Coventry Community Safety Partnership

Poster comp winners with Anne Weinstock

Youth Task Force comes to Coventry to support

 Young people and families

A Government backed Youth Taskforce road-show visited Coventry recently (Tuesday 11^th November) as a follow up to the extra £90K which has been earmarked to tackle youth crime and anti-social behaviour across the city. £25K of this money has been specifically allocated for new Positive Activities for Young People (PAYP) projects for Friday and Saturday nights in hotspot areas across the city where youth crime has been a problem.

Front line practitioners and young people from across the city came together to share ideas, examples of good practice and to look at new ways of engaging with young people.

It was chaired by Anne Weinstock, who established Millennium Volunteers and the Connexions Service after a long career in the voluntary sector and who now heads up the Youth Task Force for the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Anne says, "It was exciting to meet young people who have benefited from opportunities like those offered by The Tooth, a youth centre project in Willenhall, which shows the value of local agencies working together in partnership to develop activities and courses."

Anne met three young people at the Ricoh Arena who had taken part in a Knife Crime poster competition. As winners, their posters are now on display within all the Travel Coventry buses in circulation across the city.

Photo Caption: Competition winners: left, Macauley (aged 13); centre, Leanne (aged 15) and right, Aaron (aged 9) with Anne Weinstock

ENDS

For more information and interviews contact:

Tim Coleman, Coventry Partnership Communications Officer on 02476 83 1743 0r 07967709931        E-mail: tim.coleman@coventry.gov.uk

Notes to Editors:

 Providing access to positive activities at the times and places young people want is a key strand of Aiming high for young people: a ten year strategy for positive activities. Government is investing £840m through the Youth Opportunity Fund, Positive Activities for Young People and more recently through the myplace programme of investment in world class youth facilities to improve the offer available to young people.

The Coventry Community Safety Partnership (CCSP) is a statutory partnership which includes Coventry City Council, West Midlands Police, West Midlands Fire Service, Coventry Teaching Primary Care Trust, registered social landlords, Coventry Youth Offending Service, local service providers and representatives from the voluntary, community and business sectors. The work of the CCSP is guided by a three year local strategy (Community Safety Plan) that outlines how it aims to cut crime and anti-social behaviour and address drug and alcohol misuse.