Crime Prevention

How are we helping to reduce crime in Berkshire?

We are working with our partners to help tackle crime in identified areas in Berkshire. We use sport and physical activity as a tool to provide children and young people divergent opportunities and steer away from or prevent criminal behaviour.

Through working with Thames Valley Police, Secondary Schools, Local Authorities and our fantastic sport and activity deliverers we are able to work with the right participants and tackle pressing social issues. We use holistic methods to ensure we provide support around topics such as employment, mental wellness and the acquisition of transferable life skills.

Get Berkshire Active have also been able to provide Neighbourhood Police Teams the opportunity to engage with young people via our sports and activity sessions in a positive and fun way.

Facts and Figures

According to the Youth Justice Board / Ministry of Justice report 2018 the number of the offences committed by children and young people has increased by 11% since the year ending March 2012, while the number of these offences committed by adults has fallen by 10% over the same period.

While the number of children and young people in custody from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) background has been decreasing, the proportion has been increasing, accounting for 45% of the custodial population in the latest year, whilst only making up 18% of the 10 – 17 general population.

Tackling Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES)

What are Adverse Childhood Experiences?

ACES are extremely stressful events that occur in childhood that have an impact on the health behaviours in adulthood. This can include a severe one-off event or prolonged stress over the course of a childhood. The main ACES include;

• Abuse (physical, emotional, sexual abuse)
• Neglect (physical and emotional)
• Mental Ill Health
• Substance Misuse
• Criminality
• Domestic Violence
• Parental Separation or Divorce

Why are GBA targeting those living with ACES?

Get Berkshire Active are working with key organisations and groups that work with young people living with ACES because of their clear links to health inequalities.

Growing up with ACES have been found to have lifelong impacts on health and behaviour that impact and are relevant to all sectors.

An ACE survey with adults in Wales found that those with 4 or more ACES are

• 2x more likely to binge drink and have a poor diet
• 3x more likely to be a current smoker
• 4x more likely to have low levels of mental wellbeing
• 5x more likely to have underage sex
• 6x more likley to have an unplanned teenage pregnancy
• 7x more likely to have been involved in violence
• 11x more likely to have used illicit drugs
• 11x more likely to have been incarcerated

Although we cannot stop these things from happening we all have a part to play in preventing adversity and raising awareness of ACES. Community resilience (found in sport and leisure) has an important role in reducing these health inequalities.

Find out more about ACES here

What are GBA doing to help Tackle Adverse Childhood Experiences?

We are currently working in most boroughs across Berkshire through a range of programmes.

• Bracknell (Satellite Clubs)
• Slough (Activate Britwell; Satellite Clubs)
• West Berkshire (Partner of the Crime Prevention Forum)
• Reading (3 Satellite Clubs, Partner of Joining the Dots)
• Whole Borough support (Annual Crime and Sport Forums, Employability Programmes)

To find out more information about our delivery, click on the links below.

If you would like any additional information about our current work, please contact Chelsea Piggott at chelsea.piggott@getberkshireactive.org

How Can You Help Tackle ACES?

We are working with multiple organisations and delivers to ensure more people are becoming 'Trauma Informed'.

There are multiple ways you can support both young people experiencing ACES and adults living with ACES.

Here are some of the things you could do;

You can also have a look through our resources below for more information on campaigns and Government advice.

If you have any innovate ideas or think you could support us through one of our existing programmes or new programme, please contact Chelsea Piggott below.

Resources

Street Games: Using sport to change lives, change sport and change communities

Government Press Release: Harnessing the power of sport to help tackle youth violence

National Crime Agency: 'County Lines Violence, Exploitation & Drug Supply'

Sported: 'Reducing Youth Violence: The Role of Community Groups'

_#KnifeFree

Street Games: 'Community Safety and Sport'

Loughborough University: 'Safer Together - Creating Partnerships for Positive Change'

Chelsea Piggott

Youth and Workforce Officer

Chelsea is the Strategic Lead for Workforce and Crime Prevention at Get Berkshire Active. She is responsible for supporting coaches, volunteers, clubs and communities to deliver quality opportunities for people in Berkshire to get active. She oversees funding programmes for children and young people across all local authorities and is involved in creating opportunities to use sport and physical activity to support people at risk of or involved in criminality. Having completed a Degree and Masters at the University of Gloucestershire, she took up a role in Sports Development at a Local Authority supporting disability physical activity programmes before joining GBA. Alongside this, she is completing a part-time PhD at Loughborough Uni researching the effects of life skills developed through physical activity and sport programmes and their impact on youth delinquency. She draws on her personal experience of what interventions and funded programmes can do for young people and hopes to continue to pass this on to future generations. Outside of work she enjoys walking her two dogs and has a passion for powerlifting.

Telephone

07548 226485

Email

chelsea.piggott@getberkshireactive.org