Thanks to funding from the Home Office anti-knife crime community fund, and working with the Public Protection team at Blackpool Council and Active-8, 31 students aged 16-18 from Blackpool FC Community Trust’s BTEC programme participated in our first knife crime workshop on 21st January at Bloomfield Road stadium.
This has come about as a result of damning statistics that has seen a noticeable increase in the number of knife crime incidents in Lancashire – 1,030 knife crimes have been recorded in the first three quarters of 2017/18, which represents a 100% increase compared to the similar time frame in 2016/17 (as per gov.uk 2018).
Furthermore, in recent years, the rate of first time entrants to the youth justice system within Blackpool has been consistently worse than the regional average – between March 2016 to March 2017, 134 young people aged 10-17 in the youth justice system received a youth caution or court conviction (as per gov.uk 2018).
As such, this work will be focused on delivering key messages around anti-knife crime and will be delivered to children and young people aged 12–18 from across Blackpool, with more workshops planned throughout the year, including in schools.
For more information, call 01253 348691 or visit www.blackpoolfccommunitytrust.co.uk.
