Northern Lights: We reached more young people in city about the dangers of knife crime

However, we did not even scratch the service and upon reflection I felt that we could improve, especially communicating our inclusive and preventative approach to knife crime.

The South Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit saw the positive impact of the project and commissioned us to visit 10 more educational providers across the city. Unfortunately, our new approach was not welcomed by some educational providers. However, we were able to find 10 amazing participants; Project X, All Saints Catholic High school, Yewlands Academy, Packwood Academy, Outwood City Academy, UTC Sheffield City, Sheaf Training, Sheffield Hallam University, SWFC Training Hub and Astrea Academy.

I delivered sessions around the exhibition and knife crime to a wide variety of audience, from Y7 year groups to 1st year University Criminology students, all of which asked some brilliant questions and really enjoyed the sessions.

Here are some of the key finding that we found during our sessions:

10% of young people had found a knife in bushes, woods, bus stops etc.

3 in 10 young people picked up a knife after finding it.

90% of young people felt that the main reason for carrying a knife is for protection.

25% of young people felt comfortable talking to police about an incident

55% of young people did not feel safe outside along or with a friend

98% of young people said that they would now think twice about carrying a weapon.

The exhibition reached over 25,000 people including students, teachers and staff, which is an astonishing increase from out last youth tour.

Each provider submitted a piece of artwork to spread awareness of knife crime, all 10 pieces were shown at Sheffield Cathedral for two weeks and where seen by over 1000 people. Unfortunately, as well as our bespoke trainers being stolen, a piece of art was taken as well. To make things as fair as possible we put the artwork online via our social media platforms and it reached a further 30,000 people.

During the exhibition we asked for the public to vote for their favourite piece of artwork, after getting trough all of the votes, there was one clear winner; Sheaf Training. Although all participants did great! It was understandable why they won; their piece used a great mixture of colours, with brilliant use of newspaper articles and a real understanding of the topic.

As part of the Tour all of the educational providers were invited to an awards lunch to celebrate their involvement. 9 out of 10 providers attended and the atmosphere was ecstatic. The Tattooed Goose provided us with a delicious platter of food and M & A Trophies made sure all that attended had something to take home. We also had some excellent guest speakers:

Dean Abi Thompson, talked about a story of how a young person that she knew made the wrong decision and how it turned their life upside down.

Domonic Heslop, told us about how he used to do things that he shouldn’t have when he was younger. He spoke about the pullback effect it had while transforming himself and turning his life around.

Abtisam Mohammed spoke about her upbringing and how she was brought up in a poverty environment; she explained that she was always told to aim lower, but she didn’t, she chose to have higher aspirations and now is on the path to becoming an MP.

Nancy Fielder gave an inspirational talk around how Sheffield is a great place that wants the best for its young people and there is no reason that the city is holding them back.

Part 2 of the tour was a great success, we were able to reach more young people and educate them on the dangers of knife crime. Moving forward we would like to roll the project out to all secondary schools and Y6 primary schools across South Yorkshire.

Victims Voices

Our latest project; Victims Voices will be on display at Sheffield Town Hall 21.03.23 – 03.04.23 weekdays 9am-5pm. There is some amazing art work to look at, the Tree of Opportunity, as well as 2 documentaries that will be shown up on request.

Victims Voices is a hard-hitting documentary that looks at knife crime through the eyes of victim’s families, friends and communities.

We have upgraded the Tree of Opportunity by adding an additional 200 weapons and the names of victims of knife crime since 2008.

We have worked with local artists to help show the harsh reality of stats on knife crime / serious violence.

Risk vs Reward documentary is about my journey fighting knife crime and how it has evolved.

If you have been affected by knife crime and would like to help us at Always An Alternative, please get in touch via our email; [email protected]