Category: Influence

On 29 April 2021, we held our AGM online. Aside from the normal AGM business, we were delighted to host a lunchtime talk by Josh Babarinde OBE, patron of Diversity Resource International (DRI).

DRI was set up in 2004 and is a social enterprise based in Sussex which aims to develop human capital. They offer a range of short and long programmes for effective leadership, high performance at work, success in business and a better life. They make their programmes inclusive, supportive, empowering and long lasting.

Josh is an Eastbourne community campaigner who is founder and CEO of Cracked It, London’s smartphone repair service staffed by young ex-offenders. This won him a place on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Entrepreneur list in 2019 and the business was recognised as Social Enterprise of the Year by the Evening Standard and the Centre for Social Justice.

In his presentation, Josh talked about how, by putting diversity and inclusion at the heart of service delivery, the voluntary sector can ensure that all sections of the community are able to access appropriate services that meet their particular needs.

The presentation was followed by a Q&A session during which Ruqia Osman spoke. Ruqia is currently the Race Equality Development worker at DRI. She is a scientist by training and has held positions as a Governor of the University of Bath and Trustee of  University of Bath’s Students Union. Ruqia has been very involved in activism as a student, taking up several roles leading student groups, and running to be the Former Education officer at  the Student’s Union. She has taken part in many local and national campaigns to promote equality and opportunity for young people.

Catch up – watch the talk and Q&A

The Sussex Violence Reduction Partnership (VRP) was established in 2019 as one of 18 Home Office funded Violence Reduction Units nationwide.

The partnership includes representatives from Sussex Police, the Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner, East and West Sussex County Council’s and Brighton City Council, along with Public Health (regionally and locally), Clinical Commissioning Groups and Probation.

Working to the principles of the Public Health approach, the VRP is aimed at reducing serious violence across Sussex, with a particular focus on young people under 25. It does this through a devolved model, which includes a Violence Reduction Partnership in each of the three Local Authority areas (East, West and Brighton & Hove) and a Pan-Sussex group, which oversees and guides delivery. A small team, also funded by the Home Office supports this work.

Each of the three VRPs commission a number of Home Office funded interventions and projects that work with young people most at risk of serious violence and exploitation, and these interventions are delivered through service providers across Sussex.

Examples of these interventions include work within Pupil Referral Units in East Sussex, where the Youth Justice Service deliver one to one sessions, group work, outreach and family support to pupils vulnerable to exploitation, or who may be carrying knives.

In Brighton and Hove, the VRP funds the Brighton Streets detached youth work service provided by the Trust for Developing Communities. This year, Brighton Streets is also working with the National Probation Service and a range of other organisations to deliver mentoring services, arts-based engagement and sport and music-based diversionary activities for young people up to 25.

The West Sussex VRP is working on a newly commissioned Coastal Detached Youth Programme, which will be focused in hotspot areas of the county. The partnership is also funding a mixture of programmes across schools in Littlehampton and Worthing to include specialist support to high risk children such as those recently returned from exclusion, or who have other significant risk factors.

A key principle of the Public Health approach to serious violence is community engagement and ensuring that communities and young people are feeding their voices into VRP to steer activity. As part of our commitment to this principle the VRP is seeking representatives from the voluntary & community sector from across Sussex to sit on the Sussex Violence Reduction Steering Group (SVRSG), which currently meets every month/two months.

Ideally, the VRP would like one representative from each area, and given the frequency of meetings there would be the potential to rotate attendance to reduce time commitments. The VRP is looking members who are interested in helping it connect with communities and young people and who can bring challenge and new ideas and ways of thinking.

If you would like to become a member of the SVRSG, please contact Rachel Jeffreys at Rachel.jeffreys@sussex.pnn.police.uk.

Further information on the Sussex Violence Reduction Partnership can be found here: www.sussex-pcc.gov.uk/VRP.