Nottinghamshire hospital hires youth workers to help fight violent crime

Nottinghamshire's Queen's Medical Centre is to become the first hospital outside London to introduce youth workers in a bid to reduce levels of violent crime.
Queen's Medical Centre.Queen's Medical Centre.
Queen's Medical Centre.

The youth workers will work alongside staff in the A&E department to help young people break out of the cycle of violence and offending.

The Youth Violence Intervention Programme is run by London charity Redthread and was started in 2005.

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John Poyton, CEO at Redthread said: “We are incredibly excited to announce the expansion our Youth Violence Intervention Programme.”

He added: “We can support more vulnerable and high risk young people across the region... this is a model that could support a truly national public health approach to tackling community violence.”

Whilst in the hospital, youth workers will meet a young person and support them to make long-term positive plans.

The young people are aged 11-25 and are victims of serious assault including stabbings, gun crime, sexual assault and domestic violence.

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Miriam Duffy, Director of Operations at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, commented: “Sadly, our Emergency Department regularly sees young people who have been victims of crime including those seriously hurt by knives or other weapons.

“By partnering with Redthread we can work together... to do our best to help change these young lives for the better.”

The scheme is part of a 3-year pilot and is also being implemented in Birmingham.

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