources which in itself created tension (Overview of Youth Strategies 2007). The NAG responded by developing a strategy to divert young people from crime and asb whilst providing opportunities for them to realise their potential. A sub group was formed whose terms of reference were to identify a project and funding which would realise the aims outlined above. • South Yorkshire Police (Sharrow & South West Sheffield SNA) • Football Unites Racism Divides (FURD) • Sharrow Community Forum • Sheffield Homes • Activity Sheffield • South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue • Sheffield City Council • Sheffield Futures • Landsowne Tenants & Residents Association • Sharrow Partnership • Youth Offending Service Stakeholders beyond the victims included the community, the NAG and sub group listed above, the Sheffield ASB group, local faith institutions and the local authority, particularly the Children & Young People’s Directorate. The community would enjoy a better quality of life whilst the other partners would benefit from a more effective use of shared resources in addition to identifying good practice to be disseminated across the CDRP area and beyond to achieve key strategic aims. In addition, young people would benefit by the partnership’s overall focus of the five outcomes of the Every Child Matters agenda. The sub group sought to address a reduction of youth related ASB/crime by 25% within the Sharrow Neighbourhood and increase the satisfaction and confidence amongst the public by 10% overall with regards to how ’the Police deal effectively with locally identified priorities’ from a baseline figure of 48.2%, all of which to be achieved by the second milestone of the project, 2009. In 2008, the YVC survey introduced an additional question to measure the satisfaction amongst the public with regards to how ‘the local police and the council dealt with ASB/ Crime that matter’. Consequently this was also set as a target in 2008, aiming to increase the baseline figure of 34.4% by 10%. Whilst in 2007 there were formal targets to reduce crime, there were no formal targets from the Home Office to reduce ASB, however the sub group wanted to set itself a challenging target in response to the concerns identified within the community in line with the neighbourhood policing agenda. ANALYSIS Quantitative Data ASB In April 2007, the YVC survey highlighted that rubbish and litter, criminal damage and teenagers hanging around on the street were the main factors which had a very or fairly big effect on their quality of life in Sharrow. Analysis was subsequently commissioned from SYP to assess figures for reported incidents of youth related ASB/crime in addition to identifying problematic locatons and times for the period January – July 2007, highlighted on the maps and graphs below. Subsequent data was obtained later for the 2006/2007 comparison. After stripping out non Youth-related ASB, Sharrow recorded a total of 573 incidents over this six-month period, Appendix B. Appendix B also indicates that ‘Rowdy – Inconsiderate’ behaviour is the category in the majority, accounting for 73% of the total of incidents considered. This category was further broken down into subcategories, Appendix C. A temporal chart, Appendix D, shows the hot times in red and orange for ASB incidents while quieter times are shown in green. Main peaks and secondary peaks are shown in Appendix E. A map identifying the area subject of the analysis and hotspot locations can be seen in Appendix F. Analaysis of data, Appendix G, showed the location of hotspots. Additional analysis, Appendix H, was later commissioned to assess youth related ASB for the previous twelve months showing the overall figures. Rowdy Inconsiderate behaviour is by far the most significant incident type in both 2006 and 2007. This incident type can be broken down into sub-categories for both of the periods, Appendix J shows the top categories with Nuisance Youths and Problem Male/Females appearing in first and second place.