Jo Coles - York and North Yorkshire Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire and Crime

Jo Coles - North Yorkshire Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire and Crime

Community Fund projects 2024/25

Community Fund total spend 2024-25 so far is £ awarded to 10 projects.

Chocolate & Co – 1:1 support & counselling

Chocolate & Co £12,441.00 York

Chocolate and Co offers paid work and volunteering opportunities to those facing barriers due to addiction or having a criminal record. Since opening the cafe in September, 17 beneficiaries have been supported. Two beneficiaries have started a role elsewhere and another is on a training course to then move into employment elsewhere. Funding will support project lead and outreach worker for one year, together with activity, support and intervention costs to support people from the marginalised groups with varied and tailored support to the individual need. Demand is needed as project already providing limited support for people in crisis situations. Project will continue to work with NYP and partners to support a joined-up approach.

Youth Work Outreach Service aimed at Young People at Risk for or Engaging in Antisocial Behaviour in Haxby and Wigginton

Haxby & Wigginton Youth & Community Association – £7,345.25 awarded -York

Project aims to support young people in Haxby and Wigginton, especially those who are at risk of or are engaging in antisocial behaviour (ASB) by taking Youth Work directly to them to promote a safer, healthier and happier community. Project will increase presence in the ASB hot spots in the community during the lighter months of the year (September-October and May-July) alongside half terms when ASB tends to increase. Detached work will run alongside regular core groups, Craft Club (ages 8-11), Wednesday Youth Group (ages 10-13) and Drop-in ages 13-17). Links have been made with local PCSOs to partner during detached sessions, for young people to meet and grow positive relationships with local Police Officers. Youth work will also be delivered in local schools.

Selby Sports Boot Camp

SportWorks Health and Wellbeing – £8,736.00 awarded – Selby

Funding will enable 36-week programme of inclusive sport, play and community-based activities for children and young people (CYP). Taking place at Selby High School for two hours per week during term-time evenings, the programme will utilise sport/fitness as a means to tackle issues around crime and anti-social behaviour. Project will engage with a minimum of 30 young people with an age range of 11-16. Activities include outdoor pursuits, leadership workshops, group challenges, community service projects, mindfulness and wellness workshops. Selby Sports Boot Camp will also offer mentoring support in the form of skills training and career guidance as well as talks from current army fitness instructors/other local enforcement officers. Local feedback has highlighted group of young people at risk of becoming disengaged with education and their local community and these will be targeted to engage in the project. The aim of this project is to empower participants to engage/integrate into the wider Selby community and/or signpost them to other services/community provision.

 

Gallows Close Park PlayZone

Gallows Close Centre – £20,000.00 awarded – Scarborough

The Football Foundations PlayZone programme aims to engage with local communities across the country to create outstanding sports and activity spaces and tackle inequalities in participation. The aim is to focus investment and resource into communities with the greatest need. This will deliver new or refurbished outdoor mini pitches designed for football and other sports and activities that will allow their priority groups of women and girls, low socio-economic groups, disabled people and people with long term health conditions and ethnically diverse communities to be more active. Barrowcliff and specifically the area outside Gallows Close has been selected as a potential place for a new PlayZone, replacing the old worn out MUGA court. The Football Foundation will fund 75% of the cost and deal with all necessary legal and planning requirements that may be required with local communities needing to source the remaining 25% themselves.

Brompton Hall School, Skills Builder Accelerator Programme 2024-25

Skills Builder Partnership – £3,200.00 awarded – Scarborough

Over the course of a year, project will work with Brompton Hall School (primary through to secondary school for children and young people from 7 – 16 years with social, emotional and mental health difficulties), to embed best practice principles for building essential skills across school life and curriculum. Programme will focus on 8 essential life skills: listening, speaking, creativity, problem solving, aiming high, staying positive, leadership and teamwork. Programme supports sustainability and legacy through • Identifying and training a Skills Leader within the Brompton Hall who can become its essential skills champion.• Three Strategy Planning sessions with Senior Leadership Team at Brompton Hall to embed the best practice principles into the curriculum.• Two Teacher Training sessions across the institution so all teachers develop confidence and competence in building learner’s essential skills.• Curriculum and teaching resources, to provide teachers with a complete curriculum to build their students’ essential skills. • Termly Career Insights weeks: Opportunities to Brompton Hall students to meet and engage with professionals from across the partnership to understand the impact that essential skills play in the workplace.

