The South Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit is supporting the Wrong Look, Wrong Time, Wrong Place (WLWTWP) initiative, which aims to educate young people on the dangers and impact of carrying and using knives.
Home Office statistics suggest that 99% of young people aged 10-29 do not carry a knife, while research from Scotland has found that of those who do carry knives, many do so infrequently and often stop carrying them of their own accord.
Run by Yorkshire Mentoring and supported by VRU funding, WLWTWP aims to reach the minority of young people who carry a knife or may be more likely to do so.
Focusing on the case of Azaan Kaleem, an 18 year old murdered in Luton in 2018, the course encourages young people to consider the impact of knife crime, not just on those involved in incidents but also on their wider family and society, and attempts to address existing attitudes and misconceptions which can lead to carrying and using knives.
Yorkshire Mentoring recently provided a WLWTWP training day at Barnsley College. With the VRU also in attendance, the event brought together teachers, school staff and youth work professionals to teach them how to deliver the course to local young people.
Attendees at the training day were taken through the course, and received a number of resources to take away to help them deliver WLWTWP to young people in different settings.
Graham Jones, Head of the South Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit said: “Tackling knife crime and violence in South Yorkshire is a priority for the Violence Reduction Unit.
“It is clear that the vast majority of young people do not carry knives. However, it is important to reach the minority who do or who may consider doing so.
“Initiatives such as Wrong Look, Wrong Time, Wrong Place support our efforts to do this, focusing on a powerful case study of knife crime in order to encourage young people to consider the impact of carrying and using a knife, and supporting them to make different choices.”