Issue details

We Move complements local policing and crime reduction priorities, and since going live in Autumn 2022, the project has gone from strength to strength, with over 50 young people on the programme, 14 of which are girls, who are all successfully engaging in an extensive range of positive activities. To date, the mentees have also collectively achieved over 23 qualifications, with many working towards achieving qualifications in subjects from life skills, peer mentoring, to construction. We also have 6 mentees who have re engaged in education and 2 who have gained employment.

This funding will enable us to support 56 more vulnerable young people to believe better is possible, accepting referrals from a wide range of statutory and non statutory agencies including the Police, Youth Justice Teams, Children’s Services, and education settings (incl PRU’s). ‘We Move’ adopts an ‘invest to save delivery model’, in recognition that the costs involved in delivery of the project are minimal compared to the community safety impact and potential individual harm (e.g., cost of a YP in the Youth Justice Service can be more than £29,000 per year based on the GMCA’s Unit Cost Database).

The programme is currently being evaluated by the Open University with a report expected in late 2023. This will include an analysis of the impact of the programme on a sample of mentees, which will enable us to consider the potential system savings of We Move. Furthermore, we collate performance information on a quarterly basis to ensure that we are successfully achieving our aims and outcomes:
Aims
• Deliver timely and tailored one to one and group mentoring to mentees with a view to building a trusted relationship, offering swift and tangible opportunities which support the mentee to believe better is possible.
• Mentees are supported to design a pathway to their personal goal, whatever that may be.
• Mentees are empowered to develop, meaningful and positive connections within their communities by engaging them in locally available activities.
• The mentees journey throughout the programme is captured to evidence distance travelled. The projects seeks to achieve the following aims and outcomes for our mentees:

Soft outcomes (as applicable to individual mentee)

o Improved health / mental wellbeing
o Improved confidence / self-esteem / resilience
o Reduction in anxiety levels (identification of strategies to help them reduce their anxiety)
o Reduced feelings of loneliness.
o Improvement in behaviour
o Improved pro social engagement.
o Improved feelings of safety

Tangible outcomes (as applicable to individual mentee)

o Mentees are engaging in positive activities.
o Mentees are engaging / re engaging in education.
o Mentees are achieving qualifications.
o Mentees schools attendance has improved.
o Mentees who are at risk of exclusion have remained in school.
o Mentees are no longer committing criminal offences (e.g., violent incidents, anti social behaviour, robbery, drug dealing)
o Mentees have secured employment opportunities (work placements, apprenticeships, employment)

Supporting our mentees to remain in school alone could save the system at a minimum £13,000 per young person, and we have seen huge interest from secondary schools. In recognition of this, and our ambitions to share the We Move ethos with as many vulnerable young people as possible, we are currently trialling two peer mentoring groups within a secondary school in Tameside (girls and boys group), which are going really well. As part of the groups participants will gain valuable knowledge and skills in a variety of areas and achieve an accredited Peer Mentoring qualification. If successful, we will be exploring opportunities to offer this approach to more schools.

Through We Move we are also seeking to support the VCSE organisations involved in the delivery of the project by improving their capacity and capability to deliver sports plus provision, which includes providing access to a comprehensive mentor training package which seeks to ensure that they are pro-social in their approach and embed trauma informed principles.

YEF reports that Mentoring is effective in both reducing crime and the behaviours associated with crime and violence with research suggesting that, on average, mentoring reduces violence by 21%, all offending by 14%, and reoffending by 19%. This approach is therefore supportive of GMP’s ambitions to reduce crime and offending, with prevention and problem solving at the forefront, along with their ambitions to keep children and young people safe within their families and communities. We Move is a truly asset based, and child led approach, and the learning from the project will be shared within GMP and partners to inform future community led projects