 

Protecting vulnerable minds

MIND Harrogate – £10,582.00 awarded – Harrogate

The project will develop a comprehensive support programme aimed at reducing the impact of crime on people with mental health needs across Harrogate and the wider rural district. Project will offer Crisis Intervention and Support, Awareness and Training Programmes, (Mental Health First Aid awareness, champion and First Aider) and Workshops for Individuals with Mental Health Needs, (focused on personal and on-line safety, crime prevention strategies and accessing support). Project will facilitate peer support groups where individuals can share experiences and coping strategies. Additionally, a Ukraine Support coordinator and development of a support network will tailor support to the needs of crime victims ad specific communities.

Hardship Fund

Independent Domestic Abuse Services –  £20,000.00 awarded –  Craven and Harrogate

Funding for 12-month hardship fund for victims of domestic abuse in Harrogate and Craven. A hardship fund will enable IDAS to provide financial support to some of the most vulnerable victims of domestic abuse, enabling them to move on from their experiences and begin rebuilding their lives. The financial support will be tailored to an individual’s needs. This will include target hardening, emergency accommodation, household items and support with resettlement.

Talk Listen Change

The Halo Project – £20,000 awarded –  Countywide

There is currently no perpetrator programme nationally addressing the increase in cultural harms, the Halo Project developed TLC “Talk Listen Change” as a pilot over 5 years ago and delivered it successfully to 2 cohorts of 50 older BME women offenders, resulting in agreement by them for generational change and positive impact in the community. Since the initial pilot, there has been no resource to revise or develop the programme further or to continue to deliver in communities. This project is to fund the redevelopment of TLC, in liaison with survivors, into a trauma informed community education BME perpetrator programme and to then deliver it to a minimum of 10 perpetrators in North Yorkshire as a pilot . Perpetrators will be identified via community/partner referrals or through Halos growing victim numbers and the intelligence held about their wider family and networks. The TLC programme pilot evaluation will be shared with commissioners as the basis for next steps and its findings could be included within future area strategy .

Start Safe – Stay Safe – North Yorkshire

Stop Hate UK – £18,500.00 awarded –  Countywide

Funding will support development of the Start Safe-Stay Safe Street Harassment App, which aims to enable and empower people, particularly women and girls, across North Yorkshire to report incidents of street harassment and receive independent support and advice. The App offers direct links to the police in case of emergency and allows the capturing of audio, video, or photographic evidence in support of their report. The Stop Hate UK 24-hour support team will use their expertise to advise and work collaboratively with key partners to ensure people get the best support, while contributing to strategic intelligence to improve safety through regular data and qualitative reports to relevant partners. Safe Places information can also be included in the App to complement that service across the county. The App was developed with primary users and Stop Hate UK will work with other appropriate groups to broaden the App’s reach. The App has been beta tested and data and information produced by the App can be integrated into police systems. The funding applied for will enable the build and delivery of the App and includes 3 years maintenance costs.

FEC NOVA North Yorkshire

Forces Employment Charity – £20,000.00 awarded –  Countywide

Funding will provide service that supports veterans in contact with the Justice System. It reaches veterans at their lowest ebb and addresses underlying causes of offending behaviour rooted in mental health issues, substance misuse, relationship breakdown, unstable accommodation and unemployment. Nova engage veterans by understanding their military service and working with them one-on-one.
Funding will partially fund the appointment of a North Yorkshire NOVA Caseworker for 1 year. They will provide emotional and practical support, which enables veterans to change their lives.

Park lighting to manage anti-social behaviour and facilitate youth work

Ripon CIC – £11,000.00 awarded – Harrogate

The project is to provide lighting to (a) improve general public safety in areas of increased Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB), and (b) facilitate enhanced youth work in the Park. The proposal is to use existing power supplies in the tennis courts pavilion in Spa Park and in the Spa Gardens bandstand to power festoon lighting. That will illuminate the tennis pavilion, courts and youth shelter to help the use of the area for outreach youth work. It will also support public safety for important pedestrian routes across the Spa Gardens and into the market place, and from schools across the Park. Both the presence of the lighting, and the consequent greater public use of the former route could help manage ASB around the bowling green when combined with the proposed installation of CCTV there, which is the subject of a separate project. Project aims to increase public safety and feelings of safety.

