At Phase trust we are very keen to work in partnership with other organisations as we acknowledge the strength that it can give to projects that help many children, young people and families across the areas we work in.
Navigate is one of our newest adventures and partnership is a necessity as we are working with some of the most vulnerable children and young people in the Dudley borough. Navigate is a service that is provided by Barnardo’s, CHADD and Phase Trust where we aim to support children, young people and their families who may be at risk off or currently being criminally exploited.
Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) we are finding is a growing issue where adults or gangs target vulnerable children and young people to get them to carry out criminal activity. You may hear more stories on the news, radio and in newspapers about higher knife crime and that the young people involved in certain criminal activities such a dealing drugs and youth violence are getting younger and younger. Unfortunately we are seeing the reality of this through the referrals we receive, as most of them are under 16 and we are keen to try and make an impact where we can.
Working in Partnership with Barnardo’s and CHADD mean we can offer a service that reaches more people and therefore making a bigger impact. Barnardo’s do an amazing job with focusing on the higher cases where young people are potentially already entrenched within gangs, county lines and organised criminal activity. CHADD focus on parents and family work which is essential to making a long term difference and making sure the whole family is safe. Then at Phase trust we look to support those who may need early intervention/ preventative work but also offer support from some of the medium to high cases when required. As you may know, Phase Trust have been working in the Dudley Borough for 20 years, so it puts us in a great position to really get involved with some of the medium/high risk young people as we already have built up relationships with them over the time. We offer school awareness lesson and also have put on training for staff in schools or college to support them in knowing what to look out for. I would like to talk about all the success stories that have come out of this work but unfortunately due to the nature of this issue this is long term work, there is no quick fix for some of these young people but we plan to be in it for the long run.