Serious Violence Duty Funding

Serious Violence Duty Funding Only: £ awarded to X projects

The Long Game

Leaders Unlocked – £21,310.00 – Countywide

The Long Game is an interactive prevention and early intervention project aimed both at professionals and young people (YP) at risk of Child Criminal Exploitation, aged 11-18. It was developed through lived experience of county lines and modern slavery and is delivered in a youth-led, discussion-based, workshop format. The programme was piloted in North Yorkshire in 2024 and engaged 2328 young people.  Phase 2 will expand the project and place a heavy emphasis on creating a positive legacy within North Yorkshire. In addition to engaging with YP, a professionals session, to educate those working to keep children and young people safe will be delivered, aiming to create a long-lasting positive change. Further value will be added by working with both young people and professionals to co-produce educational resources that can be used to raise awareness of the key issues beyond the duration of the project. Project will deliver 12 workshops in Mainstream education settings, 8 workshops in alternative settings to YP at higher or immediate risk of CCE and 3 professional workshops. These may be in-person or online dependant on partners needs.  Project will deliver 5 co-production sessions with young people who also participate in the Long Game; and work with professionals on an ongoing basis to develop resources which can be used by professionals in both group and individual settings to hold open and informative conversations on County Lines and Criminal Exploitation.

Virtually There – Knife crime secondary prevention resource

North Yorkshire Police, School Liaison Team (SLT), Local Policing Support – £29,534.20 -Countywide

The Virtually There project is designed to enhance the current early intervention, prevention and education offered by North Yorkshire Police (NYP) and partners through the Op Divan process.  Op Divan is aimed at CYP who have been or are thinking of using or carrying knives and other weapons associated with ‘county lines’ including drugs, child exploitation and bullying.  Early intervention and education are offered on the back of intelligence received.  There is a requirement to introduce a further engagement strand which can be used to effectively involve young people identified as habitual knife carriers or vulnerable to exploitation, as well as complement existing YJS weapons offence intervention provision.    Virtually There is an immersive 360-degree film that aims to build an emotional understanding of the devastating impact of knife crime amongst CYP.  The aim is to use the film and associated resources to enhance the Op Divan early intervention and prevention process to incorporate those CYP who continue to be identified as being at risk of carrying and using knives or weapons.  The proposal is to widen the multi-agency partnership delivery to also include NYP Missing & Exploitation Team, Children & Family Services, Pupil Referral Units and schools Alternative Provisions, Children’s Homes as well as commissioned services such as Change Direction.  The proposal is to implement and test a model by Sussex Police which promotes the use of the Virtually There resource across a multi-agency partnership to young people who are identified as being within the risk group. Currently those that are identified as habitual knife carriers or at risk of, receive no further intervention or prevention focus.  Outcomes and learning will be used to inform future approach.

Emotional wellbeing support for young people at alternative provision secondary schools, to help prevent them
from becoming involved in or victims of serious violence.

North Yorkshire Hospice Care t/a Just ‘B’ – £28,124.00 – Harrogate

Supported successfully during 2024-25 through the Serious Violence Duty, funding will add value by providing a consistent form of emotional support for young people, to ensure that they are able to achieve the best possible outcomes. By providing ongoing support to young people at Springwell Harrogate, project will create a stable, reliable presence in their lives, fostering stronger relationships and ensuring lasting impact through sessions. 15 hours of weekly support during term time from April 2025 to April 2026 will continue to be delivered.  The funding will also allow the project to expand by introducing support at Rosset School ‘alternative provision’ centre in Harrogate, providing 10 hours of weekly support from September 2025 to April 2026. The goal is to provide a tailored emotional wellbeing service, to directly address young people’s issues around serious violence.  Dedicated support workers will collaborate with staff in each school to identify and refer young people who are either victims of or who are at risk of engaging in violent behaviour.  Support will provide an early intervention to ensure that young people are equipped with strategies to be better able to de-escalate aggressive behaviour, avoid triggers for violent situations, able to seek help and build resilience.  The overall aim of the project is to create a comprehensive support system that helps young people in all aspects of their life, but especially in how to prevent being involved with or victims of violence.

River Marshalls

York BID – £2,679.20 – York

The project involves positioning a dedicated Marshal on King’s Staith in central York from 12-8pm every Saturday throughout the summer.  This location has been chosen because it is a popular drinking spot for locals and visitors in the summer months. The project promotes public safety during the day and into the night, and contributes to a vibrant, safe, and well managed riverside environment.  The project launched in 2022 at the request of businesses in the area to support with ASB and promote safety along the river. Funding will enable the BID to continue and grow the project in 2025. In a 2024 survey with riverside businesses, 87.5% of respondents said Riverside Marshals improved public safety and people’s experience of the area. Marshal logs show that their presence directly contributed to de-escalating violence and prevented river entries. Riverside Marshals are a vital resource in York, where concerns about riverside safety are well documented.  The Marshal will be a visible presence, deterring crime and promoting a safe environment for residents and visitors to enjoy the riverside. They will also be integral to supporting door staff and York Rescue Boat in identifying and responding to a range of public safety issues along the river, including alcohol-related ASB.

