New Youth Project to begin in September
We were very excited to recently hear news that our very first Youth Project has been approved for funding by Erasmus+. The Youth-Police Dialogue Exchange is a two-year project involving participants in London and Marseille, and aims to improve relations between young people and police within their communities.
Communities in London and Marseille are currently experiencing challenges with knife and gun crime. Marginalised Young People within these communities are at risk of being victims of crime themselves, but at the same time feel threatened by police and feel that their rights are being infringed upon. There is a lack of understanding and dialogue between Young People and police. We aim to address this lack of understanding and dialogue through this project. Participants will be Young People from youth organisations in London and Marseille. Sessions will be facilitated by Youth Workers. Local police in London and Marseille will also participate in the programme.
Over the 24-month lifecycle of the project, there will be two youth exchanges per year – one to Marseille and one to London. The exchanges will be 1-week in length and will have 10 Young People from each country. The Youth Exchanges will include a number of different activities ranging from team-building activities, round-table discussions, training, and practical activities. Throughout the youth exchange, there will be an element of the Young People creating something together e.g. a video resource. The youth exchange will allow both groups of Young People, and local police, to explore the similarities and differences with their communities, situations, and the responses of police.
The aims and objectives of this project are to:
- Improve relations between Young People & Police
- Young People will be empowered & engaged through structured dialogue with police
- Young People will be trained to disseminate information to their peers/local community to help them feel safe (e.g. through a video resource)
In addition to these, the project feeds into the following priorities of the Erasmus+ Youth strand:
- Promote intercultural dialogue – through bringing together youth groups from the UK & France along with local police.
- Reach out to marginalized Young People – through the key stakeholders that we work with & the communities that they live in.
- Enhance the media literacy of Young People – through the digital element of the project which will see the young people complete a digital project
We'll be sharing more information about this project in due course. Please look out for more information or contact us if you would like to know more.
