For the last 3 issues of this newsletter, we have, in our Around the World column, looked at best practice around the world in reducing violent crime. This theme of violence reduction is central to much of Khulisa’s work; in fact, we kicked off our newsletter in June 2017, with a blog piece on Khulisa’s response to the rising number of young people carrying knives into schools. Since then, we have seen a 22% increase in the number of recorded knife-crime related offences in England and Wales. In this edition of the Khulisa Focus, we look at Khulisa’s own responses to the rising levels of knife-crime about young people and the work we are doing to prevent, and reduce the number of, young people engaging in violent crime.
What work does Khulisa do to prevent young people from getting involved in knife crime?
We believe that knife crime – as with all crime –has to be viewed within the context of a number of inter-related individual, family, social, biological and environmental factors. Many of the young people we work with, who are incidentally the demographic most likely to be involved in and become victims of knife crime, experience complex and multiple disadvantage including poverty, homelessness, untreated (or even undiagnosed) mental and anxiety health issues as a result of past trauma. They will also very often have been the victims of neglect or abuse which proves to be the root cause of their aggressive or disruptive behaviour. These traumatic experiences are often the cause of their destructive behaviours and if left unattended un-managed, continue to deepen and entrench a young person’s exclusion from society.
In circumstances where these factors are prevalent, the individual’s exclusion from education and employment will necessitate involvement in criminal activity. Knife crime (like gun crime, gang affiliation and radicalisation) permeates society in areas of London with complex needs, socio-economic challenges and where young people are of BAME origin and suffer with mental health issues.
At Khulisa, we divide our work into divided our work into three pathways aimed at:
- Supporting young people to identify, understand and tackle the root causes of their challenging and/or criminal behaviour
- Supporting them to make positive life choices
- Developing emotional resilience
- Improving well-being
- Raising aspiration
Prevent
Preventing young people (aged 11-18) in schools and pupil referral units from entering the criminal justice sector through our Face it and Tug of War programmes, working with young people both independently and together with their families and carers.
Our Prevent programmes are guided by a cognizance of the causal link between disruptive behaviour in school, school exclusion, becoming NEET and a young person entering the criminal justice system. More than 40% of 16-18 year olds who are NEET have previously been excluded from school. Excluded pupils are 4 times more likely to be imprisoned as an adult and 88% of young offenders were excluded from school and most were 14 or younger when they last attended school.
Khulisa intervenes at this high-risk transition point to help young people learn new coping mechanisms to manage anger or to improve their concentration and focus, we support the development of young people’s executive functioning skills (i.e. planning, making decisions, managing time, communicating effectively with others). These basic skills can have a positive impact on their behaviour, sense of self-worth and confidence. We create safe spaces for young people to talk about their concerns. We train/coach parents, carers, teachers and support workers, to help them better manage disruptive behaviour and equip them with new techniques to promote a more restorative and trauma-informed culture in the school and in the home.
Since we started operating in the UK we have helped over 3000 young people in London/South East and Manchester/Bolton to transform their lives. Both internal and external evaluations of our work show that our programmes are successful in supporting young people’s reintegration into society and their desistance from challenging behaviour and crime.
A recent evaluation of our ‘Face It’ programme (including data for 103 pupils) found:
- 98% of participants reported a positive impact on behaviour – With 57% demonstrating a ‘significant improvement’
- 79% developed stronger, social connections
- ‘Face It’ decreased anger and hostility (including verbal and physical aggression)
Rehabilitate
Rehabilitating young offenders (aged 18-21) and adult prisoners (25+) to understand and tackle the root cause of their violent behaviours through our ‘Silence the Violence’ (STV) programme.
The flagship programme of our Rehabilitate pathway, ‘Silence the Violence’ is a 5 day more intensive version of our ‘Face It’ programme. It uses a unique blend of restorative techniques and trauma-informed methodologies to support violence reduction, improved well-being and increased cognitive functioning with
the aim of reducing re-offending and increasing employability.
By working with young people who have already had some interaction with the criminal justice system, our programmes aim to prevent an escalation in the seriousness of their crimes. Studies show a link between an increase in interactions with the criminal justice system and an escalation in offences. To prevent an escalation in offences (e.g. engaging in knife and gun crime) post-release, our STV programme creates a safe space for prisoners to understand the root causes of their violent offending and help break the cycle of crime in their lives.
That’s why only 7% of our participants go on to reoffend, compared to a national average of nearly 50% of adults and 69% for children.
Reintegrate
Through-the-gate support for vulnerable adults and young people (re)integrating into their community through our Milestones Mentoring programme.
Recidivism rates amongst newly released prisoners is highest in the days and weeks after their release.Through our Reintegrate pathway we help individuals get the support they need during the most vulnerable period, post release. We know that systemic support is integral to societal integration, so we work collaboratively with local community partners, to provide the critical link between custody and the community. This might include the provision of tailored behavioural change Khulisa’s programmes, and/or
Khulisa’s mentoring programme, as part of the individuals journey to recovery and resilience within their community.
To facilitate longer term outcomes for our service-users in Bolton/Manchester we have partnered with and supported a number of local organisations including Bolton Probation, Bolton Young Persons Housing Scheme, the NHS and Mind. Our ability to convene and co-ordinate a vast array of services in Bolton to meet the needs of our service-users has caught the attention of the Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) who invited our Bolton team to share an office space as part of a strategic partnership; enabling sharing of best practice and strengthening our collective impact.
In Bolton, over the last 12 months:
- More than 40 ex-offenders were offered mentoring support
- 50% secured their own accommodation
- 26% re-engaged with family through support and mediation
- 70% secured employment
- More than 75% have desisted from reoffending
By intervening at this key transition point we are able to support very vulnerable young people to adopt more positive life choices, in their (re)integration into society.
In London, Khulisa are partners in the consortium of Restore: London, offering a pan-London Restorative Justice service. We are also part of a European project, working with 20 partners across 7 countries (YEIP) to identify tools to address radicalisation both a policy and practitioner level.
We strongly believe that no one organisation can tackle a complex issue such as knife crime. Individual stories from our participants provide a narrative for young people affected by insecure attachment, early childhood trauma and who are vulnerable to gang affiliation and radicalisation. Carrying a knife is a survival response; and a trauma-informed approach is required to help individuals to realise the impact and make different choices. Khulisa is dedicated to working with a range of different public, private and third-sector organisations to help young people feel safer in their communities, by developing their emotional literacy, resilience, self-image, societal self-worth and familial ties; so as to and prevent them ever feeling the at their only option is to use a knife