TYC Development and Outreach

Thirsk Youth Club – £28,124.00 – Thirsk, Hambleton*

*Only £7,406.00 was paid out of 2024-25 Funding. The remaining £20,718 was paid in 2025-26 Funding.

TYC is the only open-access, fully inclusive youth club in Thirsk, in touch with over 190 registered young people aged 9-18. Over 4 years, through sessions 2 days/week, TYC has built good relationships with many of them and their families, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Now it’s time for TYC to embark on a new phase: securing its own premises to expand its outreach and deliver targeted programmes throughout the week. TYC wants to tackle misogynistic language and behaviour it witnesses; aggressive bullying; threatening behaviour towards girls. Outside agencies will be invited to run early intervention discussion groups/workshops on these topics and others, including domestic violence, drug use, county lines; and online safety. TYC wants to sublet space for sexual health clinics/ contraceptives; NYY youth mentoring; and youth training. More regular diversionary activities planned include Friday night disco; movie night; after-school drop-in; weekend 16+ café; Quiet Space; holiday activities. TYC wants to expand youth provision, responding to concerns identified by young people, by organising new focused sessions; targeting specific groups; increasing youth engagement by more sessions; increasing community engagement. Project will also encompass different aspects including volunteer development, closer working with CS Hub and working with disadvantaged families. This project takes 15-20% of Thirsk’s young people off the streets at night but with greater contact time throughout the week and specific, targeted sessions, young people will develop skills to manage their emotions, understand risk, raise their aspirations and contribute positively to the community.

BME Womens Victim Voices

The Halo Project £25,880.37 – Serious Violence Countywide

Project will design and build a safe /secure online community app/portal for victims of honour-based abuse, FGM, and forced marriage to fill crucial gaps in post-support services by offering friendship and peer support beyond the structured interventions of the Halo Project Charity’s support and action plan. This portal will address Ongoing Emotional Support, Peer-Led Advice & Empowerment, Safe, Anonymous Discussions, Mental Health & Wellbeing Resources, Community Rebuilding & Independence, 24/7 Accessibility & Crisis Signposting to support. By addressing these gaps, the online community app/ portal will serve as a lifeline for minority survivors who are scattered across a large predominantly rural county ,ensuring that they are not left unsupported once formal interventions end. It will provide a safe, inclusive, and empowering space where women can rebuild their lives with the support of those who truly understand their journey. Addressing our key VAWG priority, the project will listen to all women and girls, particularly those from underrepresented communities. Through the portal Survivors can be consulted so that their voices can be heard to help inform and shape the strategy. The aim is to build an innovative and secure online App/portal community of BME Survivors and to design and produce a repository with relevant community resources they can access. This new platform will also allow ongoing consultation by partners and the ability to hold Survivors group consultation/meetings online.

A Taste of Diversity

Big Maya’s Jerk £16,789.74 – Serious Violence Scarborough

Big Maya’s Jerk delivers culturally rich workshops that use food and conversation to promote understanding and address social issues, like implicit bias and Hate Crime. Big Maya’s Jerk has successfully delivered a pilot series of community workshops focused on cultural diversity and inclusivity. The pilot project, using lived experience, engaged 501 individuals—86 adults and 415 children. Delivery combines food, storytelling, and creative workshops to foster community connection and cultural exchange. The sessions encourage participation from individuals across different backgrounds, building trust and shared understanding. Feedback consistently highlighted increased cultural awareness and strengthened community ties. This funding will expand reach, engaging new community members and broadening the impact of work. By delivering workshops in diverse spaces, the aim is to foster greater community cohesion and offer accessible, meaningful experiences that unite people from different backgrounds. The project will actively work with NYP Hate Crime Police team, Community Safety Team, CAVCA, AGE UK and others, ensuring that the message and learning around Hate Crime is promoted in an positive manner with a multi-agency approach around the delivery.