It’s Not Love

NSPCC – £18,666.63 awarded –  Scarborough

Funding will support diversionary, early intervention, drama-based activity towards reducing domestic abuse-related crimes by challenging unhealthy views and behaviours of Year 7-9 pupils in Scarborough schools. Pupils will participate in a Theatre in Education performance and workshop entitled “It’s Not Love”, tailored to 3,000 pupils in Scarborough, identified and targeted in partnership. Pupils will explore the impact of domestic abuse through the performance and workshops, investigate potential allies and interventions, and discuss questions about unhealthy relationships. This project will be developed and delivered by NSPCC staff and local partner agencies, including York St John’s University. Participant schools will be identified and targeted through NYCSP and through existing relationships with schools in Scarborough. Project impact will be sustained and reinforced through providing healthy relationships e-training, lunch and learn sessions, and teaching materials for teachers to deliver.

SAY SCARBOROUGH(SIVIK ACTIVE YOUTH)

SIVIK ACTIVE CIC – £11,480.00 awarded – Scarborough

Funding will provide diversionary activities (2hrs/week) for young people after school in the Barrowcliff and Eastfield estates when they are most vulnerable from exploitation or becoming involved in Anti-Social Behaviour. Project will a Sport 4 Development approach and workshops to create positive outcomes for high-risk young people on the periphery of the criminal justice system or becoming involved in anti-social behaviour. Alongside the practical activities will also be workshops based on entrepreneurship, DIY Skills and qualifications and training in mental health first aid and sports coaching. The programme will allow delivery of sports based one-to-one and group mentoring programmes and volunteering opportunities, where the young people can take a leadership role in delivery. Project will link with local partners to ensure a targeted aligned approach.

York Health and Arts MELA

Eimaan Culture and Community Services  CIC – £2,500.00 awarded – York

Funding will support infrastructure costs at the multicultural celebration, performing arts and other activities event, that also aims to raise awareness. Event will involve NYP and NYFRS this year and link back to the Hate Crime Partnership in York.

Upgrade of lighting on Multi-Use Games Area

New Earswick Sports Club – £4,720.99 awarded  – York

The project aim is to replace the metal halide lighting on the Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) which has been installed for nearly 7 years and needs to be updated to an LED system, to improve the lighting so that more sports can take place on it throughout the year. The club is used by a wide mixture of people of all ages. The enhanced lighting will provide a safer feeling environment as it spills over a wider area, this would encourage use by more people, particularly females who predominantly play netball. The spill from an updated lighting system also aims to discourage anti-social behaviour. The aim is to grow the club to provide a safe space for all of the community to be involved in sport and social activities.

Resident Engagement Project

Restore York- £7,000.00 awarded –  York

Restore provides accommodation, support and engagement opportunities to individuals living in York who would otherwise be homeless, and helps them work towards independent living. Residents receive help and encouragement from a Support Worker. Housing Support Workers maintain regular contact with residents from their move in date, until six months after they have been established in their own independent property. Resident contact with staff includes weekly 1:1 support sessions, training courses and workshops, and socials. Resident progress is measured by ‘Outcomes Star’, covering ten areas of engagement and personal development. Demand for the service is ever increasing due to rising levels of poverty and homelessness. The Engagement project equips residents with valuable life skills and helps them to take responsibility for themselves. OPFCC funding will support life skills, readying for employment, physical/mental health support costs.

Community Café

St. James the Deacon Church Community Café – £5,545.00 awarded – York

Funding will enhance community cafe, supporting vulnerable individuals due to various factors such as mental health issues or socio-economic vulnerabilities.  The cafe not only provides a safe and welcoming space for the community but also offers tangible support in the form of free refreshments, and food parcels for those in need. Additionally, the cafe serves as a hub for the local area coordinator to connect with individuals and provide support through links to other services, helping the most vulnerable in the community, including women and those who have been or could potentially be victims of crime due to mental health and other vulnerabilities.  Overarching goal is to create a supportive environment that fosters community cohesion.  Funding will aid the building in becoming a welcoming and inviting space, encouraging it to be used positively by the local community, increasing access to key services.