Safer York Futures

Yorkshire Mentoring £29,900.00 – Serious Violence York

Project responds to a significant gap in specialist, trauma-informed interventions addressing serious youth violence, exploitation, and VAWG across York High, Inspire AP, and Carr Junior. These schools report persistent issues with low attendance, behavioural escalation, and safeguarding vulnerabilities, mirroring findings from the Youth Endowment Fund on the link between exclusion and violence. Working with SEN and Safeguarding leads, project will deliver universal and targeted support through seven intervention strands: Virtual Reality education, HFBL workshops, Wrong Look Wrong Time Wrong Place sessions, mentoring, VAWG behaviour change, consent education, and professional training. Funding will enable delivery of both universal and targeted interventions, supporting individuals at risk, wider peer groups, professionals, and families. All activities are trauma-aware and informed by local data and safeguarding insight. Funding will enable immediate delivery while building an upskilled workforce. This project addresses serious violence through early intervention and a whole-system approach. By working with young people, school staff, and parents, it builds resilience, emotional regulation, and safer decision-making. Trauma-informed and relational, the project tackles root causes while strengthening the protective network around each child. It enhances local capacity to recognise and respond to risks such as exploitation, serious violence, and VAWG, ensuring long-term impact beyond the life of the project. Learning from this new project will inform future roll-out.

ORLA (Overcoming, Recognising and Learning about Abuse)

Kyra Women’s Project £10,437.60 – Serious Violence York

The ORLA project (Overcoming, Recognising and Learning about Abuse) will deliver two strands of support (one to grass roots women and one to businesses) focused on: prevention of / living with / extrication from domestic abuse (DA).
ORLA is congruent with the aim of the CSSVF as it shall provide a local level initiative which aims to reduce serious violence and achieve positive outcomes for individuals and communities. ORLA aims to reduce the risk factors that increase the likelihood of violence through early intervention education and awareness which shall prevent and divert incidences of DA. Project ORLA is new and will work alongside IDAS and others to maximise support. This early intervention can help make better decisions. ORLA adds value to other very important service offered by offering:
• prevention and early intervention,
• medium to longer term (tailored) support, at the pace that suits the service user,
• serving both those who have left and those still in abusive relationship are helped,
• being gender specific, focusing on female experience (regardless of who the perpetrator is) and facilitators and support workers are female.

Night Safety Marshals

York BID £14,473.60 – Serious Violence York

The BID’s Night Safety Marshals is a new project to address the SVD priority of Alcohol and nighttime economy. The project has been developed following reports from Nighttime Economy (NTE) businesses that additional support is needed to tackle low-level crime and ASB on a night, as door staff are leaving their positions to respond to ASB and physical violence in the city centre. The marshals would give crucial support to these security professionals, responding to issues as they arise and sharing important information before unwanted behaviours arrive on the doorstep of nighttime venues. It is well-known that police resources are stretched across the region and the country. This project will fill a gap in uniformed presence in the city, preventing crime and ASB from taking place and helping people enjoying York’s nightlife to feel and be safe. The York BID Night Safety Marshals is a proactive initiative designed to enhance public safety and support the evening and night-time economy (ENTE) within York city centre. The project will deploy two dedicated, SIA-licensed Night Safety Marshals during peak hours on Friday and Saturday nights from 8pm – 2am, when the city centre experiences its highest footfall and potential for alcohol-related incidents. The marshals will act as a visible, reassuring presence, patrolling key areas with high concentrations of licensed premises and pedestrian traffic. Their primary role will be to proactively identify and de-escalate potential issues before they escalate, providing a crucial link between the public, door staff, and emergency services. They will offer assistance to vulnerable individuals, provide directions and information, administer basic first aid, and act as a point of contact for reporting concerns. Crucially, they will work collaboratively with security door staff at licensed premises, providing an extra layer of support and helping to deter and de-escalate a range of issues before police or medical intervention is needed. York BID will survey ENTE businesses and their door staff to capture their views and monitor how the programme is performing. The marshals will complete activity logs at the end of each shift, which will evidence the nature and number of situations they have responded to. The BID will engage with a range of stakeholders to assess their views of the night time environment and the success of the project, including their overall feelings of safety.

‘End Tech Abuse’ eLearning Perpetrator Early Intervention

West Yorkshire Police on behalf of Yorkshire & Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU) £30,000 (£14,323.81 Serious Violence and £15,676.19 Community Safety) – Countywide

Funding will deliver a 6-month pilot countywide of “End Tech Abuse”. This is an early intervention eLearning programme for individuals who engage in technology-facilitated abuse, stalking, and harassment—including controlling behaviour via social media, online tracking, unwanted digital contact, and the misuse of devices in intimate relationships. It provides an evidence-based, structured early learning intervention addressing abuse, stalking and harassment including coercive control through digital means— behaviours not currently directly addressed by local services. ROCU will work in partnership with partners to identify and refer participants, along with addressing the needs of victims-survivors and their families ensuring all are safeguarded and supported, avoiding duplication while addressing unmet perpetrator needs. The project will be delivered in accordance with Home Office Standards for Domestic Abuse Perpetrators Interventions, Project Mirabal and Respect accreditation. As part of a 6-month trial ROCU will aim to deliver the intervention to a minimum of 50 individuals aged 16+ across the county. The intervention will be designed by qualified practitioners with extensive experience in policing, including offender management, public protection, restorative practice, and digital learning programme design. Individuals will undergo online training in a modular format, supported by interactive bespoke resources, trauma-informed practices and safeguarding oversight. Modules will take a gamified approach encouraging the user to complete ‘quizzes’ to check and reinforce learning and understanding. Data will be continuously collected, and a formal evaluation will be administered by University of Sheffield using a range of qualitative and quantitative methods

Libby Girls

St Giles Trust £17,833.70  – Scarborough

This funding will support the extension of Libby GIRLS (Growing, Inspiring, Resilient Leaders), a place-based outreach model co-designed with young women and girls (YWG) and embedded in Scarborough since 2022. The project is to be delivered in partnership with North Yorkshire Youth (NYY) and provides trauma-informed, assertive outreach to reduce the risk of exploitation, violence, and anti-social behaviour. Funding will add value and develop the project by enabling closer multi-agency working with local partners, increasing strategic alignment and on-the-ground impact. This funding will increase capacity to engage vulnerable young women and girls (YWG) involved in anti-social behaviour and crime in Scarborough, expanding the reach of the project. Specific locations will be discussed by a steering group involving Changing Lives, Community Safety Hub, North Yorkshire Police Safer Neighbourhoods Team, and Early Help. It will also strengthen ability to respond proactively to local trends and priorities identified through the Police, Community Safety Hub and Education Hub. Drawing on experience and learning from previous service provision, this funding allows for a more coordinated and responsive approach to support those at risk, embedding the work within local strategic efforts to reduce harm and improve outcomes for YWG in the area. Key aims are to Help communities feel safer, particularly women and girls, prevent offending and victimisation among YWG, build trusted relationships, increase safety, and promote access to education, mental health, and support services, collaborate with partners to share intelligence and strengthen local safeguarding
pathways. This mobile, flexible model ensures support reaches those facing the greatest barriers.

Achieve

North Yorkshire Sport £29,875.00 – Countywide

Achieve takes a person-centred approach and develops the support network around targeted young people (YP). The concept is flexible, operating around a basic framework that can be tailored to each unique cohort of YP to support early intervention, diverting YP who are at risk of exclusion, suffering poor attendance or at risk of entering the criminal justice system. Achieve will target YP across primary and secondary, in areas identified through partnership. Group sizes will range from 5-8 YP, dictated by the dynamic of the YP involved and to allow athlete mentors time to get to know each YP. Each intervention will be 5-12 weeks long and follow a basic framework of sessions that allows us to adapt to the needs of each specific cohort and utilise youth voice to maximise engagement. Interventions will be led by an Athlete Mentor, sharing their own inspiring story and relatable experiences and using movement as a vehicle for this. By working with a mentor, YP will be motivated to raise ambitions and aspirations, develop confidence, interpersonal skills, self-esteem and resilience. Achieve will see a mix of Athlete led learning, links to local community providers (local sports/arts clubs, leisure providers etc) and educational workshops (delivered by qualified professionals). Supporting this core delivery will be police led workshops focusing on subject matters such as: Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime & Consequences, Hate Crime, Bullying, County Lines & associated risk. Workshops delivered will be tailored to the need of each cohort. Group sizes will range from 5-8 YP and will target both primary and secondary schools, targeting YP aged 7-14 and take place over 5-12 weeks. Project will work in a secondary school for 12 weeks and three feeder primary schools for 5 weeks and deliver this to five targeted cohorts across the academic year. NYS will work with partners to identify schools with particularly low attendance, high levels of anti-social or risk-taking behaviour or any other indicators that there is a need for primary prevention.

CARA (Cautioning and Relationship Abuse)

Restorative Solutions £51,669.96 Community Safety funding £6,752.04 Community Fund funding – Countywide

CARA (Cautioning and Relationship Abuse) is an innovative, award-winning early intervention for domestic abuse offenders who have received a Conditional Caution. CARA has been designed to increase not only awareness of domestic abuse but also self-awareness and the motivation to address behaviours and make changes. It supports offenders in understanding what domestic abuse is, the harm their actions have caused, the impact this has had on their partners, children and relationships, and how to make different choices going forward and prevent these harmful behaviours from becoming more entrenched. The workshops offer support relevant to the needs of the participants and signpost to further specialist help, including comprehensive behaviour change programmes.